the institution until his death in 2007. His son Rabbi Yaakov Shapira is his successor. In its first decades, the yeshiva had few students, and its future was in doubt. However, in the 1950s, graduates of Bnei Akiva religious schools and high-school yeshivas seeking higher religious education entered Mercaz Harav. Bnei Akiva leader Rabbi Moshe Zvi Neria, a disciple of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, encouraged students to go to Mercaz Harav, then headed by Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook. In 1997, Rabbi Zvi Thau strongly opposed the introduction of an academic framework - plans to integrate a teaching institute - into Mercaz HaRav. As a result of the disagreement, he, together with six senior lecturers and many students, left the yeshiva and established the Har Hamor yeshiva. In 2008, the yeshiva has about 500 students, including 200 students in the yeshiva's kollel (post-graduate division). Relationship to West Bank settlements Zvi Yehuda Kook's fundamentalist teachings as the Rosh Yeshiva of the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva were a major factor in the formation and activities of the settlement movement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza, mainly through his influence on the Gush Emunim movement, which was founded by his students. His student Hanan Porat set out to restore the Jewish settlement in Gush Etzion immediately following the Six-Day War. Roshei Yeshiva Abraham Isaac Kook, (1924-1935) Avraham Aharon Borstein, (1925) Yaakov Moshe Charlap, (1935-1951) Natan Ra'anan, (lecturer and administrator)(1935-1972) Tzvi Yehuda Kook, (1951-1982) Shaul Yisraeli, (1982-1995) Avraham Shapira, (1982-2007) Yaakov Shapira, (2007 to present) Mercaz HaRav massacre On the night of March 6, 2008, a lone shooter from Jabel Mukaber in East Jerusalem, entered the yeshiva with a gun and began firing indiscriminately, murdering eight students and wounding 15 others. The attack ended with the arrival of Yitzhak Dadon, a part-time student of the yeshiva, and David Shapira, an officer in the Israel Defense Forces, who shot and killed the shooter. Victims Notable alumni The list includes a number of Knesset members, rabbis, and community leaders. Roni Alsheikh, head of the Israel Police Rabbi Yaakov Ariel, Chief Rabbi of Ramat Gan Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, Rosh Yeshiva of Ateret Yerushalayim yeshiva, rabbi of Bet El Rabbi David Bar-Hayim Michael Ben-Ari, Knesset member Yoel Bin-Nun, one of the founders of Yeshivat Har Etzion Ezriel Carlebach, founder of the Maariv newspaper Rabbi Oury Amos Cherki, lecturer and author Rabbi Zephaniah Drori, Chief Rabbi of Kiryat Shmona Rabbi