Munkatcher Rebbe

By Rabbi Yitzchok Frankfurter

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THE MUNKATCHER REBBE REFLECTS ON
HIS FATHERS WARTIME HATZALAH EFFORTS
AND WHAT CAME AFTER

Rav Baruch Rabinovich

of Munkacs (r)

GREATNESS IN THE SHADOWS

THE LIFE OF RAV BARUCH RABINOVICH OF MUNKACS

av Baruch Yehoshua Yerachmiel Rabinovich was born in

1914 in Parczew, a small town in eastern Poland. Before
the outbreak of World War II, the Jewish community of Parczew
numbered 5,000, more than half of the towns population.
His father, the Partzever Rebbe Rav Nosson Dovid Rabinovich,
was the eldest son of Rav Yitzchak Yaakov of Biala. His mother
Yitta was the daughter of Rav Moshe Leib Schapira of Stryzow.
In 1933 Rav Baruch married Frima Chaya Rivka, the only
daughter of his mothers first cousin, Rav Chaim Elazar Schapira, the Munkatcher Rebbe, also known as the Minchas Elazar
after the sefer he authored. Rav Baruchs wedding, attended
by an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 guests, was one of the
grandest and most celebrated prewar chasidic weddings. Film
footage of the wedding, shot by news teams there to record
the event, was viewed across the world.
In addition to the renowned Munkatcher Yeshiva headed by
the Minchas Elazar, which had over 200 students, Munkacs
boasted 15 other houses of study. The town was home to
chasidim of many dynasties, including Ziditchov, Spinka, Belz
and Vizhnitz. Each group had its own shul and customs.
In 1937, following the passing of his father-in-law, Rav Baruch
was appointed to serve as rav and Rebbe of Munkacs. He also
succeeded his father-in-law as rosh yeshivah of the Munkatcher
Yeshiva.
In the beginning of World War II, he was deported to Poland,
where he witnessed firsthand the Nazi atrocities against his
Jewish brethren. He was miraculously released soon afterwards

and returned to Munkacs. Realizing the danger of staying there,

he moved with his family to Budapest, where he became involved
in hatzalah activities on behalf of the Polish Jewish refugees in
Hungary. He subsequently managed to obtain visas and escape
to Eretz Yisrael, where he endeavored to rebuild his shattered
life and deal with the tragedy of the Holocaust. His rebbetzin,
who had always been frail, died in April 1945.
In 1946, Rav Baruch campaigned to become the Chief Rabbi
of Tel Aviv, but withdrew from the race when opposition to his
candidacy mounted. Shortly thereafter he moved to So Paulo,
Brazil with his second wife Yehudis, totally cutting himself off
from his surviving chasidim and from his position as head of
one of prewar-Hungarys preeminent dynasties.
In 1962, Munkatcher chasidim who had survived the war, led
by Reb Chaim Ber Greenfeld and Reb Shlomo Goldstein, both
gabbaim of the Minchas Elazar, appointed Rav Baruchs third
child, Rav Moshe Leib Rabinovich, to serve as the rav and
Rebbe of the Munkatcher chassidic movement. Rav Baruch
returned to Israel in 1963 to become Chief Rabbi of Cholon.
He later moved to Petach Tikva, where he headed a small beis
midrash until his petirah in 1997.
Rav Baruch was known as a great talmid chacham as well
as a gifted orator. His relative obscurity and desire to remain
out of the limelight meant that he rarely spoke outside of his
own immediate vicinity. In 1996, he published his sefarim,
entitled Divrei Nevonim and Binas Nevonim.

