Rabbi Aaron Meyer Krausz

Rockland Daily News - An Obituary Tribute

The Krausz family from Edeleny - JewishGen.org

The Edelény Krausz family ran a bustling construction and building materials enterprise in town. Yehoshua and Malka Krausz had four children, Shmuel, Lillian (Chaya), Aaron Meyer and Devorah (Alice). Chaya married before the war to Gabriel Mezei and had two children. Yehoshua’s father came from nearby Miskolc, Mordechai Krausz. The family traces its lineage back to Reb Shmuel Krausz of Vagas.

The idyllic life in bucolic Edelény shattered forever with the advent of Hitler, but was not ever forgotten to Aaron Meyer as he recalls with nostalgia their home on the main street, to which the family construction business holdings was attached. A pivotal memory is that of his bar mitzvah, celebrated on the side porch and attended by the town, plus luminaries such as Rav Israel Abraham Alter Landau. Also, Aaron Meyer fondly remembers there were a river, the Bodva Foyo and the patak [stream or brook] flowing nearby, where the neighborhood kids used to gather and swim in the deep channel that was dug by WWI prisoners of war.

The families in town were all close, and the children attended state sponsored school together in the mornings, and the boys continued with Cheder in the Synagogue from 1pm until 7 pm. Aaron showed a lot of promise in Cheder, and as a young prodigy he was the youngest ever student to be accepted into the Yeshiva at eleven and a half years old where he studied together with twenty years old talmudim.

Already in 1939 dark clouds developed marring the serenity of Edelény. An anti Semitic mayor closed the Yeshiva. Aaron Meyer initially continued studying at home with his older brother Shmuel under their father’s tutelage. After a hard days work, his father rigorously tested the boys each evening to see what they had learned. However, in 1941 Aaron Meyer left home to learn at the famous Munkacher Yeshiva.

Life in town was simple. Everyone had two outfits, one for the weekday, and one for Shabbat. During the week the boys wore a cap, and on Shabbat Aaron wore a round fedora hat. Girls went to state sponsored school till twelve years old, and then they stayed home and learned sewing, cooking and housework. The main business in Edelény was the coal mine that was owned by the Horowitz Margarreten family from the United States and donated to the rabbi to sustain the town. However, soon all Jewish business licenses were revoked and life for Jews in Edelény became precarious and harsh.

Malka fell critically ill a few years after the birth of her fourth child and passed away in 1942, a day after the grand Rebbe Israel Abraham Alter Landau. It is said that while he lived, he had kept her alive for an additional sixteen years with his prayers. Not long after, everything came to an end as the town’s inhabitants were deported, shattering the fabric of this unique friendly town. By 1944 there were no Jews left in town.

After the war, most of the Edelény Jews had perished. Surviving the churban [catastrophe], Aaron Meyer married Leah Citron, the daughter of Rabbi Joseph Czitron of Hajudubosormèny and later Sopron and Budapest, under whose guidance Aaron Meyer obtained rabbinical ordination and was hired to fill the Sopron pulpit. Their lives were saturated with miracles, and only through the grace of Hashem, they were able to escape sure death in the1956 revolution as they were stopped trying to cross the border.

With much difficulty, trials, and tribulations, Rav Aaron and Leah managed to make it to Australia with their two little children, Shmuel and Malka. Soon after, a third child, Chaya Rivka was born. Rav Krausz ultimately obtained a leading pulpit in Sydney. Eventually the whole family immigrated to the United States. Today, Rav Aaron Meyer Krausz and his wife Leah live an active life in the vibrant Jewish community of Monsey, New York and are the proud grandparents to many grandchildren and great grandchildren.

The unique Edelény fraternal spirit continues to burn bright, and it is with much gratitude to the children of Lichtig and Mogyoros families that the story of bucolic Edelény is being revived and will be immortalized for future generations. Ironically, this holy Jewish community is subject of similar rebirth in Monsey, N.Y. as the namesake and grandchild of the grand Rabbi Israel Alter Landau is building a magnificent synagogue in Monsey for Edelény congregants to ensure that Jewish Edelény never perishes.

From the oral testimony of her father, Rabbi Aaron Meyer Krausz

The perpetual twinkle in his eye, a sweet bashful smile on his face, and an irrepressible kind heart are our father's distinguishing features. His outward apperance is that of a gentle chassid, the embodiment of ehrlehkeit, chesed, Torah and tzadaka. Under that mild exterior, however, is a reservoir of hidden strength and emunah that enabled him to survive despite the catastrophic challenges that he has had to endure in his life.

Too painful to recount, intimate tales of his venerable ancestors, and much of his early childhood history is still hidden in the deep recesses of his giant heart. Orphaned early at a very vulnerable young age, he had to assume adult responsibilies under horrific conditions and has dedicated his entire life for the struggle of Yiddishkeit.

Despite experiencing gruesome mass deportation from his homeland, the incalculable loss of everything loved, owned and grew up with his faith has never faltered. He had no choice but to leave behind any tender childhood memories, his house in Sopron and a large lumberyard business, and barely escape with his fledgling family as the Communists took over the country.

