Akiva Ehrenfeld (; 1923 – 16 August 2012) was an

Orthodox Jewish Orthodox Judaism is a collective term for the traditionalist branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as literally revealed by God on Mount Sinai and faithfully tra ...

rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

who helped establish the

Kiryat Mattersdorf Kiryat Mattersdorf () is a Haredi neighborhood in Jerusalem. It is located on the northern edge of the mountain plateau on which central Jerusalem lies. It is named after Mattersburg (formerly ''Mattersdorf''), a town in Austria with a long Jewis ...

and

Unsdorf Kiryat Unsdorf (), also known as Sorotzkin, after its main street, is a Haredi Jewish neighborhood in Jerusalem. It is located along the northern edge of the mountain plateau on which central Jerusalem lies. Constructed between 1970 and 1985, Uns ...

neighborhoods of northern Jerusalem."Harav Akiva Ehrenfeld, zt"l". ''

Hamodia ''Hamodia'' ( – "''the Informer''") is a Jewish daily newspaper, published in Hebrew language, Hebrew-language in Jerusalem and English language, English-language in the United States, as well as weekly English-language editions in England and I ...

'' Israel News, 23 August 2012, p. A14. He served as president of Kiryat Mattersdorf and president of the Chasan Sofer Institutions in the United States.

Biography

He was born in Mattersdorf,

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, to Rabbi

Shmuel Ehrenfeld Shmuel Ehrenfeld (, 1891–1980), known as the Mattersdorfer Rav, was a pre-eminent Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox Jews, Jewish rabbi in pre-war Austria and a respected Torah leader and community builder in post-war America. He established Yeshivas C ...

, then

rosh yeshiva Rosh yeshiva or Rosh Hayeshiva (, plural, pl. , '; Anglicized pl. ''rosh yeshivas'') is the title given to the dean of a yeshiva, a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and th ...

of the Mattersdorf

yeshiva A yeshiva (; ; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are studied in parallel. The stu ...

, and Rochel Ehrenfeld. His parents were first cousins.Cohen, Yitzchok. "The Mattersdorfer Rav". ''Hamodia'' Magazine, 28 May 2009, pp. 6–8. He was named after his parents' ancestor, Rabbi

Akiva Eger Akiva Eiger (, also spelled Eger; , ), or Akiva Güns (8 November 1761 – 12 October 1837) was a Talmudic scholar, halakhic decisor and leader of European Jewry during the early 19th century. Eiger is considered one of the greatest Talmudic ...

. Akiva's great-grandfather, Rabbi Shmuel Ehrenfeld (the ''Chasan Sofer''), was the eldest grandson of the

Chasam Sofer Moses Schreiber (1762–1839), known to his own community and Jewish posterity in the Hebrew translation as Moshe Sofer, also known by his main work ''Chatam Sofer'', ''Chasam Sofer'', or ''Hatam Sofer'' ( trans. ''Seal of the Scribe'', and acron ...

. At the time of his birth, his grandfather, Rabbi Simcha Bunim Ehrenfeld, was the Rav of the city; upon his death in 1926, Rabbi Shmuel Ehrenfeld succeeded him as Rav. Akiva had a younger brother, Simcha Bunim, and five sisters. The family fled Austria in 1938 with the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...

. They arrived in New York on September 13, 1938. Two months later, Akiva's father established Yeshivas Chasan Sofer on the

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Historically, it w ...

. Akiva studied in

Yeshiva Torah Vodaas Yeshiva Torah Vodaas (or Yeshiva and Mesivta Torah Vodaath or Yeshiva Torah Vodaath or Torah Vodaath Rabbinical Seminary) is a ''yeshiva'' in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. History The yeshiva was conceived in 1917 and formal ...

and later joined his father's yeshiva, Yeshivas Chasan Sofer. In 1954 he married the daughter of Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Krieger, formerly Rav of

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, Belgium. The couple had one son and five daughters.

Establishing Kiryat Mattersdorf

In 1958 the Mattersdorfer Rav founded the

Haredi Haredi Judaism (, ) is a branch of Orthodox Judaism that is characterized by its strict interpretation of religious sources and its accepted (Jewish law) and traditions, in opposition to more accommodating values and practices. Its members are ...

community of Kiryat Mattersdorf in northern Jerusalem in memory of the

Siebengemeinden The Siebengemeinden (; , ) were seven Jewish community, Jewish communities located in Eisenstadt, Kismarton (today Eisenstadt, Austria) and its surrounding area. The groups are known as ''Sheva Kehillot'' in Hebrew language, Hebrew. History The ...

(Seven Communities) of

Burgenland Burgenland (; ; ; Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian: ''Burgnland''; Slovene language, Slovene: ''Gradiščanska''; ) is the easternmost and least populous Bundesland (Austria), state of Austria. It consists of two statutory city (Austria), statut ...