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is often quoted that every blade of grass has an angel

bending over it that whispers, Grow, grow. Though the source for
the axiom is actually a midrash, where it is formulated with slight
differences, the point is still the same (see Bereishis Rabbah 10;
Nefesh Hachaim 3:10). Heavenly carriers of the Divine will enable
everything that happens on earth.
Amis inquiry into the wartime hatzalah activities of Rav Baruch
Rabinovich, ztl, of Munkacs came to fruition through the whisperings of many such Heavenly angels, first and foremost those of the
angel charged with inspiring hakaras hatov. The literal meaning of
hakaras hatov is, of course, recognizing the good, but colloquially
and primarily it means expressing ones gratitude. It is that double
definition of hakaras hatov that is behind this feature.
A few years ago, following the engagement of my daughter to
the Munkatcher Rebbe, Rav Moshe Leib Rabinovichs nephew,
the Rebbe visited my father, then confined to bed by a debilitating stroke, to personally express his mazal tov wishes. But as with
everything else about the Rebbe, the visit turned out to be far more
than that.
Paralyzed as my father was on his right side, the Rebbe affectionately held my fathers left hand and told him that he owed
him a debt of gratitude from his youth. The Rebbe related that
my father had gifted him his first chasidic suit in a debt of gratitude to his father, Rav Baruch Rabinovich of Munkacs. My father
had learned in Munkacs before the war and always considered Rav
Baruch his Rebbe. The Rebbe told my father that he couldnt recall
ever having expressed his thanks for that gift. He wanted to do so
now. Together, the Rebbe and my father shed tears. I understood
like never before the power and meaning of hakaras hatov, regardless of the passage of time.
So when I met noted Holocaust historian Rebbetzin Esther Farbstein some months ago and she told me that one of the heroes
of wartime hatzalah efforts had been none other than Rav Baruch
Rabinovich of Munkacs, I knew right away what my duty was. I
met with the Rebbe before Shavuos to discuss publishing an article
about his fathers wartime activities, and visited him again in his
home on Tzom Gedaliah to garner his perspective.
According to the Chinuch, the concept of hakaras hatov serves as
the foundation of the mitzvah of kibbud av vaeim. This, seemingly,
is not only the Rebbes motivation to publicize his fathers wartime
activities, but as the Rebbe reminded me, it should also be mine.
The Rebbe understands how meaningful it would have been for
my own father to set the record straight about his Rebbes self-sacrifice, to let the world know about Rav Baruchs indescribable acts
of chesed.
But above all personal motivation, klal Yisrael owes Rav Baruch of
Munkacs its gratitudefor what he has done for the Jewish nation
in the darkest of times, for leaving no stone unturned during the
war to help hundreds of Polish Jewish refugees escape the clutches

Rav Baruch Rabinovich of

Munkacs with his followers

of the Nazis.
Hakaras hatov flows in many directions. It is because of
that reason that I believe that a good angel has brought
about this article, bending over and whispering to this publication, Grow, growif for nothing else, as the Rashba
famously writes, It is a mitzvah to publicize those who do
a mitzvah (Responsa 1:581). The greater the readership,
the greater the publicityand greater is the mitzvah.

In Search of an Answer
Notwithstanding the fast, the Munkatcher Rebbe is vigorous about the subject, fully engaged. I convey to the
Rebbe that Ive asked Rebbetzin Farbstein to pen an article
concentrating strictly on the hatzalah efforts of his father,
ztl, and not to compose a full biography at this time.
It was very interesting to me when Rebbetzin Farbstein
told me how shocked she was to find out the extent of the
Rebbes fathers efforts to save Jews during the Holocaust,
I tell the Rebbe. She herself didnt realize the extent of
his role in the hatzalah of Polish Jews during the war. I am
sure that for many it will be an eye-opener.

168 A M I M A G A Z I N E / / S E P T E M B E R 2 4 , 2 0 1 5 / / 1 1 T I S H R E I 5 7 7 6

I feel that it falls under the category of mefarsimin oseh

mitzvah. I cant show my father that I am doing this, but
theres still kibbud avChazal teach us to be mechabed
lachar moso.
Your father stayed a talmid to the last moment, the
Rebbe tells me. A strong talmid. I dont know if there were
a lot of talmidim as dedicated as your father was. He stayed
faithful until the very end, convinced in his hecherkeitI
dont know of many others that were in his level.
I ask the Rebbe if his father discussed the war years.
Yes. He spoke many times about it. But he left the conversations at home. Many years passed before he would
speak about it in public. But before we begin with our
input, we must look at how he himself dealt with this
whole issue.
Soon after our arrival in Eretz Yisrael, in Nissan of
1944, he was interviewed by many newspapers. But later
he chose, for reasons unknown to us, to close up. He
stopped speaking about it in public. Many people, reporters, tried to start conversations with him about the war
years, but he pushed them away.
(In his later years, the Rebbe notes, after surviving
two massive strokes, Rav Baruch changed his mind and

