JERUSALEM (VINnews) — In a moving ceremony which took place at the old historic building of the Telz yeshiva in Telz, Lithuania, Rabbi Sholom Ber Sorotzkin, the head of the Ateres Shlomo yeshiva and grandson of the Telz rosh yeshivas, redeemed the building 82 years after its students had left, most of whom were later murdered in the Holocaust.
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The yeshiva, which was founded some 160 years ago by Rabbi Eliezer Gordon, was the most famous yeshiva in Lithuania after the closure of Volozhin. Rabbi Yosef Leib Bloch, the son-in-law of Rabbi Gordon, continued to serve as rosh yeshiva after him and his son, Rabbi Avrohom Yitzchak Bloch HyD was murdered in the Holocaust together with his students on 20th Tammuz 5701 (July 15, 1941)
Rabbi Shimon Shkop and Rabbi Chaim Telzer also served as rosh yeshivas at the famous yeshiva, where students included most of the great Lithuanian rabbis prior to the Holocaust- Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman, Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, Rabbi Yechezkel Abramski, Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Finkel and many others.
The remnants of the yeshiva, including Rabbi Eliyahu Meir Bloch and Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Katz, as well as Rabbi Baruch Sorotzkin and Rabbi Gifter, reestablished the yeshiva in Cleveland as well as establishing other branches in Chicago and NY.
The Lithuanian authorities returned the yeshiva to Rabbi Sholom Ber, who is a great-grandson of the martyred Rabbi Avrohom Yitzchak Bloch. During the course of the last month Rabbi Sorotzkin together with tens of other grandchildren of the Telz rosh yeshivas worked to reestablish a yeshiva at the original site in order to commemorate those who died nearby with Torah study.
Rabbi Sorotzkin compared the site to Mount Sinai and told those gathered there to “take your shoes off as this is holy ground, the place where Gedolim studied and which merited disseminating Torah to all of the Jewish nation.
“In these four cubits the Gedolim studied, in every place where we step holy and exalted people studied with great devotion to Hashem and sanctified G-d’s name when they were murdered, there are no words to describe the feeling. We merited returning here, I think this is the biggest fulfillment of “Hashem, revenge before our eyes the spilt blood of Your servants.”
The students who entered the yeshiva made the blessing of Matziv G’vul Almana as they brought a Sefer Torah and placed Mezozos on all of the entrances in the building. During the entire visit, study sessions were held at the yeshiva and the rosh yeshiva gave daily shiurim at the site as well as a special shiur on Shabbos.
The unique experience made a strong impression in Lithuania and in other European countries. During the visit, the Lithuanian ministers of tourism and culture as well as other members of parliament and the mayor of Telz and other prominent figures came to visit in honor of the historic occasion. The heads of the national museum in Vilna brought with them priceless manuscripts and notebooks from the heads of the Telz yeshiva, some of which have never been published.
What’s the point? Who needs to rebuild the cursed land of Lithuania? Who gains from this?
I’m sure the Lithuanians Y”sm are thrilled to see Yidden back in their country, not!
Lithuanians were MORE brutal than Ukrainians which is hard to believe
No permanent yeshiva will be there-only for occasional use. I had an uncle who learned in Telz but left early due to my grandfather’s death of natural causes. My grandmother and 2 aunts were taken, with others, from several small towns near Telz and murdered in a nearby forest along with the women of Telz. A few of the women from the yeshiva families did survive, such as the late Rebbetzin Ausband. Nobody outside of the descendants of the Litvish survivors comprehend the insane cruelty of what the alleged Lithuanian “partisans” of the 1940s did to the Litvish Jews. Nonetheless, it’s good that the building is back in Jewish hands.
Another famous student and instructor in Telz was Rav Mordechai Pogromonski, spelling may not be accurate.
Does this building have exactly the same amenities as 82 years ago, or could they add air conditioning despite the fact that then this shan’t be exact replica of 82 years ago?
This is so silly in my humble opinion, we daven every day to return to eretz yisroel not to go back to the cursed nations that tortured us and almost wiped us off the planet. Many of the murderers are still alive – if u go into an old age home in Lithuania you’d meet them,
this is about obsorbing the telshe dynasty of the past where the goyim realized the chashives of the yeshiva at least before the war it is an emotional seen especially if they are getting kisovim from there