כ"ח אלול Rav Meir Greenwald (grunwald), the Tetcher Rov, Zt”l

Rav Meir Greenwald was born into one of Hungary’s distinguished rabbinic families. His father, Rav Avraham Yosef Greenwald, author of Avnei Shoham, served as Rov and Rosh Yeshiva in Ungvar, while his grandfather was Rav Moshe Greenwald, the famed Arugas Habosem of Chust.

While still extraordinarily young, Rav Meir married the daughter of Rav Moshe Teitelbaum, the previous Rov of Tetch (then in Hungary and today Tiachiv, Ukraine), and was appointed to succeed him as Rov of Tetch.

During the Holocaust, Rav Greenwald endured brutal forced labour in Nazi camps in Eastern Europe. He later wrote of the torture and backbreaking labour he suffered. His wife and nine children were deported to Auschwitz and murdered.

After the war, Rav Greenwald settled in Toronto, where he became one of the pioneering rabbonim who helped rebuild Hungarian Torah life on Canadian soil. Known here as the Tetcher Rov, he served as Av Beis Din of Kehal Machzikei Torah and played an important role in strengthening Torah life and religious observance in the growing postwar community.

Rav Greenwald also established and led Shlomei Emunei Yisroel, personally teaching talmidim in the yeshiva/cheder. The institution would eventually become today’s Yeshiva Yesodei HaTorah.

Rav Greenwald remarried after the war and rebuilt his family. Among his sons-in-law were Rav Yeshaya Yaakov Portugal, zt”l, the Skulener Rebbe of Boro Park, and, yblch”t, Rav Yaakov Yechezkel Greenwald, the Pupa Rebbe of Williamsburg.
The Tetcher Rov was the author of Avanim Meiros and continued the Torah legacy of his illustrious family after its transplantation from Hungary to North America.

Rav Greenwald was niftar suddenly on Erev Rosh Hashanah 5726 (1965) at just 56 years old, and was buried in Toronto’s Bathurst Lawn Cemetery.