The Minchas Elazar

decided that he had a duty to write and publish the story

of his hatzalah in the years of the war. The sefer was entitled Binas Nevonim.)
But during that time, he did not speak about the war
period at all or just about his own personal involvement?
As the Rebbe tells it, his father believed that one needs
to deal with the questions of emunah in regards to the
Holocaust.
Gedolei Yisrael thought that it was not proper to ask
questions on the Ribbono Shel Olam, but two rebbes did
deal with the issue he deliberated. One was the Satmar
Rebbe, ztl, in his Vayoel Moshe, and the other was the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, zt"l, in the famous four letters
he published in his journals. He thought it was the duty
of the rabbanim and roshei yeshivos to explain to klal Yisrael
that all this was chevlei Mashiach.
The reason other gedolim did not question Hakadosh

170 A M I M A G A Z I N E / / S E P T E M B E R 2 4 , 2 0 1 5 / / 1 1 T I S H R E I 5 7 7 6

Baruch Hus deeds is probably because they knew inherently that it was not for the human mind to comprehend.
Much like the hasagah of the Raavad on the Rambam that
asks how Hashem can know everything in advance and
still allow a human being the power of choice, which the
Rambam resolves with the pasuk, Ki lo machshevosai machshevoseichema human being can never understand the
maasim and machshavos of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Upon
which the Raavad comments that if the Rambam had no
better answer, he shouldnt have asked the question.
This question affected my father greatly. It consumed
him. He went to sleep with it and he woke up with it. He
looked in sefarim, he searched here, he searched there.
He used to say that it was not true emunah if one failed
to think about this question. If there is a need to ask, one
should do so. If a Yid is a maamin it means he knows there
is an explanation for this. Its not a gezeiras hakasuv.
A rav once told him that the Gemara sometimes
answers with a limud, with a gezeiras hakasuvso why is
he so obsessed with the reasoning? He was arguing that
he should not ask so many questions of the Ribbono Shel
Olam, accept that it is similar to a gezeiras hakasuv. My
father countered that he should show him a precedent,
another place where Hashem punishes a tzibbur as a gezeiras hakasuv. Show me one place. I dont know such a
place. Halevai I found such a place.
But it was more than that, and these were his words
to me when I was 14 years old, before I left to the Telz
yeshivah. He talked to me about it. What is the purpose
of every punishment? The purpose is to learn from it. If a
person says I wont think about itit defeats the whole purpose of punishment. If he doesnt think about it, what can
he learn from it? If he wont learn from it then it went to
waste. We are supposed to learn from punishment.
These questions developed into other questions. How
can we call it al kiddush Hashem? Did Hashems name
become sanctified through this? Quite the oppositeit is
a case of lamah yomru hagoyim. Moshe Rabbeinu claimed
this by the eigel, so what was the Holocaust, then? This
was the theme in almost all of his drashos. As he continued
searching, he had different explanations in each drashah.
Did he eventually find peace, a resolution to this
issue? I ask.
In the sefer he wrote in his later years, he gives his
final conclusionin short, that there is nothing more
important to Hashem than the unity of klal Yisrael. And
unfortunately it never happened, for many generations,
except when they were together in the gas chambers and
men, women, and children cried out together Shema YisraelHashem Echad.
He arrived at this explanation after years of wrestling
with this question. To me, it shows that he did not find

