Kelm Talmud Torah
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The Kelm Talmud Torah was a famous yeshiva in pre-holocaust Kelmė, Lithuania. Unlike other yeshivas, the Talmud Torah focused primarily on the study of Mussar ("Jewish ethics") and self-improvement.
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[edit] History
The Talmud Torah was founded in 1862 by Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv, known as The Alter of Kelm (The Elder of Kelm) to counter the effects of the Haskalah movement in Lithuania.
In 1872, Rabbi Ziv purchased a plot of land and erected a building for the Talmud Torah. A few short years later, however, in 1876, the Talmud Torah was denounced to the authorities, who began to watch it closely and to hound it. Rabbi Ziv decided to open elsewhere, and re-established in Grobin, in the Kurland province.
In 1881, Rabbi Ziv returned to Kelm. Young men from Kelm and the surrounding areas flocked to study under Rabbi Ziv and the town once again became a centre of Mussar.
Rabbi Ziv established a group that was known as ‘’’Devek Tov’’’, comprising his foremost students. He shared a special relationship with the group's members and he worked on writing out his discourses for them.
Rabbi Ziv died in 1898 and his son Rabbi Nochum Zev Ziv and son-in-law, Rabbi Hirsch Braude, took over the running of the Talmud Torah. Rabbi Braude died in 1913 and Rabbi Ziv died in 1916. Following Rabbi Ziv’s death, the leadership of the Talmud Torah was filled by his sons-in-law: Rabbi Daniel Movshovitz and Rabbi Gershon Miadnik. Another son-in-law was Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler.
On June 21st 1941, Nazi forces entered Kelm. Shortly after, the faculty and students of the Talmud Torah were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators and are buried in a mass grave in the fields of the Grozhebiski farm.
[edit] Educational ethos
Most of the students who came to study at the Talmud Torah were married. Entry to the Talmud Torah was difficult and restricted to select students from other yeshivas, who had to bring letters of recommendation from their Rosh Yeshiva. Students were chosen after they passed rigorous examinations on Mussar. At its peak, the Talmud Torah had a student body of between 30 and 35 members.
[edit] Famous students
The Mashgichim in many of the yeshivas in Poland and Lithuania were students of the Talmud Torah of Kelm. Some were:
- Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel of Slabodka
- Rabbi Yechezkel Levenstein in Mir and then later in Ponevezh Yeshiva
- Rabbi Yeruchum Levovitz of Mir
- Rabbi Yosef Leib Nenedik in Kletzk
- Rabbi Moshe Rosenstein in Lomza
- Rabbi Naftoli Trop of Radin
