Telshe yeshiva Information

Telshe Yeshiva (also spelled Telz) is a yeshiva in Wickliffe, Ohio. It is the American transplant of a famous European yeshiva of the same name. Telshe in Ohio is one of the most prominent Haredi institutions of Torah study in the United States, and is experiencing an influx of students from across the country. This yeshiva has branches in Chicago and New York.

In 1870, this famous Eastern European yeshiva was founded in the Lithuanian town of Telšiai (Yiddish: טעלז "Telz"). During World War II the yeshiva began relocating to Wickliffe, Ohio, in the United States and is now known as the Rabbinical College of Telshe, (commonly referred to as Telz Yeshiva or Telz in short.)

The yeshiva was begun in the town of Telšiai ("Telshe" in Russian or "Telz" in Yiddish) to provide for the religious educational needs of young Jewish men in Telshe and its surrounding towns.

The yeshiva was established by three important Orthodox rabbis and Talmudists:

They received financial assistance from a Jewish banker in Berlin, Mr. Ovadyah Lachman.

In 1883, Rabbi Eliezer Gordon was appointed as the rav (head rabbi) of Telz and in 1884 added the title of rosh yeshiva ("dean/head of the yeshiva"). Rabbi Gordon was a brilliant Talmudist and expert in Torah law. A student of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, Rabbi Gordon had been appointed by Rabbi Salanter as a maggid shiur (lecturer) in Rabbi Salanters yeshiva at a young age. He also served as rabbi in Kelm, and for a brief time in Slabodka (a suburb of Kaunas/Kovno known in Lithuanian as Viliampole). Although Rabbi Salanter strongly held that everyone required mussar study, he made an exception for Rav Laizer.

Rabbi Gordon was not satisfied with a yeshiva that served only the younger students in Telz and the vicinity, and set himself to the task of expanding it.

In 1884 Rabbi Gordon added his son-in-law, Rabbi Yosef Leib Bloch to the faculty and in 1885 he acquired the talents of Rabbi Shimon Shkop.

Both Rabbi Bloch and Rabbi Shkop were innovators in the field of Jewish education, each pioneering new methods and approaches to the study of the Torah (Hebrew Bible), Talmud and Halakha (Jewish law). Together, their methodical formulae set down the foundation for what became known in the world of Torah study as the Telzer Derekh ( the "Telzer approach").

Rabbi Gordon instituted various innovations, which were cause for a rapid increase in the student body. Among them were designating lectures for specific student levels. Whereas other contemporary yeshivas provided one level of study for all students, Telz provided students with lectures commensurate with a students age and understanding. When a students standard had advanced, he would advance to the next shiur (class-level). The benefits of such a system are self-explanatory and this system was soon integrated into the structure of almost all yeshivas and remains the accepted structure in most yeshivas worldwide. There were five different shiurim at Telz; Rabbi Gordon delivered the highest shiur. Telz was especially noted for its ability to develop its talmidim in lomdus. Rabbi Laizer Yudel Finkel once stated that every talmud student would be best off studying at Telz, where he can develop his learning skills, for two years, and then studying in another yeshiva.

The yeshiva was originally housed in a building provided by the Telz community; however, student numbers increased so dramatically that larger premises were called for. Subsequently, in 1894 the yeshiva moved into a new purpose-built building. In the same year, the yeshiva added a new subject of study—mussar ("Jewish ethics"). Prior to this, the study of mussar had been a students personal prerogative; now, it was a part of the yeshiva curriculum. A new faculty position was created: mussar mashgiach (teacher of ethics). The yeshivas first mussar mashgiach was Rabbi Ben Zion Kranitz, a student of Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv. Rabbi Kranitz was very mild mannered, and did not force his students to accept the mussar approach. In 1897, however, Rabbi Gordon engaged a new mussar mashgiach—the dynamic Rabbi Leib Chasman, who instituted a very strict mussar regime in the yeshiva. Many of the students opposed this approach, which caused dissent among the student body. Rabbi Chasman later achieved world renown as the senior mussar mashgiach at the Hebron Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

