Chanoch Ehrentreu

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Dayan Chanoch Ehrentreu (born 1932 in Frankfurt-am-Main) served for many years as the head of the United Synagogue's Beth Din. He retired from the post in December 2006.

Contents 1 Early Life 2 Gateshead 3 Manchester 4 London 5 The Eruv controversy 6 The Louis Jacobs controversy 7 References

[edit] Early Life

Dayan Ehrentreu was born in Frankfurt in 1932 to Rabbi Jonah and Rebbitzen J. Ehrentreu. His mother was the daughter of Abraham Heckscher, the venerated parnes of the Hamburg congregation. His paternal grandfather was the Munich Rov, the Gaon HaRav Chanoch Ehrentreu after whom he was named. His father was arrested on the morning after the Kristallnacht pogroms in November 1938 while trying to save Torah scrolls from the burning synagogue. He was eventually released and took this opportunity to escape, with the help of family and friends to England.^[1]

[edit] Gateshead

Ehrentreu was the Rosh Kollel (principal) of the Sunderland Kollel which has been situated in Gateshead since 1990.

[edit] Manchester

Ehrentreu was Av Beth Din (Hebrew: Father [i.e. Head] of the Beth Din), and Communal Rabbi of Manchester.

[edit] London

Dayan Ehrentreu was appointed to the post of Rosh Beth Din in London by Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks. He was known as the Rosh Beth Din (rather than the traditional "Av" Beth Din) as the title of Av Beth Din is formally held by the Chief Rabbi. By dint of his workload as well as convention of his office, the Chief Rabbi is not involved in Beth Din work. Serving together with Dayan Ehrentreu were Dayan Menachem Gelley Shlita (son of R. Zacharia Gelley of Washington Heights), Dayan Binstock, and Dayan Yitzhak Berger (Consultant).^[2] The Chief Rabbi commented when Dayan Ehrentreu announced his retirement, "The Dayan possesses a rare combination of authority, wisdom, compassion and understanding of our community."^[3]

[edit] The Eruv controversy

In March of 2003, after many years, Dayan Ehrentreu successfully negotiated the construction of an eruv in London. Although established with the help of Rabbi Alan Kimche, Rabbi Jeremy Conway and others, its halachic validity was strongly contested by many other prominent London Rabbis. The eruv itself is an 11-mile enclosure in northwest London encompassing some of the city's Jewish neighborhoods, including Golders Green and Hendon, plus much of Hampstead Garden Suburb and some of Finchley.

[edit] The Louis Jacobs controversy

Dayan Ehrentreu was involved in another controversy in the summer of 2003 when he banned Rabbi Dr. Louis Jacobs from taking part in a synagogue service on the Sabbath before his grand-daughter's wedding. This led to heated debate in the Jewish community with some condemning the decision as petty and vindictive, whilst Dayan Ehrentreu and Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks argued that Jacobs could not appropriately say the blessing on being called up to read the Torah, because of his beliefs about its authorship. ^{[4] [5]}

[edit] References