JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

saw, and he was a regular contributor to the Slutzk Yagdil ha-
Torah and Migdal Torah. In the U.S. he was a contributor to
Ha-Pardes, wrote many essays, and published several volumes
on the Talmud about material related to the glosses of the medieval
rabbi *Yom Tov Ishbili, the Ritba.
Bibliography: M. Sherman, Orthodox Judaism in America:
A Biographical Dictionary and Sourcebook (1996), 31–32; A. Rand
(ed.), Toldot Anshei Shem (1950), 9–10.
[Jeanette Friedman (2nd ed.)]
BLOCH, CHARLES (Shelomo Yeshayahu; 1916– ), U.S.
ḥazzan. Bloch was born in New York and studied ḥazzanut
under Simon Raisen and music at the Brooklyn Conservatory.
He also attended the Jewish Theological Seminary and
St. Johns University where he graduated in law. After serving
as ḥazzan for congregations in New York, Maryland, and
Pennsylvania, in 1967 he became ḥazzan of Temple Anshei
Chesed in Manhattan. Bloch made several recordings, including
melodies which he composed, and appeared on American
radio and television; he gave concerts throughout the United
States and Israel.
[Akiva Zimmerman]
BLOCH, CLAUDE (1878–1967), U.S. admiral; commander in
chief of the United States Fleet. Born in Woodbury, Kentucky,
Bloch entered the U.S. Naval Academy in 1895. He served in
the Spanish-American war and was decorated for saving Spaniards
from burning ships. In 1900, he fought in the Chinese expedition
to suppress the Boxer Rebellion. During World War I
Bloch was commander of the USS Plattsburg and in 1918 was
appointed assistant chief of the Bureau of Ordnance. He was
promoted to rear admiral in 1923 and in 1927 he commanded
the battleship California. After serving as commandant of the
Washington Navy Yard, he was promoted to commander of
the battle force with the rank of admiral. In 1938, Bloch was
made commander in chief of the United States Fleet. Bloch
commanded the shore installations of the 14th Naval District,
Hawaii, when Pearl Harbor was attacked, but played no significant
role in the events of that day. Retired because of age
in 1942, he was retained on active duty as a member of the
General Board until 1946.
Bibliography: E. Rubin; 140 Jewish Marshals, Generals and
Admirals (1952).
[Mordechai Kaplan]
BLOCH, ELIJAH MEYER (c. 1894–1955), Lithuanian rabbi
and dean of the Telz (Telshe) Yeshivah in the U.S. Bloch, who
was born and educated in Telz, Lithuania, was appointed to
the faculty of the yeshivah there in 1917. With the Russian occupation
of Lithuania, the yeshivah was moved to Cleveland,
Ohio, in 1941, under Bloch’s leadership. Bloch retained the
singular “Telz style” in Talmud study, which stresses precise
inductive reasoning. He resisted every attempt at compromise
with the Reform elements of the community, yet succeeded
in obtaining the support of the Cleveland Jewish Federation
for the local Orthodox high school. Active with the Agudat
Israel since the Marienbad Conference of 1937, Bloch played a
leading role in the American Agudah. He was also a member
of Mo’eẓet Gedolei ha-Torah, the international body which
guides the World Agudah on questions of Torah principle,
where he was known for the universality of his approach.
Bloch actively supported Israel.
Bibliography: Dos Yidishe Vort (Feb. 1955).
bloch, ernest
BLOCH, ERNEST (1880–1959), composer. Bloch, who was
born in Geneva, revealed his musical gifts as a child and was
only ten when he wrote down a vow that he would become
a composer and then, in ritual fashion, burned the inscribed
paper over a mound of stones. In the face of parental opposition,
he left home at the age of 16 and studied music for eight
years in Brussels, Frankfurt, Munich, and Paris. At that time
he composed his first big work, the Symphony in C Sharp
Minor. Returning to Geneva in 1904, Bloch entered the family
clockmaking business. During the next three years he composed
his opera Macbeth. It was first produced in 1910 at the
Opéra-Comique in Paris, and was warmly received. Major
works produced during the years immediately following include
Trois Poèmes Juifs for orchestra (1913), Schelomo, a “Hebrew
rhapsody” for cello and orchestra (1916), and the Israel
Symphony for orchestra and five solo voices (1912–16). Bloch
first went to America in 1916, as conductor for the dancer
Maud Allan, and soon won recognition. Early in 1917, Karl
Muck invited him to conduct the Trois Poèmes Juifs in Boston,
and a few months later a concert of his orchestral works
was given in New York. In 1920, he founded and organized
the Cleveland Institute of Music. He left it in 1925 to become
director of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. During
his five years in this post, Bloch composed a number of
large-scale works. Best known of these is America, an “epic
rhapsody” for chorus and orchestra (1926). A counterpart to
this work is Helvetia, a “symphonic fresco” written in tribute
to Bloch’s native land.
One of Bloch’s most important works is the Avodath Hakodesh
(“Sacred Service”) for Sabbath morning for baritone,
mixed chorus, and orchestra which he wrote in seclusion in
Switzerland during 1930–33 (commissioned by Gerald Warburg).
He spent the years 1934–38 in a remote French village.
From this period came the piano sonata, Voice in the Wilderness
(symphonic poem with cello obbligato), and the violin
concerto. Bloch also composed three string quartets (1916,
1945, and 1951–52). In 1938 Bloch returned to America. After
a number of tours as conductor, he finally settled in 1941 in
Agate Beach, Oregon. There he spent the rest of his life except
for annual lecture visits to the University of California. The
manuscripts he left when he died are in the university’s music
library at Berkeley, where an Ernest Bloch Archive was
set up.
Many honors came to Bloch in his last years. He continued,
however, to go his own way without much regard for
musical fashion, and ended his career true to the ideals with
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3 759