Telshe Yeshiva (; ; also spelled Telz) is a yeshiva in Wickliffe, Ohio, formerly located in Telšiai, Lithuania. During World War II the yeshiva relocated to Cleveland, Ohio in the United States and is now known as the Rabbinical College of Telshe, commonly referred to as Telz Yeshiva, or Telz for short. In 1957, the yeshiva moved out of Cleveland proper to the Wickliffe suburb.

It is a Haredi (ultra-orthodox) institution of Torah study, with additional branches in Chicago (which eventually became its own institution, no longer associated with the Cleveland Yeshiva) and in New York. It is the successor of the New Haven Yeshiva of Cleveland.

History

thumb|right|Telshe yeshiva building, Telšiai, Lithuania

The yeshiva was founded in 1875 in the town of Telshi (, , ) in Kovno Governorate of the Russian Empire. By 1900 it was "one of the three largest yeshivot in Imperial Russia." After several years there, he returned to Telz and taught Talmud to the students in the group in which he himself had once studied.

In 1883, Rabbi Eliezer Gordon relinquished the Kelm rabbinate and after a short period in Slabodka, became the rabbi in Telz. Through Rabbi Gordons's intercession, the twenty-nine-year-old Rabbi Oppenheim became the new Rabbi of Kelm.

Rabbi Oppenheim served as the rabbi in Kelm for forty-three years and died on Thursday, February 11 (27 of Shevat), 1926, at 72. He was succeeded as Rabbi of Kelm by his son in law, Rabbi Kalman Beineshovitz.

Rabbi Eliezer Gordon

thumb|Eliezer Gordon

<!-- Deleted image removed: thumb|Shimon Shkop who joined the yeshiva in 1885 -->

In 1883, Eliezer Gordon was appointed as the chief rabbi of the town of Telz and in 1884, rosh yeshiva (dean) of the yeshiva.

In 1902, Shkop left to become the rabbi of Breinsk, Lithuania. In 1905 Chaim Rabinowitz joined the yeshiva.

In 1910, while fundraising for the yeshiva in London, Gordon died of a heart attack.

Rabbi Yosef Leib Bloch

Gordon's son-in-law Yosef Leib Bloch became the community's rabbi and the rosh yeshiva. The school offered a two-year course to young women.

These various schools were all incorporated as a part of The Rabbinical College of Telshe.

In October 1930 Yosef Leib Bloch died and his second oldest son, Avraham Yitzchak Bloch succeeded him as both community rabbi and rosh yeshiva.

Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Bloch

thumb|Students of Telshe on [[Purim 1936.]]

In the 1930s older students in the yeshiva were selected to teach for periods of time at new schools in small towns where there had previously been little or no structured schooling, and then return to continue their studies at the yeshiva.

Rabinowitz died in the year 1931 which was the year Yosef Leib Bloch and his son Azriel Rabinowitz, was appointed as a rosh yeshiva.

In 1933, the yeshiva built a new building to house the mechina ("preparatory school").

The Holocaust

In the fall of 1939, the Russians were allowed to bring troops into Lithuania on the pretext of defending the country. In June 1940, the Russians seized control of the country and quickly transformed it into the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic. As part of this transformation, private Jewish organizations and schools were disbanded and the yeshiva was closed. Most of the students dispersed, with only about a hundred students remaining in Telshe. The learning was done in groups of 20-25 students, studying in various batai medrashim (small synagogues) led by the rosh yeshivas.

During the early years of World War II, Elya Meir Bloch and Chaim Mordechai Katz were in the United States on a fund-raising mission. After the war broke out they rebuilt the yeshiva in Cleveland Ohio.

In October 1940, a group of students led by Chaim Stein escaped via Russia. This group found its way to the United States in early 1941 and joined the Yeshiva in Cleveland.

Telshe in the United States

The yeshiva was opened in Cleveland in the house of Yitzchak & Sarah Feigenbaum on November 10, 1941. As of 1954, it became officially titled the Rabbinical College of Telshe. They relocated to the Wickliffe location in 1957.

Telshe consists of a high school, college and post-graduate school. The yeshiva is a non-profit and is accredited through the Association of Advanced Rabbinical and Talmudic Schools. The yeshiva has a department of secular studies that grants a high school diploma.

In the United States the original faculty included Elya Meir Bloch, Chaim Mordechai Katz, Boruch Sorotzkin, Mordechai Gifter, and Chaim Stein.

The 2013 student count of 130 included 80 in grades 9-12;

Notable alumni

Among the well-known alumni of the yeshiva are:

  • Chaim Yitzchak Hacohen Bloch, Chief rabbi of Bausk and Plunge
  • Noson Ordman, Rosh Yeshiva Etz Chaim Yeshiva (London)
  • Naftoli Carlebach, Orthodox Jewish rabbi and accountant
  • Nachum Zev Dessler, Cleveland, Ohio
  • Haim Fishel Epstein, Lithuanian-American rabbi
  • Azriel Goldfein, founding Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivah Gedolah of Johannesburg
  • Chaim Gutnick, Melbourne Australia
  • Chaim Dov Keller, Chicago, Illinois. Rosh Yeshiva of Telshe Chicago
  • Zev Leff, Moshav Mattityahu, Israel
  • Moshe Leib Rabinovich
  • Avraham Tanzer, Rosh Yeshiva at Yeshiva College of South Africa

Branches

  • Telshe Chicago. In 1960 the yeshiva opened a branch in Chicago, Illinois. Within ten years it became independent of the yeshiva in Cleveland.
  • Kiryat Ye'arim (Telz-Stone), Israel. In 1977 Mordechai Gifter brought a group of 20 students from Cleveland to open a branch of the yeshiva in Kiryat Ye'arim (Telz-Stone), Israel. In 1979 the Israeli branch closed.
  • Yeshiva of Telshe Alumni. In the early 1980s the Yeshiva of Telshe Alumni opened in Riverdale, New York.
  • Birchas Chaim. In 2001 Yeshivah Birchas Chaim opened in Lakewood, New Jersey.

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File:Telšių ješibotas 1.jpg|Telšiai Yeshiva art

File:Telšių ješibotas 2.jpg|Telšiai Yeshiva building

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See also

  • Holocaust in Telšiai

References

  • Catalog of historic items from Telshe Yeshiva in Ohio