I can’t really add much to that, but when people talk about Rav Ovadiah’s political activism they often forget what he did for the ashkenazim. Rav Ovadiah basically single-handedly brought the ashkenazi yeshiva system to the Edot haMizrach, and it was only because of who he was that they accepted such a thing. It is solely to his credit that the Sephardi and Mizrachi communities learn in and ashkenazi yeshivos and in a large part created the yeshiva system as we know it today.
Correction: Rav Soloveichik was being considered for the chief rabbi of Tel Aviv (he ceded to Rav Amiel, the author of ???? ???? ????) so I would assume the kollel was in tel aviv.