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Menachem Mendel Hornstein

Rabbi Menachem Mendel Hornstein

Rabbi Menachem Mendel HaKohen Hornstein (18 Nissan 5665 – 25 Cheshvan 5703; April 23, 1905 – November 4, 1942) was the son-in-law of the Frierdiker Rebbe — Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, the sixth Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch — through his marriage to Rebbetzin Sheina, the Frierdiker Rebbe's youngest daughter. He perished in the Treblinka extermination camp during the Holocaust, together with his wife and mother.

Life

Birth and early years

Menachem Mendel was born on 18 Nissan 5665 (April 23, 1905) in Anopol, Volhynia — a region of the Russian Empire, in present-day Ukraine — to his father Rabbi Moshe Hornstein, who was among the distinguished Chassidim of the Boyaner Rebbe,[1] and to his mother Chaya Mushka Hornstein, a daughter of the Rebbe Maharash — Rabbi Shmuel Schneersohn, the fourth Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch.[2]

He received his education in Anopol. In 5682 (1922), at the age of seventeen, he moved with his family to Warsaw. In the years that followed he studied in Otwock, Poland.

Wedding

On 18 Iyar 5692 (May 25, 1932) — the festival of Lag BaOmer — the engagement of Rabbi Menachem Mendel to Rebbetzin Sheina was formally celebrated. On that occasion, the Frierdiker Rebbe delivered a Chassidic discourse — a maamar, beginning with the words Shir HaMa'alos l'Dovid, hinei mah tov u'mah naim ("A song of ascents by David: behold how good and how pleasant").

On 10 Sivan 5692 (June 14, 1932), the wedding took place in the town of Lendvariv (Landwarhof), Poland. The Frierdiker Rebbe explained in a letter why this particular location was chosen: due to the border restrictions then in effect regarding travel documents, the wedding venue was set at this railway station on Polish soil, accessible to guests arriving from multiple directions. At one of the sheva brachos celebrations — the seven festive meals held in the week following a Jewish wedding — Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski, one of the leading halachic authorities of the generation, danced together with the Frierdiker Rebbe for an extended time.

In the winter of 5693 (1932–1933), Rabbi Menachem Mendel and Rebbetzin Sheina moved to Paris, where he studied at university alongside The Rebbe — Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson — for four years.

The couple had no children of their own, but adopted the son of Rabbi Menachem Mendel's sister — Yekusiel Yaakov Yosef Lis, a child of Rabbi Kalman and Sarah Lis (Sarah being Rabbi Menachem Mendel's sister; both she and her husband had died young). Yekusiel Yaakov Yosef perished in the Holocaust.

Return to Poland and the outbreak of war

In later years, the couple returned to live with his parents in Otwock, Poland. When the war broke out, his father Rabbi Moshe Hornstein was gravely ill and bedridden. Rabbi Menachem Mendel had the opportunity to flee Poland in the early days of the war, but he refused to leave his ailing father alone. He remained at his father's bedside until Rabbi Moshe's passing on 28 Adar 5701 (March 26, 1941). By the time his father died, it was already too late — the borders had been sealed.

Martyrdom

When the Frierdiker Rebbe escaped from Poland in Tevet 5700 (December 1939), he hoped to bring his daughter and son-in-law with him. This proved impossible, as they were Polish citizens. While the Frierdiker Rebbe was in Riga, his intercessions resulted in the United States agreeing in principle to grant visas to Rabbi Menachem Mendel and Rebbetzin Sheina — but the visas were never actually issued.

After the Frierdiker Rebbe arrived in America in Adar 5700 (1940), he worked to send them the necessary documents. The couple received a visa in Naples, Italy, and planned to sail from there to America — but at that very time, ship service from Italy to the United States had ceased entirely.

The Frierdiker Rebbe then sought to obtain visas for them through another country, from which they might reach safety — but these efforts came to nothing. Rabbi Menachem Mendel and Rebbetzin Sheina remained trapped in Nazi-occupied Europe.[3]

In time, word reached The Rebbe of their fate — that they had been murdered in Treblinka.

Out of concern for the Frierdiker Rebbe's wellbeing, this news was kept from him. As The Rebbe wrote in a letter dated 27 Menachem Av 5709 (August 22, 1949) (Igros Kodesh, vol. 3, p. 173):

I am continuing to make the necessary arrangements regarding the above. For the time being, unless I write otherwise, please ensure that all the customs of the yahrzeit — the annual memorial observance — are observed on the dates mentioned, but without publicizing the matter, since those in the Frierdiker Rebbe's household do not know of what is written below. If this is disclosed to Landa [referring to Rabbi Pinchas Landa, a brother-in-law of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Hornstein — his wife, Mrs. Rachel, was Rabbi Menachem Mendel's sister], please add that they should not mention this in their letters here, for the reason stated above.

Only on 25 Cheshvan 5711 (November 4, 1950) did The Rebbe make public[4] what had befallen them:

This collection is dedicated to the memory of the youngest daughter of our holy master and father-in-law, the Rebbe of blessed memory — my sister-in-law, Rebbetzin Sheina — and to the memory of his son-in-law, my brother-in-law, Rabbi Menachem Mendel HaKohen, son of Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka (daughter of the Rebbe Maharash of blessed memory).

To this day there are no fully clear details concerning them — beyond what follows below — and therefore their names appear as above, without the customary memorial formulas that would normally follow.

Publication was delayed all this time out of concern for the grief of those members of the family who did not know until now of what is written below.

...According to a letter from Mr. Mordechai Onrad, who was in the Treblinka camp, he was found there — in the year 5702 (1941–1942) — in the same barracks as my brother-in-law Rabbi Menachem Mendel HaKohen. He related that in a second barracks nearby were Rabbi Menachem Mendel's mother — Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka — and his wife, Rebbetzin Sheina. On 15 Elul 5702 (September 6, 1942), the barracks guard (the Kapo) brought Rabbi Menachem Mendel a note from his wife informing him that on 14 Elul (September 5, 1942), his mother had been taken to the gas chambers. On 3 Tishrei 5703 (September 14, 1942) — the second day of Rosh Hashanah — the Kapo came and told them that his wife had been taken to the gas chambers. On 25 Cheshvan 5703 (November 4, 1942), when Mr. Mordechai returned from his work detail, he did not find Rabbi Menachem Mendel in the barracks. Those who had been working with him told him that he had been taken from his place of work, together with a group of other Jews, to be brought to the gas chambers.

— Preface to a collection of discourses of the Frierdiker Rebbe

A full account of his life was written by Rabbi Eliyahu Shwekey and printed in the commemorative booklet distributed at a wedding in his memory.

External links

Notes

  1. ↑ As related by Rabbi Yaakov Landa, rabbi of Bnei Brak.
  2. ↑ Primary document on file.
  3. ↑ A summary of these events appears in a note to a letter in Igros Kodesh of the Frierdiker Rebbe, letter 4,362.
  4. ↑ In the preface to a collection of discourses by the Frierdiker Rebbe published at that time.


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