Holocaust Hero

About this book

"One of the most remarkable, but unheralded heroes of the Holocaust was Solomon Schonfeld, a young British rabbi who personally rescued thousands of Jews during the tragic decade of 1938-1948. Rabbi of a small Orthodox congregation and pioneer of the day school movement in London, England, Schonfeld was inspired by his former teacher, Rabbi Michael Ber Weissmandl, to embark on rescue work. Under the auspices of the Chief Rabbi's Religious Emergency Council, an organization he created with the approval of Chief Rabbi Joseph P. Hertz, his future father-in-law, this dynamic and charismatic personality single-handedly brought to England, several thousand youngsters, rabbis, teachers, ritual slaughterers and other religious functionaries ignored by Britain's secular Jewish establishment. Schonfeld provided his "charges" with kosher homes, Jewish education and jobs. He also created unique mobile synagogues - the first to serve the spiritual and physical needs of the survivors in the liberated areas. On the other hand, his failures include his unsuccessful request for His Majesty's Government to heed Weissmandl's plea to bomb Auschwitz. This fascinating work consists of a biography, with a focus on his rescue efforts, including his struggles with the assimilationist Anglo-Jewish leadership, as well as a series of 40 vignettes by individuals rescued by this unheralded hero."--BOOK JACKET.