Mourning descended on the Torah world in Eretz Yisroel and
abroad following the histalkus on Erev Pesach of HaRav
Yosef Tzvi Halevi Dunner zt"l, ravad of the
Union of Chareidi Communities of England and the rov of Adas
Yisroel of London, who returned his soul to his Maker around
midnight on the night of Bedikas Chometz at the age of
95.
A large memorial gathering will be held Thursday night (2
Iyar) at 8:00 p.m. at Beis Knesses Heichal Shmuel in
Jerusalem's Mattersdorf neighborhood. Scheduled to speak are
HaRav Yitzchok Tuvioh Weiss, HaRav Nosson Tzvi Finkel, HaRav
Zeev Feldman, HaRav Eliezer Halevi Dunner and HaRav Yehuda
Aryeh Halevi Dunner. Seating will be available for ladies as
well.
Chareidi communities throughout Europe, especially England,
felt a sense of being orphaned upon hearing the bitter news
of the loss of one of the survivors of the pre-War generation
— a leader of chareidi Jewry in England for over 50
years and a moreh horo'oh for over 70 years —
who served as Chief Rabbi of London, nosi of Agudas Yisroel
of Europe and head of the Kedassiya kashrus organization.
Two weeks before Pesach he contracted a serious case of
pneumonia, but through great mesirus nefesh he managed
to go to his beis medrash for tefillas ma'ariv
one evening. On Shabbos Hagodol, after reading the
beginning of the Haggadah, he gathered a few of his
family members and said, "We are about to enter a new
era."
On the 13th of Nisan, his condition took a turn for the
worse. Chareidi kehillos in London gathered at
botei knesses to beseech Hashem to take pity on
shearis hapleitoh.
His family members and rabbonim from the kehilloh
gathered around his deathbed, davening ma'ariv
together with HaRav Dunner at 10:00 o'clock. Afterwards
they began to sing melodies from the Yomim Noraim and the
Haggadah according to German customs. The gathering reached
its peak when the Viddui began. He joined them, reciting each
word, and then with a moving niggun they recited
Shema Yisroel, Sholosh Esrei Middos and Hashem
Melech.
When the tefilloh ended around 11:00 o'clock, HaRav
Dunner returned his pure soul to his Maker as heartbreaking
cries of Shema Yisroel and Hashem Hu HaElokim
rose. After HaRav Dunner's soul had departed Yigdal
was recited in keeping with the German custom.
As the bitter news spread through chareidi London, mourning
kehilloh members arrived to take part in an all-night
Tehillim vigil alongside the mittoh. Early on
the morning of Erev Pesach, young and old alike could be seen
making their way toward the large Adas Yisroel shul, where
HaRav Dunner served as a marbitz Torah and moreh
horo'oh for over 50 years ever since he accepted the post
in London. Streaming in from every corner of London and
places as far as Gateshead and Manchester, a sea of black
covered the nearby streets, creating a sight rarely if ever
before seen in London.
With heart-rending cries the mittoh was brought into
the beis medrash and placed opposite the Aron
Kodesh. Because it was Erev Yom Tov the hespeidim
were kept to a minimum.
HaRav Ephraim Padwa lamented the great loss for all of London
of a rov who was a figure from a bygone era. "He will be
missed in the beis din and in the kehilloh, and
his mesirus nefesh in maintaining the walls of
religious affairs and kashrus in the city will be missed," he
said.
Speaking in a choked voice, his eldest son, HaRav Aba Dunner,
executive director of the Conference of European Rabbis,
bemoaned the loss of his father to the family and the entire
community.
His son HaRav Aharon Dovid Dunner, rov of the Adas Yisroel
beis medrash in Tottenham, moved the thousands of
people on hand, citing the verse, "Vayomos Yosef...vechol
hador hahu" (Shemos 1:6).
Following the hespeidim his sons recited Kaddish
and the procession set out for the Hisachdus of Chareidi
Communities Cemetery, where he was buried before noon.
During the morning hours of Erev Pesach his sons in Eretz
Yisroel, HaRav Eliezer Dunner, rov of Kehillas Adas
Yisroel Be'eretz Hakodesh and a member of the Shearis Yisroel
Beis Din, and HaRav Yehuda Aryeh Dunner, rov of Beis Knesses
Divrei Shir in Bnei Brak, sat Shivoh. Among those who
paid condolence calls were HaRav Shteinman, HaRav Lefkowitz
and HaRav Wosner, who lamented the great loss to the
generation of a vestige of the great rabbonim of the pre-
Holocaust era.
Biography
Yosef Tzvi Halevi Dunner was born shortly before World War I
on 25 Teves 5673 (1913) in Cologne, Germany to Rav Boruch
Chaim Hy"d and named after his great-uncle, HaRav
Yosef Tzvi Dunner, the gavad and ram of
Amsterdam, who had passed away one year before his birth. The
Dunner family was known in Germany as a family of great
rabbonim descended from the Oruch Laner.
