Eliezer Gordon
1841 CE–1910 CE · Acharonim · Minsk
Rabbi Eliezer Gordon (1841–1910), known among Lithuanian Jews as Reb Laizer Telzer, led the yeshiva of Telz (Telšiai) for roughly a quarter century. Born in the Minsk region of present-day Belarus, he studied in Vilna as a youth and later at the Kovno kollel under Yisrael Salanter, who set him to teaching while he was still young. He briefly held the rabbinate of Kovno, then served as rabbi of Kelm from 1874—where he founded a yeshiva—and for a short time in Slabodka, before settling in Telz in 1883 and heading its yeshiva from 1884. There he grouped students into graded shiurim by age and level, a structure later widely adopted, and brought Shimon Shkop and Yosef Leib Bloch onto its faculty. His responsa appeared posthumously as Teshuvot Rabbi Eliezer. He died in London in 1910 while raising funds to rebuild the yeshiva after a fire.
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MinskמינסקBelarus — Litvish Torah capital
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Minsk hosted one of the largest Litvish Jewish communities in the Russian Empire. R. Yerucham Yehuda Leib Perlman (Gadol of Minsk, 1835-1896) served as its chief rabbi; the city also produced the founders of the Mussar movement and major roshei yeshiva of the next century.
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