Special Satmar Beis Din for Holocaust Agunos

Heter Nisuin (Marriage Permit) for ...

Special Satmar Beis Din for Holocaust Agunos

Heter Nisuin (Marriage Permit) for Holocaust Widowers, 1946

This Heter Nisuin deed, issued to a Holocaust survivor from the city of Karoly, permitted his remarriage after witnesses testified in Beis Din that his wife had been taken to Auschwitz and pointed to the left, from where there were no survivors.

The Special Satmar Beis Din for Agunos

The  Holocaust survivors resolve to rise from the ashes  and rebuild their lives all over again was one of the most inspirational accounts of post-Holocaust Jewry. Simultaneously, it provoked many complex, tragic questions unprecedented throughout Jewish history.

A handful of esteemed Rabbanim who remained after the war swiftly acknowledged the grave responsibility and  need to free thousands of agunim and agunos who lacked indisputable testimony regarding the deaths of their spouses.One of their first resolutions was to convene a special Beis Din for Agunos which established specific policies and ruled exclusively on these distressing cases.

This Beis Din, which formed in Satmar, was comprised by Harav Moshe Aryeh Freind, Harav Shlomo Zalman Friedman - Av Beis Din of Rachov, and Harav Avraham Tzvi Weiss - Rav in Satmar.

Harav Moshe Aryeh Freind (1904-1996) Gaavad of Yerushalayim, was the grandson of Harav Avraham Yehoshua Freind, ABD  in Unterdam and Nassod. Harav Moshe Aryeh Freind was revered far and wide for his outstanding piety and sacred conduct. During the Holocaust, he lost his wife and ten children. After the war, he served briefly as Rav in Satmar before journeying to Eretz Yisrael where he was appointed Gaavad of the Eidah Hacharedis in Yerushalayim, taught and disseminated Torah to thousands.

Harav Shlomo Zalman Friedman (1892-1980), Av Beis Din of Rachov, was the son of the author of Likutei Maharich and a beloved disciple of both the Atzei Chaim of Sighet and Divrei Yoel. The legendary Gaavad of Yerushalayim Harav Moshe Aryeh Freind described him as “tzaddik, kadosh v’tahor” - “righteous, holy and pure.” In 1947, he was appointed Av Beis Din of Lugano, Switzerland, and served the community there until his passing.

Harav Avraham Tzvi Weiss (1902-1979) - Rav of Satmar, was ordained by his grandfather Harav Shlomo Engel and other noted Rabbanim in Hungary. Miraculously surviving the Holocaust, he made his way to Jaffa where he served as Rav for a period of time before relocating and accepting the Rabbanus in Neve Achiezer Beney Barak . His grandson is Harav Yitzchak Yeshaya Weiss, present Av Beis Din of Neve Achiezer.

Satmar, 1946. Page size: 25x18 cm. Original autographs of the above Rabbanim and certified by the stamp of the Beis Din. Minor marginal repairs .

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