Yosef Leib Bloch
Rabbi Yosef Yehudah Leib Bloch was a prominent rabbi and rosh yeshiva in Telshe, Lithuania.
Early life
Bloch was born on February 13, 1860, in Raseiniai, Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire, to Mordechai and Sara Basya Bloch. When he was eleven he left home to learn in the yeshiva Rabbi Moshe Charif in Vekshena, and at the age of thirteen, his parents sent him to Kelmė to study in the yeshiva of Rabbi Eliezer Gordon. Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel (Slabodka), was living in Kelmė at that time, and brought Yosef Leib to study by Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv. In 1881 he married Gordon's oldest daughter, Chasya.Rabbinic career
In 1884, Gordon brought Bloch to the Telshe Yeshiva, which he headed, and in 1886, Bloch became a teacher in the yeshiva. When he and his father-in-law introduced the study of mussar into the curriculum, and then appointed Leib Chasman, a strong proponent of mussar, as mashgiach ruchani, many of the students rebelled, and Bloch left the yeshiva. In 1902, he became a rabbi in Varniai, and opened a yeshiva there. Two years later, he founded a yeshiva in Shadova. Among his students there was Chaim Mordechai Katz, future rosh yeshiva of the Telshe Yeshiva in Cleveland.Return to Telshe
In 1910 Gordon died and Bloch returned to Telshe where he succeeded his father-in-law as community rabbi and rosh yeshiva. In the 1920s, to counter the influence of the Haskalah on the city's youth, he founded elementary schools for boys and girls which incorporated secular studies, as opposed to a strictly Torah study-based curriculum; some criticized him for this initiative; he was backed by the Chofetz Chaim, one of the leaders of European Jewry at the time. Two teachers' seminaries were established, one for men and one for women, under the name Yavneh Teachers' Seminary, to train adults to become teachers. In 1929, a kollel, called Kollel HaRabbonim, was created.Aside from his leadership role as rabbi and rosh yeshiva in Telshe, Bloch also served as the head of the Agudas HaRabbonim of Lithuania, and was a member and supporter of the organization, Agudath Israel. He also wrote the Sefer Shiurei Daas and Sefer Shiurei Halachah.
Bloch died on November 10, 1929, in Telshe at the age of 69. His son, Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Bloch, succeeded him as community rabbi as well as rosh yeshiva.