Solomon Schonfeld

For nearly fifty years, Rabbi Dr. Solomon Schonfeld was a controversial figure in British Jewry, after he took over the fledgling Charedi Union of Hebrew Congregations from his late father in 1933. Against all the odds, this charismatic rabbi built up the foundations of the organization until it was equal to the other traditional Jewish power bases. He also saved many thousands of lives organizing the immigration of refugees from the Continent before and after the war. He transformed the attitude of the Jewish community in Britain towards Jewish education. His Jewish Secondary School Movement provided the proof that it was possible to combine an extensive curriculum in Jewish studies with a secular curriculum, rigorous enough to take a disproportionate percentage of the pupils to the best universities in the country and into the professions. These massive achievements were only attained by overcoming an enormous amount of opposition from the Jewish establishment, and persuading success