Miraculously, because he was married to the daughter of a leading Orthodox rabbi, he had interviewed and obtained a rabbinical post in Sopron. But within a few months, someone informed against him, accusing him of trying to buy something on the black market. (It was flour to bake challah for Shabbat, unavailable then on the open market.) At that time in Hungary, this was one of the worst crimes. A detective was sent to his home, and for days, he was under interrogation, and his house put under surveillance.

Through his father-in-law's efforts, every influential connection was petitioned, and lawyers were engaged, but to no avail. They declared that if a arabbi, a spiritual leader, is suspected of committing a crime against the public, he might as well pack his blanket to take with him to court to Budapest, as he could probably look forward to a long jail sentence.

In his desperation, our father sent an urgent letter to the Belzer Rebbe who was related to him on his mother's side, asking him for help. After a second express letter, he received an answer that no harm would come to him and that he should go to court with confidence. So, trembling in his heart, he appeared for trial. The courtroom was packed, the public hungry to see a rabbi sentenced to jail. suddenly, the side door to the courtroom opened, and two policemen dragged in a man, handcuffed, black and blue, and dressed in striped prison garb. It was the accuser! He had been caught and arrested on a very serious robbery and assault charge, and had been jailed.

The defending lawyer took advantage of this scene and loudly exclaimed, "Your honor, how could anyone believe the testimony of such a criminal?" The judge had to agree, and the case was dismissed! Thus daddy regained his position and was full of gratitude and admiration for the Rebbe and his wonderous prediction.

Not long after, daddy was asked by the president of the local congregation to learn Torah with his 11 year old son who was on the verge of completely abandoning the path of his holy ancestors, due to the harmful influence of his bad friends and school.

Daddy began to study with the boy after school. It was just after the High Holidays in 1953, and they were learning Bereshith..."In the beginning G-d created the heavens and the earth..." The idea that he could possibly help save a young Jewish soul elated daddy. To his surprise and horror, the boy burst out laughing.

In consternation, he asked the boy " Why are you laughing?!" The boy answered, "Is that so! Please don't joke! I know the truth...we learned it in school!" "And just what did you learn?", daddy asked, his initial hope and elation rapidly turning to pain and sadness. "Well we know that first, there was the sun, from which the earth developed, and then, on the earth, the first worms evolved, and on, and on, and who could believe all your childish primative stories?" retorted the boy.

Daddy was beside himself with grief, but he couldn't condemn the child, for he was surrounded by an atheistic society which drummed into him, day and night, that the only truth is the material and that the whole world would eventually forget the exquisite joy of Truth and Faith in communion with the Creator.

Quickly, he dispatched another desperate message to the Blezer Rebbe for help and guidence. Within a week came the reply, "Just continue learning with him, the child will be saved!"

Two years later, the Hungarian revolution erupted. The borders were opened for just two weeks, and whoever was able to make a run for it, escaped to the West.

Our family almost didn't make it. We were discovered and lined up to be executed, but for some inexplicable reason that will never be known, the guards were persuaded by a stranger to let us go.

Many years later, daddy met the father of that boy in New York, and aksed him "What happened to your son?"

"Oh, thank G-d, he now lives in Israel, is married, and is the rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva ..... in the city of .....!"

Sopron Synagogue

ÍGY NÉZ KI A PAPRÉTEN ÁLLÓ ZSINAGÓGA Hazánk szovjet megszállását követően 1946-ban Czitron József volt hajdúböszörményi rabbit hívta meg a hitközség. Ő 1950-ig látta el ezt a feladatot. 1950-től veje, Krausz Arnold lett a soproni ortodox hitközség rabbija, egyben az utolsó rabbi Sopronban.

1945 utáni újrakezdés[szerkesztés Zsidok Sopronban.]
Az 1956 óta üresen álló papréti zsinagóga állapota 2012-ben Alighogy Sopron felszabadult, kezdtek visszaszállingózni az életben maradottak. Megdöbbentő pusztulás képe fogadta őket. Sopront két nagy bombatámadás is érte; ezektől elpusztult a neológ templom és mindkét zsidó temető halottasháza. A Papréten halmokban állt több ezer zsidó könyv, fénykép, emlék; ezeket a visszatérők behordták a hitközség épületébe. Az ortodox templom lett a hitélet központja. Ezt 1947-ben az eladott fertőszentmiklósi templom árából belülről renoválták. Rendbe hozták a rituális fürdőt és az imaházat is. A régi templomülések maradékaiból a templomot felerészben padokkal látták el. Jellemző, hogy a templomba Dés városából hoztak tóradíszt és kegyszereket.

1946-tól Czitron József rabbi majd veje, Krausz Arnold rabbi irányította a hitéletet. 1955-ben 202 zsidó élt a városban.

Az ortodox zsinagógát 1945 után deportálásból visszatért a soproni zsidók (status quo ante és ortodoxok együtt) egy ideig még működtették, 1956 óta azonban használaton kívül áll.