"דיא טעלזער ישיבה עקזיסטירט ב"ה איצט אויך"

What kind of inspired this post was the Bene Beraq Vizhnitzer Rebbe's recent trip to Cleveland to partake in the sheva brochos of his grandson. The Mechutan is the Cleveland-Aleksander (or is it Aleksander-Cleveland?) Rebbe, brother of the one in Bene Beraq. There was a flyer printed, welcoming him to the mistake by the lake and announcing the sheva brochos schedule. Signed on that flyer were many local institutions, including Chabad(!) and their respective Rabbis. A Midwestern friend of mine noticed that conspicuously absent from the flyer was the late, great Telsher Yeshiva! At first I thought that only shuls were doing the welcoming, but he pointed out that the Hebrew Academy signed. So what's going on here? Is it ad k'dei kach? Did they cease to exist? Well, in 1917 they announced to the world that they exist. Maybe they need to do that again 100 years later?

{To be fair the Kolel Yad Chaim Mordechai, technically a by-product of Telshe,is also absent, yet they exist.}

Sholom Ber Sorotzkin's מלוכה - and yes, Telshe

We here have a very soft spot for Telshe, כידוע. We also can't get enough of Sholom Ber's peyos. Does Reb Shmuel Yankev understand what Shiurei Daas are? He's not a natural eynikel, nor did he learn in Telshe...

Was Telshe in the US supposed to be a YU at first?

A kind and devoted reader sends us this letter, written by Reb Elya Meir to Reb Lozer (Lazer) Levi in the fall of 1941/ Aseres Yemei Tshuveh 5702. REMB thanks him for his new year's wishes and informs him of his plans to re-establish the Yeshiva in Cleveland, where his (then) brother-in-law Reb Mottel Katz is now, trying to organize the logistics. (They had no real idea as to what was happening in Telshe, that by then the Yeshiva and their familes had been murdered.) Said reader seems to think that R' Elya Meir wanted to open a sort of "competitive Yeshiva to YU," maybe thinking that only that would work in the US, or that yungeleit would never join a system that only pays the minimum kolel wage. Meaning a Yeshiva that allows the yungeleit to go out into the world after some time at the Yeshiva, and thus have enough to be מפרנס their families בכבוד.

ישיבישע לעבן אמאל - available on Ebay

YTV, 1959. Seated: head of table, right, Rav Gedalia Schorr. Hertz Frankel second from right with mustache

The YTV library, 1959. Can you tell who the Chasidic young man is?

The Pressburg Yeshiva, 1930. Looks almost Litvish. Maybe that's why the descendants - save for a few - went to Litvishe Yeshivos?

A calendar for the Lubavitcher Yeshiva, Tomchei Tmimim, in Brunoy, outside Paris, France, 1960. Notice how they quote the Radomsker and Gerrer Rebbes in their calendar as having approved of the Yeshiva. They also offered after-school programs, as well as study-at-home lessons. The Rebbi teaching the class on the bottom left seems to be Reb Nochum Labkowski, o"h, father of the brothers Labkowski, Roshei Yeshiva in Crown Heights.

Telshe Yeshiva, 1935, Second from left is Aron Benzion Shurin, who later married the daughter of R' Moshe DovBer Rivkin

scenes from the life of HaRav Dov Yehuda Schochet ע"ה

Seems like all in Toronto.

2nd from left may be Rav Mordechai Ochs, according to RYGB

at the pulpit, 1950

Walking to a drosho with other dignitaries

life in pre-War Telshe and Lithuania

The following are pictures recently received via email. They were sent to me by R' Doniel Schochet, a grandson of the late Rabbi Dov Yehuda Schochet, last of Toronto. Mostly of Telshe and Lituania. Some Switzerland and other places. I'm not gonna bother and watermark all of them, but can you be nice enough not to take them and publish them as your own, please? 

Telshe Yeshiva, 1932/5692. Of the 5 members of the הנהלה pictured, Reb Avrohom Yitzchok Bloch, Reb Zalman Bloch and Reb Ezriel Rabinovich were murdered with the Yeshiva and townspeople on 20 Tammuz, 5701. Reb Elya Meir Bloch and Reb Mottel Katz were in America and were thus saved. Their wives and children, however, were murdered, הי"ד.

Telsher Bochurim, Elul, 5684/1924, Rabbi Dov Y Shochet, standing, 2nd from left

Telsher Bochurim, RDY Shochet seated 2nd left. Note picture on wall of Reb Yosef Leib Bloch of Telshe, aka Der Alter Rov, who passed away in 5690/1930.

a Chevra Shas, somewhere in di Lita, (after all, where else did they finish Shas?) Adar 5690/1930

First graduating class of Yavne, the Telshe Girls' High School/Gymnasium, 1926/5786. Reb Mottel Katz, son-in-law of Reb Yosef Leib Bloch, אב"ד ור"מ טלז, pictured, right, with long beard. I count 9 students and 8 (!) staff.

