Avraham Yitzchak Bloch - World War II

World War II

In 1940, the town of Telz was invaded by Soviet forces. Shortly thereafter, the yeshiva was forced to surrender its main building for use as a Red Army barracks. The yeshiva students, however, remained in Telz, where they rented accommodation from local townsfolk. This, however, also changed, when the Soviets forbade the renting out of rooms to yeshiva students. Rabbi Bloch responded by dispersing the yeshiva to five surrounding towns and arranging for members of the faculty to travel from town to town and deliver classes to the students.

On Tuesday July 15, 1941 (20th Tammuz), Nazi forces and local Lithuanian sympathizers massacred the male population of Telz, including Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Bloch and the faculty of the yeshiva.

Three of Rabbi Bloch's daughters survived the Holocaust. One married Rabbi Baruch Sorotzkin who joined the Telz Yeshiva in Cleveland and later served as the Rosh Yeshiva. Another married Rabbi Aizik Ausband, a student of Telz in Lithuania who is also a Rosh Yeshiva at the Telz Yeshiva in Cleveland. The third daughter married Yosef Yehudah Leib Kleiner, together they escaped Europe during World War II and fled to Israel.