The Minchas
Elazar (center)

a better way to resolve it. But the fact remains that even
before that, his every serious drashahShabbos Shuvah,
et cetera, everything was on this subject. It gave him no
peace.
The mashal he gave was that if one really searches, he
has to look in all directions. You dont know beforehand
where the search will lead. That was his approachto
search and search and search. He was suffused with pain.
He never climbed out of the Holocaust.
Naturally, being that I never felt the extent of the suffering that my father did, the questions didnt pain me as they
did him. Growing up close to the Satmar Rebbe, ztl, he
taught me that the suffering of klal Yisrael is a fulfillment
of what Hashem said would happen if we transgressed the
shalosh shvuosani matir es besarchem, as he writes in the
hakdamah of the Vayoel Moshe. As for gedolei Yisrael and
roshei yeshivos with whom I learnt Torah, I never heard
them ask any questions on hanhagas Hashem. It was left,
as Hashem told Moshe Rabbeinu, as a case of, Shtok. Kach
alah bmachshavah.
My father himself recounts most of his work of hatzalah in a kuntres published in Eretz Yisrael in 1946. But in
1944, shortly after our arrival on 26 Nissan, many news-

172 A M I M A G A Z I N E / / S E P T E M B E R 2 4 , 2 0 1 5 / / 1 1 T I S H R E I 5 7 7 6

paper writers came to interview him. He gave them his

history, which included, of course, his hatzalah work.
What stands out is one article. (See following sidebar.)

Pikuach Nefesh
Rebbetzin Farbstein writes that he did this bmesirus
nefesh. The world needs to know this. How do we present
this in a proper way? I ask.
Im thinking aloud now, the Rebbe says. It is known
in the world that a person who did a lot for Hungarian
Jews was Rav Michoel Ber Weissmandl, ztlthere is no
doubt about this. But what my father did for Polish Jews
will be almost entirely forgotten by future generations. If
we dont remind Yidden now, then when?
There is a letter to my father printed in a kuntres Bechirat Rav Harashi, from the shver of Rav Michoel Ber, the
Nitra Rav, the zekan harabbanim of Slovakia at the time.
He addresses my father as lchvod hatzaddik yesod olam.
My father was a yungerman then, I dont even know if he
was 30. He wrote this during the war, after the hatzalah.
I heard from the Nitra Rav, Rav Shalom Moshe Unger,

The levayah of the

Minchas Elazar

ztl, that he was bothered about this throughout the years.

The world is not accustomed to calling a yungerman of 30
a tzaddik yesod olam. But he said that the answer is that
in these times, a tzaddik yesod olam is the one who does
the most for saving Jewish lives, and he brought proof
from Noachthe Midrash Rabba calls him, too, a tzaddik yesod olam. What did Noach do? He saved Hashems
creatures from annihilation. And that was only animals.
Kal vchomer someone who saves hundreds or thousands
of Jews!
This is the nekudahmy father was not simply another
matzil. Avadah, everyone has a place in Gan Eden. Chazal
say whoever saves one nefesh bYisrael saves an olam malei.
But my father was concerned about the fate of an entire
community and literally saved an olam malei! There were
not many people with such a mehalech of gadlus.
I feel it is all but forgotten, I say.
It got completely forgotten, the Rebbe agrees. My
father confronted Kastner about the money that was
destined for hatzalah and diverted for by the Zionist organization in Budapest. Today its not a secret anymore, as it
was repeated throughout the Kastner trial. It was a huge
crime, what the Zionists didgiving certificates to Eretz
Yisrael to people who they felt could build up the land.
Weizmann said that it wasnt made for sheeiras hapleitah,

174 A M I M A G A Z I N E / / S E P T E M B E R 2 4 , 2 0 1 5 / / 1 1 T I S H R E I 5 7 7 6

for old sick people. They did not see the certificates as a
way to save the remnant of klal Yisrael. They did not see it
as a hatzalah operation, as a way to save people, the way
people like my father and Rav Michoel Ber, ztl, did.
So did he did not save himself through Kastner?
No, he had nothing to do with the Kastner train. He
didnt want to have any shaichus with him. In the end, there
were certificates to go to Israel. He had a very respected
standing in Budapest, and was able to obtain a certificate.
Now let me answer your questions on his rabbanus. You
wanted to know about his relationship with Munkatcher
chasidim after the war.
Munkatcher chasidim, throughout all his years in
Brazil, wrote him many letters from New York, Montreal,
Los Angeles, London asking and begging for his return.
As a matter of fact, on several occasions he came at their
invitation to New York, Chicago, Montreal, and Los Angeles to see if things could be worked out. In the end they
didnt succeed. He decided that his mission after the war
would not be constrained to the community of Munkacs
but rather to the Jews in the world at large, and therefore
he decided to stay in Brazil where he believed he could
accomplish more.
Through the years, some people with less than pure
motives and without basic knowledge spread and pub-

