Avraham Yitzchak Bloch (; 1891 - July 15, 1941) was the ''

Rosh yeshiva Rosh yeshiva or Rosh Hayeshiva (, plural, pl. , '; Anglicized pl. ''rosh yeshivas'') is the title given to the dean of a yeshiva, a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and th ...

'' of the

Telz Yeshiva Telshe Yeshiva (; ; also spelled ''Telz'') is a yeshiva in Wickliffe, Ohio, formerly located in Telšiai, Lithuania. During World War II the yeshiva relocated to Cleveland, Ohio in the United States and is now known as the Rabbinical College of ...

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

, and one of the greatest pre-Holocaust

rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

nic figures.

Early life

Avraham Yitzchak Bloch was born in 1891 into a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family and was the second son of Rabbi

Yosef Leib Bloch Rabbi Yosef Yehudah Leib Bloch (February 13, 1860 – November 10, 1929) was a prominent rabbi and ''rosh yeshiva'' in Telshe (Telšiai), Lithuania. Early life Bloch was born on February 13, 1860, in Raseiniai, Lithuania, then part of the Ru ...

, the ''Rosh yeshiva'' of Telz. He represented the third generation of family leadership in Telz, as his grandfather Rabbi

Eliezer Gordon Rabbi Eliezer Gordon (; 1841–1910) also known as Reb Laizer Telzer (), served as the rabbi and ''rosh yeshiva'' of Telz, Lithuania. Early years Eliezer Gordon was born in 1841 in the village of Chernyaty (or Chernian in Yiddish), Belarus, ...

was also ''Rosh yeshiva'' in Telz. Bloch was educated by both his father and grandfather.

Telzer Rav and Rosh Yeshiva

Upon the death of Yosef Leib Bloch in 1929, it was widely assumed that his oldest son, Rabbi Zalman Bloch would succeed his father as ''

'' of Telz, as was the custom in many communities. At the funeral Zalman announced that the position should be filled by his younger brother. At the age of 38, Avraham Yitzchak succeeded his father as ''Rosh Yeshiva'' of Telz, which was one of the largest and most prestigious

yeshiva A yeshiva (; ; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are studied in parallel. The stu ...

s in Europe. Bloch traveled to the United States in 1928 on a successful fundraising campaign. Bloch continued to develop the educational methodology pioneered by his father. This method is known as the ''Telzer Derekh'', a unique analytical approach to

Torah The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () ...

study. Bloch was also a member of the

Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah (, "Council of great Torah ages) is the supreme rabbinical policy-making council of the Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah movements in Israel; and of Agudath Israel of America in the United States. Members are usually ...

of the Agudath Israel and participated at the third Knessia Gedolah of the Agudath Israel at Marienbad,

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

in 1937.

World War II

In 1940, the town of Telz was invaded by Soviet forces. Shortly thereafter, the

was forced to surrender its main building for use as a Red Army barracks. The students remained in Telz, where they rented accommodation from local townsfolk. This also changed, when the Soviets forbade the renting out of rooms to

students. Bloch responded by dispersing the yeshiva to five surrounding towns and arranging for members of the faculty to travel from town to town to deliver classes to his students. On Tuesday July 15, 1941 (20th Tammuz), Nazi ''

Einsatzgruppen (, ; also 'task forces') were (SS) paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during World War II (1939–1945) in German-occupied Europe. The had an integral role in the imp ...

'' and local Lithuanian sympathizers massacred the male population of Telz, including Bloch himself and the faculty of the yeshiva. Three of Bloch's daughters survived the Holocaust. Rochel married Rabbi Baruch Sorotzkin who joined the

in Cleveland, Ohio, and later served as the ''Rosh yeshiva''. Another married Rabbi Aizik Ausband, a student of Telz in Lithuania who also became a ''Rosh yeshiva'' at the Telz Yeshiva in Cleveland, Ohio. The third daughter Miriam married Yosef Yehudah Leib Kleiner; they met and married in a DP camp in Germany after the war, they immigrated to Israel in 1951.

Published works

Bloch was both a prolific writer and speaker yet many of his writings were lost during the Holocaust. Some notes of Rabbi Bloch's lectures were rescued by students who escaped the Holocaust, and published by Bloch's family: *''Shiurei HaGrai Bloch'' on the Talmudic Tractates of Chullin and Yevamos. *''Shiurei Daas'' - A collection of essays on a variety of topics viewed from the unique Telz method of analysis.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bloch, Avraham Yitzchak 1891 births 1941 deaths Haredi rabbis in Europe Rosh yeshivas Lithuanian Haredi rabbis People from Telšiai Rabbis from Telšiai Jews and Judaism in Telšiai Lithuanian Jews who died in the Holocaust