The yeshiva world suffered a significant blow this past week with the untimely passing of the venerated Riverdale Rosh Yeshiva Rav Avrohom Ausband, zt”l. Rav Ausband headed Yeshivas Talmidei Telshe (Telshe Alumni) for four decades, teaching thousands of students through the years. The Yeshiva started in Westwood, New Jersey, and soon moved to Riverdale, New York where it remains today.
Telshe is a town in Lithuania and was the home to one of the most prestigious yeshivas in all of Europe. In the beginning of the 20th century, Telshe was renowned for the Torah scholars that studied in its hallowed halls. That all changed in July 1941 when the Nazis brutally massacred all the Jewish men of the small town of Telshe, including the yeshiva students and their rosh yeshiva, Rav Avrohom Yitzchok Bloch.
Rav Bloch’s son and sons-in- law were able to escape to America in 1940 and established Yeshivas Telshe in Cleveland in 1943. One of the sons-in-law, Rav Aizik Ausband, was in charge of the high school. For much of the 20th century, Telshe was the preeminent yeshiva in America, attracting the brightest and most promising Torah scholars. Rav Avrohom Ausband was one of those students, born and raised in the yeshiva, and studying under the great Rav Baruch Sorotzkin and Rav Mordechai Gifter, both his uncles by marriage. In the early 1980s, Rav Avrohom Ausband set out to establish the next Telshe yeshiva on the east coast, one which would eventually surpass the former in prestige and prominence.
In truth, I’m not the best person to be writing this article. I’m not a student of Telshe-Riverdale, nor did I have a particularly close connection to Rav Ausband. Yet I believe that itself speaks volumes of the rosh yeshiva. The few times that I had the opportunity to interact with him and speak to him in learning left such a lasting impact on me that I profoundly felt the loss of his passing.
My father, Rabbi Menachem Genack, was a very close friend of Rav Ausband. They were bound by their love of Torah and especially their love of the Torah of Brisk. They would speak on the phone often and attend each other’s family simchas. Before the yeshiva settled in Riverdale, my father made a pitch for them to move to Englewood, which did not ultimately materialize.
My first meeting with the rosh yeshiva was certainly the most impactful, one which I will not forget. I was in 12th grade and was spending Shabbos with family in Riverdale. In the afternoon, I made my way over to the yeshiva to learn. The beis medrash of Telshe Riverdale was something to behold— hundreds of boys were learning loudly and diligently as if nothing else in the world existed. At the very front, sat Rav Ausband learning with one of his students. I decided to introduce myself to him; I assumed my name would ring a bell as he was a friend of my father’s. I slowly made my way up to the front of the beis medrash and a hush spread throughout the room. Who is this stranger approaching the rosh yeshiva while he is learning? I introduced myself and he proceeded to ask me about my family and what I was learning. I had prepared for this moment. I reviewed everything we were learning in shiur that week in case he asked me. I went on to tell him the exact sugya we were learning in Kiddushin, the Rishonim we learnt and the questions we asked. Then he asked me, “Nu, and how does the Beis Haleivi answer the contradiction in the Ran?” It was as if he had just learnt this topic. But he hadn’t. The boys in the yeshiva told me they hadn’tlearned Kiddushin in a few years! That was Rav Ausband—the most diligent genius of Torah. Everything was fresh to him like he had just learnt it.
Whoever had the chance to meet Rav Ausband will tell you the same thing — he was larger than life. Whether he was dancing with you at a wedding, giving a powerful shiur or simply giving you personal advice, you felt you were interacting with the Torah itself. He established one of the finest elite yeshivas on American soil and is considered a rebbe to thousands. His legacy will live on through his children, themselves giants in Torah, and his imprint on the Torah world will not be forgotten. He will be sorely missed.
Rabbi Moshe Genack is the assistant rabbi at the Great Neck Synagogue.
