The Manchester community, and the Shaarei Tefillah community
of Prestwich in particular, are still reeling from the shock
of the sudden petirah on motzei Tisha B'Av of
one of its most outstanding talmidei chachomim and
morei horo'oh, HaRav Shmuel Eliezer Roth
zt"l.
HaRav Roth was born in Malmo, Sweden in 1949, to Reb Avrohom
Yehoshua Roth, a talmid of the late Satmar Rov. His
father was born in Bergsas, Czechoslovakia, and his mother,
Golda Huss, came from Sighet, Hungary.
Reb Shia lost his first wife and all but one of his nine
children in the Holocaust whilst he survived serving in the
Russian Army. After the war, he remarried and settled in
Malmo, Sweden where he served as shochet. He and his
wife had two sons (R. Shmuel being the elder) and a
daughter.
Even at a young age, R. Shmuel deeply impressed HaRav Shammai
Zahn, the rosh yeshiva of Sunderland, and HaRav
Mattisyohu Salamon, then in Gateshead Kollel, who both
frequented Malmo to raise funds for their respective
mosdos.
They encouraged Reb Shia and his wife to send their son away
to yeshiva. At thirteen, the young Shmuel left home to spend
a year in the yeshiva at Vilrijk, Antwerp, before entering
Gateshead Yeshiva.
In his six-year stay at Gateshead, he was renowned for his
outstanding hasmodoh and yegi'a beTorah.
He became very close to the roshei yeshiva, especially
to HaRav Leib Lopian zt"l.
R. Shmuel married the sister-in-law of R' Mattisyohu and
after his chasuna, he learned in Ponevezh Yeshiva.
After a year and a half he moved to Gateshead, where he
learned in Gateshead Kollel for eighteen years.
He obtained semichah from Dayan Y. Y. Weisz
zt"l, Reb Leib Gurwicz zt"l, and ylct'a
the Gateshead Rov and was later appointed by R' Leib to
deliver shiurim in Yore Deah to prospective
semichah candidates from the Yeshiva.
He left the Kollel to accept the position of av beis
din of Amsterdam where he spent only a short time, but
made a deep impact, particularly in the area of
kashrus where he exercised tighter controls over
shechita than had previously existed.
R. Shmuel then moved to Sydney, Australia where he assumed
the duties of rov of the Adass Yisroel kehilla, a
position which he held for over seven years.
He sent his children away to Melbourne where the
chinuch was of a better standard than that of
Sydney.
Two and a half years ago, R. Shmuel accepted an invitation to
become the first rov of Beis Hamedrash Shaarei Tefillah in
Prestwich, Manchester.
He delivered shiurim in gemora and
halocho almost every day of the week in addition to a
weekly Chumash-hashkofo shiur.
His series of pre-Pesach shiurim were extremely
popular and were attended by listeners from all parts of
Manchester and from all walks of life.
As rov of Shaarei Tefillah, R. Shmuel continued what promised
to be a glorious career but to the sadness of all who knew
him, he was niftar a few weeks before his fiftieth
birthday.
His son Reb Avigdor ylct'a said at the hesped
for the sheloshim, that his father was famed not only
for his hasmodoh and yegi'a in Torah but also
for his clarity in learning.
He had a tremendous rikkuz hamachshovo whereby he
could concentrate wholly on the sefer he was studying
without allowing himself to be disturbed by what was going on
around him.
R. Shmuel did not just specialize in one field of Torah; he
excelled in all. He was a lamdan, a more
horo'oh and erudite and clear-thinking ba'al
hashkofo. His mesinus (deliberation) in
tefilla was legendary. He was both ohuv and
oheiv es habriyos.
May he be a meilitz yosher for his Rebbetzin, children
and grandchildren.
