Chaim Yisroel Eiss
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Chaim Yisroel Eiss (1876-1942) was an Agudath Israel activist and writer. He also was among the founders of the Agudath Israel in 1912.[1][2] During the First World War, Rebbe Eiss set up an aid system that located refugees, found out what they most needed and raised the required funds. During World War II, he worked on behalf of Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe.
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[edit] Personal life
Chaim Yisroel Eiss was born in 1876 in Istrik, Galicia. He was the only one of ten children to survive an epidemic of diphtheria[citation needed], an illness for which there was no treatment at the time. After the death of his other children, his father Rebbe Moshe Nissan Eiss took young Yisroel to the Sadigora Rebbe who blessed him and gave him an additional name, Chaim[citation needed].
Later in life he moved to Zurich in Switzerland and became a successful businessman there[citation needed].
[edit] Agudath Israel
Rebbe Eiss was a founding member of Agudath Israel and one of its main activists. He operated mainly behind the scenes and every proposal that was brought to the presidium for ratification was first presented to him[citation needed].
During the First World War, Rebbe Eiss set up a large aid system that located refugees, found out what they most needed and raised the required funds[citation needed].
Rebbe Eiss was entrusted by the leading Rabbis of the time with the directorship of all Switzerland-based Agudath Israel funds. These included the Orphan Aid Fund, the Land of Israel Yeshiva Fund and the Polish and Lithuanian Yeshiva Fund[citation needed]. He received contributions from all over the world, and transferred the money to the recipients.
Rebbe Chaim Yisroel was a writer and published the Agudath Israel publication Haderech. He wrote all the articles himself and was personally responsible for printing and distributing the paper.[citation needed] He was also a regular contributor to the then Agudath Israel radio station Kol Yisrael, which broadcast in Jerusalem, and used it to make his opinions known to the population of Eretz Israel[citation needed].
[edit] Rescue work
Rebbe Eiss lived in Switzerland, which was neutral during World War II, and was therefore able to serve as the link between people living in countries under Nazi occupation and residents of the free world. He transferred information and requests for help to the Agudath Israel offices in London, New York, and Istanbul, and facilitated the transfer of money, passport photographs, and requests to locate family members into Europe. He received hundreds of letters from Nazi-occupied countries and was one of the first to obtain a clear picture of the atrocities that were being carried out there[citation needed].
The communications system that he set up was complex and not without danger. The unofficial postal service was conducted by non-Jewish residents of the occupied countries, people he referred to in his letters as pure Aryans[citation needed], and the phraseology that was used was designed to pass muster with the censors while being understood by the intended recipients. An example of this can be seen in a letter that he wrote to Agudath Israel’s American branch at an early stage, before people were yet aware of the Nazis’ extermination efforts. It stated: "Our friend Rav Alexander Susha Friedman wrote me a letter of thanks on behalf of Mr. Mekayem Nefesh" and that "Mr. Chalelei Raav (Dying of Hunger) is a permanent guest at our friends' homes."[citation needed]
Sometimes he was able to be more explicit, and he wrote to the London branch of Agudath Israel, "The situation of our French brethren and even more, of our Polish brethren, is getting worse each day. In Warsaw the Jews are dying at a rate of 6,000 per month, mostly from hunger."[citation needed]
Many people were prevented from dying by Rebbe Chaim Yisroel’s efforts, but these were not the only people he helped. Thousands of Jews trapped in occupied Europe were given hope by his activities.[citation needed]
[edit] Food parcels
When Rebbe Eiss heard about the hunger and deprivation suffered by the Jews in occupied Europe, he immediately dispatched money to a Lisbon business associate. This associate used the money to buy cocoa, coffee, sugar, tea and sardines, items that were very scarce at that time, and sent them to the starving Jews.[citation needed]The recipients were able to exchange them for large quantities of flour and potatoes. Rebbe Eiss often financed these purchases himself.[citation needed]
In 1942 he wrote to Istanbul: "On Sunday, with G-d’s help I will issue instructions for a consignment of sardines and raisins to be sent to Rebbitzen Sarah Alter."[citation needed] This was a reference to the wife of the Beis Yisrael.
Parcels were often sent to Poland through the help of the Red Cross in Geneva.[citation needed]
He made a special effort to enable ghetto Jews observe the mitzvot and sent them arba minim and matzos and raisins with which to make wine for the “four cups” that are drunk during the seder.
One woman who survived the Holocaust related that when Mrs. Tzilla Orlean, the wife of the principal of Cracow’s Beis Yaakov seminary, was in Auschwitz she received parcels there right until the end of the War. "They contained almonds and other dry foods. I don’t know how they arrived. It was a real miracle."[citation needed]
[edit] Foreign papers
Rebbe Eiss contacted the Paraguayan consul, Mr. Higly, from whom he purchased Paraguayan identity papers and passports. He then had these documents copied and sent them to Poland.[citation needed]
At a later date he managed to obtain South American papers without having to pay for them. This was done through George Mantello, the first secretary at El Salvador’s Geneva consulate.[citation needed]
After Rebbe Eiss introduced Attorney Meir Miller of the Paris branch of the Aguda to George Mantello in May 1943, there was a change in the situation regarding South American identification documents. Since the consul was not asking to be paid and Meir Miller was also not charging any fees, the documents were now obtainable for free. Tens of thousands of certificates were distributed in this way.[citation needed]
During the early years of World War II, Jews holding foreign passports were sent to the Vittel Detention Camp in France, a camp for people of foreign nationalities.[citation needed] Shortly after the Passover of 1944 almost all the Jews in Vittel were transferred to Auschwitz, where most were killed[citation needed]. However, tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews were saved through being granted South American identification papers.[citation needed]
The Swiss representative of the World Jewish Congress, Doctor Silberschein, eventually adopted the methods pioneered by the Orthodox group, and then utilized their contacts and work methods to further ease the plight of the Jews in Nazi countries.[citation needed]
[edit] Political Views
Rebbe Eiss was critical of the Mizrachi movement. He wrote that Mizrachi did not teach its children the Torah but instead had a new religion, that of labor[citation needed]. According to Rebbe Eiss, the only reason that Mizrachi affiliated itself to the Zionists was in order to receive monetary gain[citation needed].
Rebbe Eiss was also critical of Israel’s secular educational system. He wrote that "Forty thousand of the children of our people are being educated in schools which are such that the children will not turn out to be apikorsim (heretics), because they will not know enough Torah to be able to rebel against it, but will turn out to be ignoramuses."[citation needed]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Chaim Shalem. The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority (YadVashem.org). Retrieved on 2007-07-06.
- ^ Finger, Seymour (1984). American Jewry During the Holocaust. New York: Holmes & Meier Pub, 22. ISBN 084197506X 9780841975064. OCLC 11882160.
