26 Facts About Mordechai Gifter

Mordechai Gifter was the rosh yeshiva of the Telz Yeshiva in Cleveland.

Mordechai Gifter was born in Portsmouth, Virginia to Yisrael and Matla Mordechai Gifter.

Mordechai Gifter was raised in Baltimore, Maryland, where his father owned a grocery.

Mordechai Gifter attended the Baltimore City Public Schools, at the time being known as Max, and received his religious education in after-school programs.

Mordechai Gifter had a younger brother and sister, and both predeceased him.

On Saar's advice, Mordechai Gifter traveled in 1932 to Lithuania on the same boat as Miller to study in the Telshe Yeshiva.

Mordechai Gifter was immediately accepted for admission and placed in advanced classes.

Mordechai Gifter developed a strong bond with Zalman Bloch, the mashgiach ruchani at the yeshiva.

In 1939, prior to his wedding, Mordechai Gifter returned home to the United States to visit his parents in Baltimore.

Mordechai Gifter planned on returning to Lithuania for his wedding and to resume his studies.

When it became obvious that he would be unable to return due to the political climate of the late 1930s, Mordechai Gifter arranged for his bride's family to join him in the United States.

One of the witnesses at Mordechai Gifter's wedding was Bernard Lander, then a rabbi in Baltimore and later founder of Touro College.

Shortly thereafter, Mordechai Gifter was appointed to the pulpit of the Nusach Ari Synagogue in northwest Baltimore.

Mordechai Gifter was the first native Baltimorean to lead a congregation in the city.

In 1941, Mordechai Gifter moved to Waterbury, Connecticut and assumed a rabbinic pulpit in that community.

In 1944, Mordechai Gifter moved to Cleveland, Ohio to join the faculty of his alma mater, the newly re-established Rabbinical College of Telshe, which was moved from Telshe, Lithuania to Cleveland.

In 1977, Mordechai Gifter brought 20 students from Cleveland to Israel and opened a branch of the college in the town of Kiryat Ye'arim, leaving Sorotzkin in charge of the Cleveland campus.

When Sorotzkin died in 1979, Mordechai Gifter was sent back to the United States to lead the Cleveland campus and the Israeli branch closed.

From that point on, Mordechai Gifter moved into small quarters in the students' dormitory, eschewing his on-campus residence.

Mordechai Gifter purportedly did this due to his distress out of feeling compelled to live in golus.

For many years, Mordechai Gifter led the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudath Israel of America.

Mordechai Gifter maintained a relationship with his first faculty position at Ner Israel Rabbinical College, returning to Baltimore annually to visit his daughter and son-in-law and friends.

Mordechai Gifter died in 2001, having suffered numerous ailments for many years prior to his death.

Mordechai Gifter was survived by his wife, three sons and three daughters.

Mordechai Gifter published numerous books on Jewish Law, philosophy, theology and bible.

Mordechai Gifter was a frequent contributor to many scholarly journals, and once wrote an article for the Western Reserve University Law Review.