The oldest yeshiva in America has a new administration. The Gifter family (which ran Telshe from 1964) is out in the cold.
The powers now at Telshe include jeweler Jonah Sheinbaum, and rabbis Levitansky, Goldberg and Greenwald.
Employees at Telshe are getting paid late, some a year late. Enrollment is down to 20 students at the yeshiva college and 79 students in the high school. Three years ago, the college had over 50 students and the high school had 155.
Here’s a blog alleging wrongdoing at Telshe Yeshiva.
Rabbi Mordecai Gifter became the Ha Rosh Yeshiva (head of school) at Telshe in 1964 and started signing the checks to its employees. His son Zalman, a rabbi, began signing checks in 1994. Rabbi Mordecai Gifter died in 2001. Rabbi Zalman Gifter took over as rosh yeshiva.
Rabbis Levitansky, Goldberg and Greenwald took Rabbi Zalman Gifter to a Beit Din (composed of Rabbi Dovid Feinstein — son of Rabbi Moshe Feinstein — of the East Side, Rabbi Aaron Shechter of Yeshiva Chaim Berlin and Rabbi Yisroel Grumer, the chief rabbi of Cleveland) in 2005 and lost.
