Aba Dunner

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Aba (Avrohom Moshe) Dunner (13 November 1937 – 17 July 2011) was a social and religious activist, who represented and worked for the interests of

Agudat Israel, and in his latter years as Executive Director of the Conference of European Rabbis. Although born in pre-war Europe
, Aba spent the majority of his life in England, where he was active in both communal work and the business world.

Early years

Aba Dunner was born in

Samson Rafael Hirsch
to lead a breakaway community.

Arrival in England

As the officially recognised Jewish religious leader of East Prussia, Josef Dunner was arrested on

Westcliff, until 1940, when he was briefly interned as an enemy alien on the Isle of Man. On his release, Josef was appointed as a rabbi to immigrant and evacuated Jews in Leicester
, where the family remained until 1947.

Stamford Hill

In 1947, Schonfeld arranged for the Dunners to move to

Luzern, Switzerland
, where he studied under Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik, with whom he maintained contact throughout the remainder of his life.

After Yeshiva

In 1957 a sudden stomach illness brought him home from yeshiva and confined him to the Jewish Hospital in the

Land-Rover, and took a ship to Israel, landing in Haifa
just in time for the Independence Day celebrations of 1959.

Marriage

In 1960 Aba married Miriam (1941–2006), daughter of Arthur "Adje" (Uri) Cohen (1910–2000) of Rotterdam. During the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, Arthur Cohen was a leading member of the Dutch Underground resistance movement, and after the war he was instrumental in the re-establishment of the Jewish community in the Netherlands; as late as the mid-1970s, when already in his 60s, he established a school for strictly-orthodox boys and girls in Amsterdam, known as the "cheider". The young couple initially set up home in Stamford Hill, close to Aba's parents, and then in 1976 they moved to Golders Green. During this time they had five children, Yitzchok (born 1961), Benzi (1962–2008), Hadassa (born 1963), Zev (born 1967), and Pini (born 1970). After the death of his first wife Aba married Charlotte Howard who he spent his final years with.

Agudat Israel

In 1960 Aba began to work for the British division of

Chinuch Atzmai, Aba acted as his driver, and he performed the same service for senior rabbinic leader of the US, Rabbi Eliezer Silver, President of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada
.

Outreach in Scandinavia

During the 1960s Aba became a pioneer of the

Kiruv, or Jewish Outreach, movement that gathered pace in the following decade, when he established an organisation to teach Judaism to the children of the many Holocaust survivors who had settled in Denmark, Norway and Sweden
after World War II. The parents were by-and-large disenchanted with their religious origins, but the children were often curious to find more about their heritage. Aba and his wife, organised weekend retreats, in both England and Sweden, resulting in many of these children returning to the Jewish religious fold.

In the business world

In 1970 Aba became the executive director of the charitable foundation that had recently been set up by William Stern, a property mogul and philanthropist based in London, and in this role he was responsible for the allocation of large amounts of charity funds to numerous Jewish causes across the world. He combined this with his work for Agudat Israel, until 1972, when he began working for Stern full-time, both in his charitable endeavours, and in his commercial endeavours. During the 1980s Aba began to work in West Africa, exporting consumer goods and industrial machinery to countries such as Nigeria, Gabon and Togo.[1]

Revival of Eastern European Jewry

In the late 1980s and early 1990s Aba began his involvement with the Jewish Communities of Eastern Europe.

Agudat Israel began a project called Operation Open Curtain and Aba, acting on their behalf in a voluntary capacity, travelled regularly to Russia, becoming involved in the appointment of rabbis such as Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt in Moscow and Rabbi Yaakov Bleich
in Ukraine, as well as supporting the establishment of a yeshiva in Moscow at the behest of his childhood mentor Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik.

Aba's knowledge of European communities as well as his diplomatic and organisational skills eventually prompted the emeritus Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, Lord

Immanuel Jakobovits, to ask him to work full-time for the Conference of European Rabbis, of which he was President. In 1997 Aba became Director of Community Affairs for the CER, and in 2003 he took over from Rabbi Moshe Rose as executive director. The CER, which had been founded in 1956, had always been a small outfit which ran conferences for rabbis every couple of years in different European cities. Aba's vision gave it the impetus to grow and raised its political profile with national governments across Europe and particularly within the organs of the EU
. As a result of his leadership, the CER has now got an office in Brussels and is the sole Jewish religious representative body recognized by the EU.

Aba was also deeply involved in interfaith work, particularly to try to forge links between Jews and moderate Muslims. For this purpose he travelled to meet with Muslim religious leaders, including a high-profile visit to Kazakhstan.[2]

In the last years of his life Aba suffered, in quick succession, the loss of his wife, son,[citation needed] and both his parents. In addition to this he endured ill-health, often leading to near death experiences. Despite these setbacks he remained actively involved in Jewish affairs, travelling across the globe as an ambassador for orthodox Judaism and its adherents. In 2008 he remarried, and for the final 3 years of his life his wife Charlotte acted as his assistant in the many projects in which he was involved.

Death

Immediately following

London Clinic with his family at his side on Sunday, 17 July 2011. The following day he was buried at the Adath Yisrael Cemetery, in Enfield, north London.[3] A large number of tributes to him were issued by leading Jewish figures and organisations after his death. The World Jewish Congress, the leading Jewish diaspora representative body, issued a statement which said: "[Aba Dunner] was one of the leading activists for the cause of Orthodox Judaism over the past decades and was widely respected across the Jewish world. He was at the heart of the building and strengthening Jewish institutions in Europe. Within the World Jewish Congress, Rabbi Dunner and the Conference of European Rabbis – which he led for many years – were actively engaged in addressing the concerns of Jews and Jewish communities and in strengthening dialogue with other faith communities. He was a dedicated fighter for achieving peace and freedom for all peoples, irrespective of their origin, religion or ethnic background."[4]

References

  1. ^ "Aba Dunner". The Telegraph. 21 August 2011. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
  2. ^ "Jewish-Muslim dialogue gets a boost in Kazakhstan". Archived from the original on 2011-09-29. Retrieved 2011-08-07.
  3. ^ "Reference at www.thejc.com".
  4. ^ Congress, World Jewish. "World Jewish Congress". World Jewish Congress. Retrieved 2020-12-22.

External links

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