The Lomza Rosh Yeshivah, Rav Yechiel Mordechai Gordon, spent more than 15 years in the United States fundraising
Among the Lithuanian-style yeshivos of the interwar period, the Lomza Yeshivah was unique in several respects. Located deep in chassidic Poland, from which it drew its primary student body, it had an impressive building and numerous preparatory schools, more than a dozen across Poland. Lomza’s anemic financial situation, which rivaled Novardok’s as the most desperate among major yeshivos, was a more unfortunate standout feature. In order to alleviate this crushing burden, the Lomza Rosh Yeshivah, Rav Yechiel Mordechai Gordon, spent more than 15 years in the United States fundraising.
A great tzaddik and gaon, Rav Yechiel Mordechai lived a life marred by tragedy. “Mottel Trokker” joined Slabodka in the late 1890s and sided with the Alter of Slabodka during the anti-mussar revolt of 1897, and was one of the founding students in Knesses Yisrael.
In 1905, he married Tzirel Leah Shulevitz, the daughter of the Lomza Yeshivah’s founder, Rav Eliezer Shulevitz. With his wife’s encouragement, he traveled to Kelm. Shortly thereafter, a typhus epidemic took the lives of his wife and mother-in-law. Not wanting to lose his esteemed son-in-law, Rav Eliezer offered him the hand of his daughter Aidel Devorah (Tzirel Leah’s sister). That marriage would last until her untimely passing in 1929.
In 1907, Rav Yechiel Mordechai was appointed a rosh yeshivah in Lomza at the age of 24. His younger brother-in-law and fellow Slabodker, Rav Yehoshua Zelig Ruch, ran the day-to-day operations, while Rav Yechiel Mordechai (whose seforim speak for his learning acumen) focused on fundraising.
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