North Woodmere shul marks 20th yahrzeit of Rav Jungresis

North Woodmere’s Congregation Ohr Torah observed the 20th yahrzeit of its founder, Rabbi Dr. Meshulem HaLevi Jungreis ztl, last Shabbos.

The shul reports:

At the dawn of World War II, Rabbi Jungreis, conscripted into forced labor in Hungary, was famous among his fellow conscripts for his encouragement and divrei Torah. His entire family, except for one brother, perished at Aushwitz, but Rabbi Jungreis survived at Bergen-Belsen, coming to America after the war and receiving a doctorate from Yeshiva University. He went on to write scholarly articles and books and lead several congregations.  Among his outreach initiatives was giving divrei Torah on the Long Island Railroad.

When he was hospitalized and in his last days, fellow concentration camp survivors would visit and tell stories praising him for how he bolstered them, but Rabbi Jungreis would have none of it, and would insist they stop. This towering figure would not hear nor speak a word of praise about himself.

When Holocaust survivors and ex-urbanites moved to North Woodmere, they found the existing synagogues did not fulfill their needs. Instead of trying to make those synagogues change to accommodate them, with their new rabbi they started their own shul in a storefront, and then moved to a house. Finally, Rabbi Jungreis and his congregants built the magnificent edifice that became Congregation Ohr Torah-North Woodmere Jewish Center.

If he wasn’t in his office, Rabbi Jungreis was out visiting the sick, bringing challahs and food to members on Friday afternoon, or fulfilling his duties as a Nassau County Police Department chaplain. As past president Dr. Gerald H. Bandes wrote, “Some men are in the Rabbi business.  Some men are rabbis.”

Under his auspices, Ohr Torah was a beehive of activity; everybody was welcomed warmly and felt included—it was truly the “mishpacha shul.”

Thousands attended Rabbi Jungreis’ levaya; police cars lined the street, and police helicopters flew overhead in the “Missing Man” formation to honor the rabbi.

The shul asks that tefilos be said for refuah shlemah for Rabbi Jungreis’ rebbetzin, Esther bas Miriam.