lished the claim that the chasidim threw

him away. This is simply not true. And
by going unanswered, this claim is misleading many. But this is a discussion for
another time

What does the Rebbe see as the toeles

in being mefarseim?
The first thing is that the tzibbur
should know the truth. Another generation will pass and who knows if this
entire episode will ever be remembered?
That is besides it being personal, for my
father. Its a big thing. But people need
to know about the hatzalah of hundreds
or maybe tens of thousands of people.
The Rebbe has told me in a previous
conversation that his father wanted to be
mefarseim.
Yes, I saw it in his actions, in his interviews with Yad Vashem and in his whole
sefer that he wanted to be mefarseim it.
These things are relevant every daykol
yomei shatai.
The message of my fathers mesiras
nefesh is what a yachid can do for the tzibbur, the Rebbe says. A yachid needs
to be ready. HineiniI am ready. At the
hineini of the akeidah, Chazal say Hineini
lemeluchah, hineini lekehunah. I am ready
to be a kohen gadol and I am ready to be
a melech. That is hineini? Strangehineini
should mean I am ready to be a servant!
The Tiferes Banim says a very interesting concept. He answers that for
Avraham Avinu it was the opposite. For
Avraham Avinu to be an eved was simple;
malchus was not for him. Vanochi afar
vefer! But even if Hashem were to ask
him to be a melech, he was ready. If this
was what was asked of him, he would do
it too. Hineini.
The nevuah says that the chalash will
say Gibor ani. The weak ones will say
I am strong. This is meant for today.
Bavonoseinu harabbim, our gedolim are
being nismaet. In a certain sense, this is a
mitzvah for every Yida chalash needs to
say I can do this. Today, a weak person
must be able to say Gibor ani.

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German troops in Budapest

THE HATZALAH
IN HIS OWN WORDS

WHungarians started in July 1941, I was designated a

hen the deportation of Jewish immigrants by the

foreigner, having been born in Poland, along with some of my

children. In the end only my oldest son was forced to go. With
the intervention of Munkatcher chasidim, and of course large
sums of money, I was able to return in September of that year.
In 1942 there was no participation of Hungarian Jews in any
work of hatzalah. Only in the summer of that year, when the Slovakian deportations started and Dr. Abeles and Gisi Fleischman
came and brought with them the news of the deportations, did
the mood in Hungary change. People started to be willing to
help.
I have to mention especially Mr. Pinchos Freudiger, who was
the president of the Orthodox Jewry in Budapest. At that time,
with deportations and mass murders in Poland, especially in
the part that bordered Hungary, many refugees came over the

176 A M I M A G A Z I N E / / S E P T E M B E R 2 4 , 2 0 1 5 / / 1 1 T I S H R E I 5 7 7 6

border seeking help. They also came to Munkacs, where they

were hidden in the Rebbes court and given food and clothing. Six or eight weeks passed until the police found out, and
plans were then made for their escape, mostly to Budapest and
other Hungarian cities. In Budapest, not many were willing to
take them in or even help them, claiming they were illegals and
would only bring disaster on all of them.
The Polish refugees had some kind of political status. After
Germany destroyed Poland, all Polish consulate buildings in
Budapest were closed, but the Hungarians were only willing to
assume responsibility for the Polish refugees already in Hungary. A Polish-Hungarian union which had been active before
the war received legal status. Its head was a Polish countess by
the name Szapry. She belonged to one of the aristocratic families in Hungary, which helped her in her work. A Polish colonel
put me in contact with her. I begged her to be of help to the

