By Yehuda Geberer Part I and II
This great city of the Midwest hosted some impressive events, institutions and personalities throughout its Jewish community's long history. Once a center of Reform Judaism with Abba Hillel Silver, it was also home to one of the earliest short lived Yeshivas in the United States when Rav Yehuda Levenberg moved his New Haven Yeshiva to Cleveland.
Rabbi Israel Porath was the long time Rabbinic leader, but it was Telz Yeshiva and its great leadership that really transformed the town. Rav Elya Meir Bloch, Rav Mottel Katz, Rav Mordechai Gifter, Rav Baruch Sorotzkin and many more transformed Cleveland and the Yeshiva world at large with the aristocracy of Telz. The Telz impact was felt with the founding of the Hebrew Academy by the Dessler Family and the Yavneh Girls school. The great philanthropists of Cleveland included Irving Stone, the Spero brothers and Mendy Klein.
Chassidus struck roots in Cleveland with the Cleveland dynasty, Chabad and even Kaliv.
Part 2 below
The decision to open Telz in America in Cleveland was made in Rav Pinchas Mordechai Teitz's dining room table, with the 1942 equivalent of the Moetzet deciding. The assumption was that since Rav Levenberg's yeshiva was there, there's a reasonable chance of local support.
ReplyDeleteThe telzer charoses ay yay
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