In 1902, Rabbi Shimon Shkop left the yeshiva to fill the position of rabbi to the community of Breinsk, Lithuania. In 1905 Rabbi Chaim Rabinowitz joined the yeshiva to fill the void left by Rabbi Shkops departure. Prior to his appointment at Telz, Rabbi Rabinowitz had served as rabbi to the town of Meishad, and later as a maggid shiur ("lecturer") at the Knesses Beis Yitzchak yeshiva in Kovno, Lithuania. As with his predecessor, Rabbi Rabinowitz innovated a unique style of Talmudic analysis, which further added to the yeshivas reputation.

In 1910, while fundraising for the yeshiva in London, Rabbi Gordon suffered a heart attack and died. His twenty-nine years as head of the yeshiva had seen a small town institution grow into a world-famous center of Talmudic study. He had stamped his imprint onto the lives of hundreds of young men, many of whom were great Talmudists in their own right. Among his students were: Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman, Rabbi Zvi Pesach Frank and Rabbi Yehezkel Abramsky and others who in turn left their imprint on Jewish society and culture.

Following Rabbi Gordons 1910 passing, his son-in-law, Rabbi Yosef Leib Bloch assumed the mantle of leadership as both rabbi to the community and rosh yeshiva.

Not only was Rabbi Bloch an innovator in the realms of Talmudic analysis, he also possessed a unique approach to Torah study and Jewish philosophy. During Rabbi Gordons lifetime, Rabbi Bloch had left the yeshivas direction to him, however, with his elevation to dean of the yeshiva, Rabbi Bloch was free to guide the school in the direction and manner of his choice.

Rabbi Bloch did not regard his obligation to enhance educational standards as being limited to the yeshiva itself, and in 1920, he established in Telz primary schools for both boys and girls. In the same year, Rabbi Bloch added a mechina ("preparatory school") to the yeshiva. Previously, older students would tutor younger students who entered the yeshiva but were not up to the standard of the lowest class. The mechina was structured in the same fashion as the yeshiva itself with four levels of classes commensurate with the different levels of student advancement. At the time, the notion of a yeshiva possessing its own preparatory school was novel. Today, however, it has become an accepted norm, something Rabbi Bloch pioneered.

In addition to studying an easier version of the yeshiva curriculum, the mechina also featured secular studies, another innovation at the time. This was cause for opposition from the ranks of many rabbis, who were unaccustomed to the idea of secular studies occupying a position in any form of yeshiva. In 1924, however, the Lithuanian government announced its decision to accredit only those rabbinical colleges that possessed a secular studies department. The Rabbinical College of Telshe was the only such institute. It is to be stressed, though, that secular studies did not occupy a place in the yeshiva itself, but only in its mechina.

1922 saw the founding of a kollel ("postgraduate institute"), the aim of which was to train graduates for the rabbinate. Admission was not easy; a student had to display great promise and the institute soon became known as an exclusive school for higher studies. Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Katz, a son-in-law of Rabbi Bloch served as dean (rosh hakollel).

In 1918, a teachers training institute had been established in Kovno; however, the seminary did not achieve much success. The faculty of the academy turned to Rabbi Bloch, renowned for his pedagogical prowess, to take it over, and, in 1925 The Yavneh School for the Training of Teachers reopened in Telz under the auspices of The Rabbinical College of Telshe. This served as a postgraduate institute, with the charter of producing teachers for Jewish schools. The curriculum at the teachers institute included educational skills, Hebrew Bible, Talmud, the Hebrew language and literature and mathematics. The school succeeded in supplying qualified and trained teachers of a high caliber not only to the communities of Lithuania, but also to those of greater Europe.

For many years the Jewish community in Lithuania had lacked a structured educational system for teenage girls. Rabbi Bloch felt that such a concept was called for and in 1927 a high school department for girls was established in Telshe. The school found immediate praise and support from many rabbis and community leaders who saw the immense value that such an institute had to offer.

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