, which were destroyed in the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

, Mattersdorf being one of them. He appointed Ehrenfeld as his representative to supervise the construction and sale of apartments. Ehrenfeld sold some of the first apartments in the neighborhood to Rabbi Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg, his family members and students, encouraging Scheinberg to relocate his yeshiva,

Torah Ore Torah Ore (, "Torah is Light") is an American Orthodox post-high-school yeshiva and kollel located in the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Kiryat Mattersdorf. It was founded in 1960 in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York, by Rabbi Chaim Pinchas Sche ...

, to Jerusalem from

Bensonhurst, Brooklyn Bensonhurst is a residential neighborhood in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bordered on the northwest by 14th Avenue, on the northeast by 60th Street, on the southeast by Avenue P and 22nd ...

by offering attractive terms for apartments and land for the yeshiva at the southeast end of the neighborhood. Torah Ore opened in Kiryat Mattersdorf in 1971.Margolis, Nechamie. ''A Living Sefer Torah: Rabbi Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg, shlita''. ''Hamodia'' Magazine, 28 April 2011, pp. 13–18. Ehrenfeld also encouraged other Torah institutions to populate the community. Neveh Simcha nursing home

Among the institutions that the Mattersdorfer Rav founded were

Talmud Torah Talmud Torah (, lit. 'Study of the Torah') schools were created in the Jewish world, both Ashkenazic and Sephardic, as a form of religious school for boys of modest backgrounds, where they were given an elementary education in Hebrew language, H ...

Maaneh Simcha; Yeshiva Maaneh Simcha; two

synagogues A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as wed ...

named Heichal Shmuel, one for

nusach Ashkenaz Nusach Ashkenaz is a style of Jewish liturgy conducted by Ashkenazi Jews. It is primarily a way to order and include prayers, and differs from Nusach Sefard (as used by the Hasidim) and Baladi-rite prayer, and still more from the Sephardic rit ...

and one for

nusach Sefard Nusach Sefard, Nusach Sepharad, or Nusach Sfard, is the name for various forms of the Jewish '' siddurim'' designed to reconcile Ashkenazi customs with the kabbalistic customs of Isaac Luria (more commonly known as the Arizal). To this end, it ...

; and the Neveh Simcha

nursing home A nursing home is a facility for the residential care of older people, senior citizens, or disabled people. Nursing homes may also be referred to as care homes, skilled nursing facilities (SNF), or long-term care facilities. Often, these terms ...

, named after his father. The outermost street in the neighborhood is named Maaneh Simcha after his father's Torah work. Akiva Ehrenfeld moved to Kiryat Mattersdorf in the early 1990s and served as president of all these institutions. Akiva Ehrenfeld also founded Yeshivas Beis Shmuel, named for his father, in the mid-1980s. He established close ties with the government of Austria to obtain funding for several institutions, including a kindergarten and the Neveh Simcha nursing home. Following an official state visit to Israel by Austrian President

Thomas Klestil Thomas Klestil (; 4 November 1932 – 6 July 2004) was an Austrian diplomat and politician who served as the president of Austria from 1992 until his death in 2004. He was elected in 1992 and re-elected in 1998. Early life and career Born in V ...

in 1994, which included a side tour of Kiryat Mattersdorf, Klestil hosted Ehrenfeld at an official reception at the

Hofburg Palace The Hofburg () is the former principal imperial palace of the Habsburg dynasty in Austria. Located in the center of Vienna, it was built in the 13th century by Ottokar II of Bohemia and expanded several times afterwards. It also served as the im ...

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

on January 24, 1995. Ehrenfeld declined to serve as the neighborhood's Rav. Instead, he acted as president of Kiryat Mattersdorf while his only son, Rabbi Yitzchok Yechiel Ehrenfeld, became the Rav of the neighborhood.

Death and burial

Ehrenfeld underwent surgery for an abdominal obstruction on July 16, 2012 (

Tisha B'Av Tisha B'Av ( ; , ) is an annual fast day in Judaism. A commemoration of a number of disasters in Jewish history, primarily the destruction of both Solomon's Temple by the Neo-Babylonian Empire and the Second Temple by the Roman Empire in Jerusal ...

) but did not recover. He died on August 16, 2012, at

Shaare Zedek Medical Center The Shaare Zedek Medical Center () is a large teaching hospital in Jerusalem. It was established in 1902 and is affiliated with Hebrew University of Jerusalem. History Shaare Zedek was the first large district general hospital to be located ...

and was buried that night on Har HaMenuchot near the grave of his father.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ehrenfeld, Akiva Austrian Haredi rabbis American Haredi rabbis Haredi rabbis in Israel Jewish emigrants from Austria after the Anschluss to the United States People from Mattersburg District Burials at Har HaMenuchot 1923 births 2012 deaths Oberlander Jews 20th-century American rabbis 21st-century American rabbis American emigrants to Israel