Solomon Schonfeld

Rabbi Solomon Schonfeld (21 February 1912 – 6 February 1984) was a British Rabbi who is heralded as one of the most remarkable, yet least known of the Holocaust heroes.

Schonfeld studied at the yeshiva in Nyitra, Austria-Hungary (now Nitra, Slovakia). In Nitra he became the student and lifelong friend of Rabbi Michoel Ber Weissmandl, who acted as his inspiration in his rescue work.

When the scale of rescue work needed became apparent in the 1930s, he became the executive director of the Chief Rabbi's Religious Emergency Council, formed under the auspices of his future father-in-law, Chief Rabbi Joseph H. Hertz, in 1938. He personally rescued many thousands of Jews from Nazi forces in Central and Eastern Europe during the years 1938-1948. He felt Zionism had aided the Nazi regime's persecution of Jews.

He founded the Hasmonean High School in 1944 and the other schools that formed the Jewish Secondary Schools Movement.

In 1933 he became the rabbi of the Adath Yisroel Synagogue in North London, and succeeded his father as principal of the fledgling Jewish Secondary School. He was the Presiding Rabbi of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations and president of the National Council for Jewish Religious Day Schools in Great Britain.

Schonfeld personally rescued thousands of Jews. He was a very charismatic, dedicated, innovative and dynamic young man. His rescue efforts were inspired by his teacher at the Nitra Yeshivah, Rabbi Michael Ber Weissmandl. This explains, in part, some of his daring and innovative rescue style. His rescue activities were under auspices of the Chief Rabbi’s Religious Emergency Council, which he created with approval of Chief Rabbi Joseph H. Hertz, his father-in-law.

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