Hugo Gryn

Hugo Gabriel Gryn (25 June 1930 – 18 August 1996) was a British Reform rabbi who was a popular broadcaster and a leading voice in interfaith dialogue.

Hugo Gryn was born into a prosperous Jewish family in the market town of Berehovo in Carpathian Ruthenia, which was then in Czechoslovakia. Gryn’s family were interned in Auschwitz in 1944. Hugo and his mother survived but his brother and father were killed. Gryn came to Britain in 1946. After training as a rabbi in America, he spent several years in Bombay, moving to London in 1965, where he served in one of the largest congregations in Europe, the West London Synagogue, for 32 years. Gryn became a regular radio broadcaster and appeared for many years on BBC Radio 4's "Thought for the Day" and "The Moral Maze".

In 1989, Gryn returned to Berehovo together with his daughter Naomi to make a film about his childhood.[1] After his death, Naomi Gryn edited his autobiography, also called Chasing Shadows,[2] which deals movingly with his experiences as a holocaust survivor.

He was married to Jacqueline, and had four children - Gaby, Naomi, Rachelle and David.

He died on 18 August 1996 and is buried at Golders Green Jewish Cemetery. He was described as "probably the most beloved rabbi in Great Britain" by Rabbi Albert Friedlander, who was also the author of the entry about Gryn in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.[3]

References

  1. ^ Chasing Shadows (1991) - Plot summary:imdb.com
  2. ^ Hugo Gryn Chasing Shadows - Introduction by Naomi Gryn (penguin.co.uk)
  3. ^ Albert Friedlander, ‘Gryn, Hugo Gabriel (1930–1996)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Oct 2008 accessed 13 March 2009 (Note that online access to this requires a subscription, either as an individual or through a library that has a subscription.)