With the recent passing of Dayan Chanoch Ehrentreu (1927 – 1922), forner head (Av Beis Din) of the London Beth Din, I had a look at his grandfather, Rabbi Chanoch Ehrentreu, Chief Rabbi of Munich’s book, Minchas Pitim.
Known as Heinrich, Rabbi Chanoch Ehrentreu was born in Alt-Ofen (Obuda), Hungary. He was considered a brilliant talmudist in the Yeshiva of Pressburg, and studied at the University of Heidelberg from 1877. Rabbi Ehrentreu was appointed to the Ohel Jakob synagogue in Munich where he supervised and greatly developed the religious institutions of the Jewish community over a period of 42 years. He was a member of the German chapter of the Rabbinical Council of Agudas Yisroel. He died in 1927, and this book of his halachic writings was published after his death. His grandson, later to become Dayan Ehrentreu, was named after him.
One of his sons, Ernst (Jonah) Ehrentreu, who was born in 1896, succeeded him in Munich. Escaping from Germany to England, he was interned by the British authorities and sent to Australia. Returning to England after the war, he founded the Adath Yeshurun synagogue, also known as the Bridge Lane Beth Hanedrash, in Golders Green, London.
Another son, Julius (Israel) Ehrentreu, who was born in 1900, also escaped to England, where he served as the Rabbi of the Chesham Hebrew Congregation, Hertfordshire, established during the war by evacuees from London, including my great-grandparents and grandparents. My late father remembered the difficulty he had in communicating as he originally spoke little English. His son was Dayan Ehrentreu.
My copy of the book has an interesting bookplate from Keren HaTorah of Hamburg.
Jewish Miscellanies 