Eliyahu Meir Bloch

Rabbi Eliyahu Meir Bloch, often referred to as Rav Elya Meir Bloch, was a leading Orthodox Jewish rabbi in the United States in the years after World War II. He founded the Telshe Yeshiva in Cleveland, Ohio together with Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Katz, and served as its first rosh yeshiva.

Rabbi

Eliyahu Meir Bloch
Personal
Born1894
Telšiai, Russian Empire
present-day Lithuania
DiedJanuary 22, 1955
Cleveland, Ohio
ReligionJudaism
NationalityAmerican
SpouseRivka Bloc née Kaplan
Parents
DenominationOrthodox Judaism
Jewish leader
PredecessorRabbi Avraham Yitzchak Bloch
SuccessorRabbi Chaim Mordechai Katz
PositionRosh yeshiva
YeshivaTelshe Yeshiva
BuriedJanuary 23, 1955
Mount Olive Cemetery, Solon, Ohio
ResidenceCleveland, Ohio

Early years

Rabbi Bloch was born in 1894 on Simchas Torah[1] in Telšiai (Telshe), Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire, to Rabbi Yosef Leib and Chasya Bloch.[2] His mother was the daughter of Rabbi Eliezer Gordon and his father therefore served as a maggid shiur in Rabbi Gordon's yeshiva, the Telshe Yeshiva in Telšiai. His father later took the positions of rabbi in Varniai and Shadova. He returned to Telšiai in 1910 when Rabbi Gordon passed away and succeeded him as the community's rabbi and rosh yeshiva.[3]

Rabbinic career

He married Rivka Kaplan, the daughter of the influential Klaipėda (Memel) merchant, Avraham Moshe Kaplan, and therefore moved to Klaipėda where he lived for eight years, studying Torah and delivering shiurim (Torah classes).[4] In 1929, he returned to Telšiai and was appointed as one of the heads of the yeshiva.[5] During this time, he was involvled in the World Agudath Israel.[4]

The Holocaust

In 1940, the Soviets occupied Lithuania and evicted the Telshe Yeshiva from their building, converting it into a military hospital. Combined with the fact that they were under Soviet rule and forbidden from teaching religion under the anti-religious Soviet laws, was the Nazi threat of overtaking Europe and exterminating its Jews. It was therefore decided that the yeshiva should move to the United States. Rabbi Bloch was sent to America together with Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Katz to arrange for the yeshiva's emigration.[6] While they were in America, news reached them of the Nazi occupation of Lithuania, and out of touch with their families and yeshiva, they realized that their only option would be to reopen the yeshiva from scratch in the United States.[7] They would later discover that their families and the whole yeshiva had been killed out by the Nazis.[6]

Telshe Yeshiva in the United States

Unlike most of the American yeshivas at the time which were established in New York, Rabbi Bloch opened the yeshiva in Cleveland, Ohio, to strengthen it's Orthodox Jewish community.[1] The primary Jewish influence in the city was that of the secular Jews, and the establishment of the yeshiva boosted the morale of the city's smaller Orthodox Jewish community.[4]

A large part of the student body of the yeshiva was made of boys born and bred in the United States. Despite having lived their lives in Eastern Europe, both Rabbis Bloch and Katz were well attuned to the American way of thinking, and understood the students' feelings.[4] However, the yeshiva was run like the Eastern European yeshivas from before the Holocaust, with strict discipline used in regards to its rigorous schedule. Rabbi Chaim Dov Keller, who studied in the yeshiva in its early years, recalled Rabbi Bloch's three-hour mussar shmuess (character-improvement talk) given when the students skipped a Saturday night learning session. In Rabbi Keller's words, "Rav Elya Meir gave the shmuess.... He told us that they had no intention of opening a yeshiva to cater to the whims of American society....He spoke of the Roshei Yeshiva they had left behind in Europe [who were murdered by the Nazis], whose emissaries they were. They would never agree to such a yeshiva." Rabbi Bloch then threatened to close the yeshiva if the students didn't cooperate.[7]

Rabbi Bloch's influence on the Cleveland Jewish community was profound, as he pushed for the founding of Hebrew Academy of Cleveland, the Yavneh Seminary, and a kollel.[4]

Death

Rabbi Bloch died on January 22, 1955 and was buried at Mount Olive Cemetery in Solon, Ohio.[8] He was succeeded as rosh yeshiva by Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Katz.[4]

References
  1. Keller, Rabbi Chaim Dov (September 1977). "Reb Eliahu Meir Bloch" (PDF). The Jewish Observer. XII (7): 6–13. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
  2. "HaRav Eliahu Meir Bloch". geni.com. Geni.com. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
  3. Krohn, Rabbi Paysach J. (January 2007). Traveling with the Maggid. Brooklyn, NY: Mesorah Publications, Ltd. pp. 82–85. ISBN 978-1-4226-0229-4.
  4. Scheinbaum, Rabbi A. Leib (May 2003). "Transmitting the Legacy". The World That Was: America (First ed.). The Living Memorial/Hebrew Academy of Cleveland. pp. 110–115. ISBN 1-57819-360-5.
  5. Natanowitz, Shmuel. "The Telz Yeshiva – its Rabbis and its Institutions". Jewishgen.com. JewishGen. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
  6. Zakon, Rabbi Nachman (June 2003). The Jewish Experience: 2,000 Years: A Collection of Significant Events (Second ed.). Shaar Press. p. 140. ISBN 1-57819-496-2.
  7. Fendel, Rabbi Zechariah (2002). From Dusk to Dawn: The 20th Century. Forest Hills, NY: Hashkafah Publications. pp. 275–277.
  8. "Rabbi Eliyohu Meir Bloch". findagrave.com. Find a Grave. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
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