It is located at 28400 Euclid Ave, Wickliffe, OH 44092. (440) 943-5300
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 (six boys first year, seven boys second year, four boys third year, and three additional) 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.
Rabbi Mordechai Gifter
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.
Rabbi Zalman Gifter brought in various rabbis such as Rabbi Rubkin, Rabbi Notice (Rabbi Meir Bloch’s grandson by marriage)…
Rabbis Levitansky, Goldberg and Greenwald took their case to a secular court and won. Two and a half years ago, they threw out Rabbi Zalman Gifter and the rabbis he had hired. They argued that the yeshiva should only hire rabbis who were graduates of Telshe Yeshiva.
In May, Rabbi Zalman Gifter’s wife was fired from Telshe. She ran the office for 26 years.
So what happens to Telshe Yeshiva if current trends continue and fewer and fewer kids attend? Well, I assume the Telshe charity boxes won’t close.
Telshe has two ninth grade classes. Each one has ten kids. I don’t know why they don’t just combine into one class.
Tenth grade also has two classes.
Rabbi Zalman Gifter was born and raised at the Telshe Yeshiva. He spent three years at the Brisker Yeshiva and half a year at the Lakewood Yeshiva. Then he returned to Telshe.
Jonah Sheinbaum runs a camp at Telshe Yeshiva during the summer.
Observant Jews are not supposed to sort out their problems in secular court. Rabbis Levitansky, Goldberg and Greenwald say they did not take Rabbi Zalman Gifter to court. They took the banks to court for honoring Rabbi Zalman Gifter’s signature.
The banks were apparently told that Rabbi Zalman Gifter had resigned from his job at Telshe Yeshiva. He did not know about this. Two days later, he went to the bank he’d been going to for 20 years, and the manager said, "Rabbi, what are you doing here? A group of rabbis came in here and said you had voluntarily resigned from your job."
The Telshe Yeshiva bank accounts were frozen. Rabbis Levitansky, Goldberg and Greenwald sued the banks to unfreeze the accounts and to give them control over the accounts. They won. Rabbi Zalman Gifter argued that the matter did not belong in a secular court.
A source emails:
This week a bochur (yeshiva student) was taking pictures of the inside of the Bais Medrish (study hall).
Rabi Dovid Goldberg saw him and told him to take the pictures so everyone will know how the Bachurim in Telz sit and learn. At that time rabbi Yossi Sova the 9th grade Rebbi was there so he went upstairs to the Ezeras Noshing and took pictures. The joke of all this is that the Beis Medrash had all the talmidim of Yeshivas Tifferes Avigdor run by Rabbi Yisroel Brog. The Telzer Hanahala made some kind of deal with Rabbi Brog to get his Yeshiva to use the Telz Bais Medrash in order to fill up the Building so when guests come they wont know the real scoop about Telshe and how many students are actually there.
Rabbi Brogs yeshiva has a larger enrollment of students than Telz, he even has students that left Telz and enrolled into Yeshivas Tifferes Avigdor. This goes to show you how well of a job the New Reformed Hanahala is doing with their teachings at the Yeshiva, that the students enroll into a tiny yeshiva on Telz Property.
The resident staff that lives on campus are afraid to speak out due to the new administration at Telz in control of the money will no doubt throw them out onto the street as their trying to do to Rabbi Zalman Gifter and his family.
Avrohom emails: “Telshe made a Kinus for Divrei Hisorerus lechovod Yenei Hadin. They spent over $4000.00 for advertisement, postage, and airfare for the two out of town speakers.
The city basically boycotted the event due to the fact that the whole thing was political disguised as a Hisorerus Leteshuva. Chairs were set up in the Ezras Noshim expecting a large crowd, but only five ladies attended. Only fifty men came from the city and even they started leaving in the middle of the program. The people at Telz are going around that it was a tremendous success. Its time for the Telz lie to stop! Ironically, Rabbi Dovid Goldberg told a yungerman that he was very concerned due to the Shlo Leshma goal of the event.
Hello Goldberg, Ausband, and Levitansky WAKE UP, the world at large is not so foolish. How many Bachurim do you have and what will be after Yom Kippur? You will need Rabbi Brogs talmidim to get a Minyan.”