refugees.
After hours of discussions she
agreed to designate all the refugees as
legal immigrants. This could only be
accomplished with false documents
giving each one a Polish name. Rabbi
Weissmandel, ztl, organized the work
in Slovakia, where the Polish people
crossed over to Hungary, and provided
them with these documents. After
word got out that it was possible to get
papers in Hungary, hundreds of people
came over the border. The Hungarians
at the border, if they so wished, could
easily have detected that the certificates werent valid. The only reason
they didnt was because we gave them
large sums of money and promised to
raise more. This was approximately
before Pesach of 1943. At that time,
we contacted a Dr. Yitzchok Schwarzbart in London, the head of the Zionist
Movement in Poland. The countess
herself talked to Schwarzbart, explaining what we were doing. He promised
to publicize our cry for help throughout all Jewish centers in the world.
Unfortunately, when I arrived in Eretz
Yisrael and spoke to some leaders of
the Jewish Agency about the office of
Agudath Yisrael, I was amazed to find
out that none of it was true. They had
never heard from anyone the cry for
help from Polish refugees in Hungary.
I was hurt, but not surprised.
I was given notice by KEOKH, the
Hungarian administration for immigrants, that the debt was growing out
of proportion and if the money was
not forthcoming they would cancel
the plan. Many big rabbanim came
to our help. Mr. Freudiger became
the head of this major work of fundraising. The kehillah assigned each
member a tax of 3,000 pengos. The
Orthodox community tried to ask for
help from the Reform community, but
all efforts were in vain. They said they

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Farewell letter to his talmidim (left)

had no interest in the Polish Jews and would not donate any
funds to them. As a last resort, Mr. Freudiger turned to the
Zionist Movement in Hungary. This was also in vain. They
didnt even want to admit that they were receiving money for
refugees from international sources.
A Jew from the city of Apta told us that he had good
contacts with Jews in Switzerland. We asked him to call the
agency in Switzerland, which he did, asking how they can
sit idly by in such a time without helping. They were amazed
and angered at his accusations, saying that they sent many
considerable sums. They had sent $20,000 just a few days
earlier. This was in Cheshvan of 1944. We suspected that the
Zionist organizations had gotten their hands on the money
and demanded help for the refugees, which added up to four
or five secondhand winter coats.
A Jew by the name of Eliezer Ungar approached us, asking
if we would agree to meet the Zionist agency. Of course we
agreed, not having much options. Time was passing and it
took two weeks for the first meeting to happen. It was in the

178 A M I M A G A Z I N E / / S E P T E M B E R 2 4 , 2 0 1 5 / / 1 1 T I S H R E I 5 7 7 6

house of Mr. Freudiger. Our demand was that they show

us, or someone else, the records of all the money that had
arrived during this period and what they had done with it.
They didnt answer us, but proposed a second meeting.
The second meeting was in my house. To that meeting
they bought their heads, including Dr. Kastner, Yoel Brand,
and Eliezer Ungar, the initiator of the meetings. I again
repeated our demand for accountability.
So it went, meeting after meeting without any accomplishment, until one day Dr. Kastner got up and told us,
This is pure Zionist money and it cannot be used for Polish
refugees and we dont have to give you any accountability.
Dr. Freudiger held me by the hand, asking me to please
hold back my angeryou dont know who these people
are and whom youre dealing with. He was an older statesman devoted to the cause of hatzalah with every fiber of his
being, so I respected his opinion. This was on Chanukah of
1944. I was devastated. A short time thereafter I left Hungary, with the danger of all our work in saving hundreds of
Jews coming to an end, chas vshalom. I didnt have the heart
to witness this happening, and came to Eretz Yisrael.
***
The Rebbe noted in regard to the foregoing account: It
amazes me that through the years he was willing to talk
about the war, even sometimes about his hatzalah activities,
and gave hours of testimony to Yad Vashem, he omitted the
part about Dr. Kastner. He never, ever spoke about it, with
the exception of one interview with the Jewish Agency that
he gave in 1944. But even this remained buried there for
many years. He kept it to himself.