The yeshiva was founded in 1875 in the town of Telshi (, , ) in
Kovno Governorate of the
Russian Empire. By 1900 it was "one of the three largest yeshivot in Imperial Russia." After several years there, he returned to Telz and taught Talmud to the students in the group in which he himself had once studied. In 1883, Rabbi
Eliezer Gordon relinquished the Kelm rabbinate and after a short period in
Slabodka, became the rabbi in Telz. Through Rabbi Gordons's intercession, the twenty-nine-year-old Rabbi Oppenheim became the new Rabbi of Kelm. Rabbi Oppenheim served as the rabbi in Kelm for forty-three years and died on Thursday, February 11 (27 of
Shevat), 1926, at 72. He was succeeded as Rabbi of Kelm by his son in law, Rabbi Kalman Beineshovitz.
Rabbi Eliezer Gordon In 1883,
Eliezer Gordon was appointed as the
chief rabbi of the town of Telz and in 1884,
rosh yeshiva (dean) of the yeshiva. In 1902, Shkop left to become the rabbi of Breinsk, Lithuania. In 1905
Chaim Rabinowitz joined the yeshiva. In 1910, while fundraising for the yeshiva in London, Gordon died of a heart attack.
Rabbi Yosef Leib Bloch Gordon's son-in-law
Yosef Leib Bloch became the community's rabbi and the
rosh yeshiva. which was the year Yosef Leib Bloch and his son
Azriel Rabinowitz, was appointed as a
rosh yeshiva. In 1933, the yeshiva built a new building to house the
mechina ("preparatory school").
The Holocaust In the fall of 1939, the Russians were allowed to bring troops into Lithuania on the pretext of defending the country. In June 1940, the Russians seized control of the country and quickly transformed it into a "soviet socialist republic." As part of this transformation, private Jewish organizations and schools were disbanded and the yeshiva was closed. Most of the students dispersed, with only about a hundred students remaining in Telshe. The learning was done in groups of 20-25 students, studying in various
batai medrashim ("small synagogues") led by the
rosh yeshivas. During the early years of World War II,
Elya Meir Bloch and
Chaim Mordechai Katz were in the United States on a fund-raising mission. As the war broke out, their only option to ensure the continuity of the Yeshiva was to rebuild Yeshiva on American soil. This Yeshiva was thus rebuilt in
Cleveland Ohio. In October 1940, a group of students led by
Chaim Stein escaped via Russia. This group found its way to the United States in early 1941 and joined the Yeshiva in Cleveland.1941: {{cite news ==Telshe in the United States==