מכתב כ"ק אדמו"ר זי"ע לישיבת טעלז אודות י"ט כסלו

A letter from the Lubavitcher Rebbe to one of the Telsher Roshei Yeshiva/Chavrei HaHanholoh where he goes through all the hanhogos and sayings and that Chassidim through the generations said and did. The Rebbe writes about his hesitation, whether or not to answer the letter, since he's not sure what the point of the letter was, i.e. do they REALLY want answers?... Worth your time. 

From ספר שערי המועדים י'-י"ט כסלו.

  
19 Kislev Telshe

יארצייט: הגאון רבי חיים מרדכי קאטץ ע"ה, ר"י טעלז-קליוולאנד - 50 שנה

As a child of a talmid of Reb Mottel, I grew up hearing stories and vertlach about him. Then, when the Alumni Association starting sending out the tapes I would often listen to them. As a child it was difficult to listen to, with the accent not being what I was used to, but I got used to it. I may not relate to him like a shtikkel Yated, with all the cliches, but Reb Mottel, who was not a כהן, has a special place in my heart. You might call it Litvak royalty. The world could have used more good Litvaks like him, but sadly Hitler and the Litwaukees yms"h all but wiped them out. It's ironic and sad that none of his, nor any of Reb Elya Meir's descendants are currently in any leadership positions in the Yeshiva that they built with the sweat of their brows.

R Mottel Katz Levaya

Direct Link to the full article and Dos Yiddishe Vort issue

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In 1948 people like the Bluzhever Rebbe, Rabbi Joseph Elias, Telsher Rosh Yeshivas Reb Mottel Katz and Reb Elya Meir Blokh, and Mike Tress were on the board of the Haganah Religious Defense Corps

when Reb Avigdor Miller tried to save Reb Mottel Shusterman's job way back in 1953 in East Flatbush

Yesterday (Sunday) was the Yohrtzeit of Reb Avigdor Miller. Not that I keep track of that bit of info, I learned about it from Yeshiva World News, that bastion of useful information. Then, I was reading the memoirs of the late Reb Mottel Shusterman, aka "The Rebbe's Baal Koreh," and owner of the עזרא and בלשן printing companies. He was a chossid from Zhlobin, Russia who survived the war by moving eastward to Uzbekistan and then leaving Russia with the עשאלאנען as a Polish citizen in 1946. Upon arriving in New York in 1949 he took a job as the שמש in the Yeshivas Reb Meir Simcha haCohen shul in East Flatbush. (Rabbi JJ Hecht was the Rov there.) Being a shamash also meant giving shiurim for Baaleibatim, leining, and also davening for the amud. It was after hours that he learned the American style of typeset and printing. [agav, the way he got his visa is one for the ages: He was a first cousin thru marriage to the late Reb Chaim Shtein of Telshe. Telshe Yeshiva in Cleveland managed to obtain 6 visas for Professors of Talmud after WW2. These very precious visas were a lot harder to get than the student visas and basically guaranteed almost immediate entry to the US. Student visas meant you had to get in line and wait your turn... Rebbetzin Shtein made sure that one of those precious six visas went to her Lubavitcher cousin, Mottel Shusterman and family!)

Well: I'll let Reb Mottel himself tell the story....

50 years since the fire in Telshe-Cleveland

Mishpacha



  Ami

זה ספר תולדות הרה"ג ר' דוב יהודה שחט ז"ל

Bio R DY Schochet From Dvar Yehuda

NO כבוד אחרון for Brooklyn

BOF: Telsher Minyan in Brooklyn gets dissed at the Rosheshive's Levaya

שבר על שבר

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רבי חיים שטייין זצ"ל

Reb Chaim Shteyn

עולם התורה באבל

Levaya Details

I was zoche to shake his hand many years ago when my father, zgz, took me to some of the Melava Malkas in the old/new Bais Yaakov of BP. That's where I saw some of the other Roshei Yeshiva, including Rav Gifter, z"l. I also remember going to some of the shiurim they had in the Telsher "Shtiebel" in BP, where Reb Chaim would give shiur.


Telshe, 1936

ט"ז סיון תשט"ז

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Classic Rav Gifter, even way back then.

.....אמאליגע טעלז

The picture/poster is untouched by me. I'm not sure what those globs are that we see on the heads of Reb Lozer Levy and Rav Mordechai Gifter. It may have been added by the Telshe people at the time.