At the age of six he lost his mother, who was also of noble
Ashkenaz lineage — a descendent of the Maharal of
Prague and the gavad of Warsaw, the Chavos Yo'ir.
He studied at the talmud Torah run by the local
chareidi community, showing signs that he was destined for
gadlus. From the age of 11 to 19 he studied at the
yeshiva operated by Talmud Torah Cologne, which was headed by
HaRav Pinchos Wolf, the gavad of Cologne.
At the age of 19 he wanted to leave home to study in one of
the illustrious yeshivas of Lithuania, but his father felt
that given the dearth of rabbonim in Germany communities,
before going to yeshiva he should study at a place that
provides rabbinical training (smichus). He sent the
young man to Beis Hamedrash Lerabbonim in Berlin, which was
headed by HaRav Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg, the author of
Seridei Eish. There he continued his intensive
learning day and night, amassing tremendous knowledge of
Shas and poskim.
When HaRav Elchonon Wassermann arrived in Berlin to raise
money for Yeshivas Baranovitch, he asked to engage top
students at Beis Hamedrash Lerabbonim in pilpulo
deOraisa, and among the students the Rosh Yeshiva
selected was R' Yosef Tzvi Dunner.
While still a bochur he was tested orally on all four
sections of the Shulchan Oruch and made a great
impression on his rabbonim and other prominent poskim,
who granted him Yoreh Yoreh Yodin Yodin semichoh.
In 5696 (1936) the heads of the chareidi community in
Koenigsberg (now Kaliningrad) asked the Seridei Eish to send
them his top student to occupy the local rabbinate. He
recommended HaRav Dunner, who was only 23 at the time. On the
day he was installed at the post the local Jewish press
called him "the best young rabbi in all of Germany."
After he was made rov and av beis din of Koenigsberg he fully
devoted himself to the task of buttressing the walls of
religious practice in the city. He became active in every
area of community life, replied to every halachic question
and painstakingly supervised the local shechitoh,
kashrus and mikveh arrangements.
While serving as moro de'asra of Koenigsberg he stood
up to the Reform Movement, pertinaciously battling against
all of their attempts to alter Jewish tradition and Torah-
based hashkofoh.
One year after taking over the rabbinate he married the
daughter of R' Zeev Freyhan, a distinguished member of the
kehilloh in Breslau, Germany and one of the founders
of Agudas Yisroel in Katowice who was held in high esteem by
the Chofetz Chaim and HaRav Chaim Ozer Grodzensky
zt"l.
About two years later, in the early morning hours of
Kristallnacht on 16 Cheshvan 5699 (November 10, 1938) he woke
up to the sound of Gestapo officers shattering the windows of
his home. The rioters broke the glass using the eitz
chaim of a torn sefer Torah that was hurled
inside, and the broken glass landed on the bed of his
firstborn son, then a one-year-old baby.
The German officer who broke into the apartment ordered HaRav
Dunner to get dressed immediately. When he looked aside for a
moment, HaRav Dunner slipped into his pocket a pair of
tefillin that would eventually serve numerous
prisoners like him. The officer handcuffed HaRav Dunner and
dragged him outside callously.
The Gestapo officer intentionally made his way to the jail
via the street where the shul stood, so that the Rov would
see for himself the beis knesses going up in flames.
HaRav Dunner was so distraught at the sight that he threw up
and fainted. When he regained consciousness he was being
dragged to the jail.
Many German Jewish community leaders were taken to Dachau,
where they perished. However Koenigsberg was in East Prussia
which was separated from Dachau and the rest of the Reich by
Polish territory, and Warsaw refused to allow political
prisoners to be transported across its territory to Germany
proper.
One week after being thrown in a jail cell he was informed
that within a short time he would be transported to a
concentration camp. One month later an envelope sent by HaRav
Solomon Schoenfeld, a London rov, arrived at his home with an
entry visa to England for HaRav Dunner, his wife tlc"a
and their baby boy. Rebbetzin Dunner went to the German
authorities with the visa and, through obvious miracles, his
departure was approved before the rest of the kehilloh
was killed.
Immediately upon his arrival in England he was called upon to
set up a kehilloh in the resort town of Westcliff and
later in Leicester. Through devoted efforts he built a large
kehilloh and Torah-based schools for both boys and
girls. Many of the members felt grateful to HaRav Dunner for
the rest of their lives for enabling them and their
descendants to return to the path of traditional Judaism.
In 5706 (1946) he moved to Stamford Hill in North London,
where he headed the local Beis Yaakov seminary for years,
helping thousands of Jewish girls prepare to build Torah-true
homes.
A few years later he was asked to serve as rov of Adas
Yisroel of London and the His'achdus of Chareidi Communities
in England and as head of the Kedassiya kashrus organization.
Several other candidates were under consideration for the
post, but HaRav Aharon Kotler and the Satmar Rov (HaRav Yoel
Teitelbaum) zt"l, who knew HaRav Dunner from their
visits to London and had been greatly impressed by his
gadlus and humility, supported his nomination and
recommended the London community appoint him without holding
elections.
