Josef Hirsch Dunner

Rabbi Josef Hirsch Dunner (4 January 1913 – 1 April 2007), aka "Harav Yosef Tzvi Halevi Dunner", was a distinguished hareidi rabbi from Germany, who spent most of his life in London, England. He served as Chief Rabbi of East Prussia before World War II, and as Rabbi of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations in London from 1960 to 2007. He also served as the rabbi of the Adath Yisroel Synagogue, set up the London Beis Yaakov Seminary and was the European President of Agudath Yisroel.

Josef Hirsch Dunner was born in Cologne, Germany on 4 January 1913, and named after his grandfather's oldest brother, a former Chief Rabbi of Amsterdam. His father was Boruch Chaim Dunner. He completed his rabbinical studies at the Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary (Rabbiner Seminar für das Orthodoxe Judenthum) in Berlin under Rabbi Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg, author of Seridei Eish, in 1936.

In 1936 Josef Dunner was appointed Chief Rabbi of East Prussia, serving in its capital, Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia). While serving the needs of the large Hareidi community of East Prussia, he fought a relentless battle against Reform. In 1937 he married Ida Freyhan, daughter of Zev Freyhan, a founding member of Agudath Yisroel. In November 1938 he was arrested as part of the Kristallnacht pogrom. The Nazi authorities were, however, prevented from moving him to the Dachau concentration camp as that entailed a land journey through Poland, which refused to allow access to its territory for the transport of political prisoners. His wife then contacted Rabbi Solomon Schonfeld in London, who obtained a precious rabbi's visa for Josef Dunner, his wife and year-old son, Avrohom (1937-2011; known as Aba).

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