HaRav Dunner viewed his rabbinical duties as servitude rather
than domination, and as such his door was open wide to all.
He found a common language with the poor and other Jews in
hard straits. He would often invite them to his home for
meals and provide them lodging for months on end until
suitable living quarters could be arranged.
The members of his kehilloh saw him not just as a rov
and moreh horo'oh, but as a father figure as well.
They consulted him on every matter and followed his advice.
Many yeshiva students felt so at ease with him they would
pour out all their thoughts and problems. People came to him
all hours of the day and night, and he refused to post a sign
on the door listing receiving hours.
For over 50 years he served as head of Kedassiya, which is
trusted by all streams of chareidi Jewry abroad thanks to his
expertise in every detail related to the kashrus system and
his strict adherence to high halachic standards. The
organization has set an example of outstanding,
uncompromising kashrus for decades.
One snowy London night, concerns arose that the new
mashgiach would not arrive on time at the dairy for
the 5:00 am milking. HaRav Dunner traveled two hours by train
and around 4:00 am lay down on the frozen ground of an
adjacent field to insure the non-Jewish dairy owners would
not spot him. At 5:00 am he saw the workers begin milking the
cows before the mashgiach's arrival. When the
mashgiach came a bit late HaRav Dunner emerged from
his hiding place and approached the astonished
mashgiach.
For over 30 years, until three years ago, he would travel to
Eretz Yisroel to personally oversee the baking of machine
matzoh for London residents. He would stand throughout the
baking process, from early morning until well into the
evening, supervising the process and directing the other
mashgichim. He was not distracted for a moment and
spared no effort, bending down under the machines even in his
old age.
He instituted chumros and hiddurim that the
bakery owners had trouble adhering to from a technical
standpoint, but he insisted on them until technical changes
were made to meet all of his demands. Many matzoh baking
machines installed in Eretz Yisroel and abroad during the
past 30 years were designed in accordance with the kashrus
guidelines he introduced.
As ravad of London, every week he would sit on the
bench of the London beis din with other
dayonim. His rulings and directives revealed his
genius, astuteness and gadlus in Torah and
horo'oh, as well as his mastery of Shas and
poskim.
He would begin his day by giving a shiur to baalei
batim at his beis medrash before Shacharis.
He would count his 100 daily brochos, saying it
helped him keep HaKodosh Boruch Hu in mind throughout
the day.
Over 40 years ago HaRav Dunner was chosen to serve as a
member of the presidential board of Agudas Yisroel of Europe
together with gedolei Torah HaRav Leib Gurwicz rosh
yeshiva of Yeshivas Gateshead, and HaRav Ben Tzion Rakow the
rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Chayei Olom. Until the end of his
life he served as nosi of numerous institutions and
Torah centers in England.
HaRav Dunner maintained close ties with the Steipler, HaRav
Shach, HaRav Moshe Feinstein, HaRav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach
and HaRav Yitzchok Yaakov Weiss zt"l as well as HaRav
Eliashiv ylct"a.
In 5754 he suffered a personal tragedy when his son, Shlomo,
passed away following an entire year of illness. When he was
in critical condition, gaining control over his emotions
HaRav Dunner drew near and whispered: "Shlomeleh, we've done
everything we could to cure you. We very much want to see you
live for many years to come. Now you are in the hands of
Heaven, and HaKadosh Boruch Hu will do what's best for
you."
In 5758 (1998) he returned to Koenigsberg with HaRav Nosson
Wachtfogel, HaRav Shlomo Wolbe and other rabbonim as part of
a rabbinical delegation working to persuade local officials
to protect the ancient cemetery there where gedolei
olom lie buried, including HaRav Yisroel Salanter
zt"l.
HaRav Dunner made special efforts to preserve Ashkenaz
customs. His family members collected nearly 1,000 of the
customs he kept throughout the year and published them in a
booklet titled "Minhagei Maharitz Halevi."
Until this past year, when he was 93 years old, HaRav Dunner
continued to fast every Erev Rosh Chodesh, BaHaB, Shovevim, 7
Adar and Aseres Yemei Teshuvoh.
Despite his declining health during the past year on several
occasions he managed to attend the weekly meetings of the
Kedassiya beis din as well as rabbinical gatherings
sponsored by Agudas Yisroel of England. In Adar he visited
several factories that manufacture kosher-for-Pesach products
to personally supervise the kashering of the machinery and
the ovens.
Until about two weeks before his petiroh he kept
coming to his beis medrash for all three
tefillos and on Shabbos Mevorchim for Adar he
served as the shaliach tzibbur for Bircas Hachodesh,
as was his practice for years.
HaRav Yosef Tzvi Dunner zt"l is survived by his wife,
his sons, who are gedolei Torah and marbitzei Torah
veyir'oh in Eretz Yisroel and abroad, his
daughter, who is married to HaRav Simcha Halevi Bamberger,
one of the rabbonim of Manchester, grandchildren and great-
grandchildren continuing his spiritual legacy.
