Rav Shlomo Zev Zweigenhaft of Hanover and Lower Saxony

Early years

Rav Shlomo Zev Zweigenhaft zt"l was born on November 2, 1915 in Sosnowiec, Poland. His father, Rav Moshe Chaim, was a shochet (ritual slaughterer) and a talmid of the Avnei Nezer. His mother, Michla, was a daughter of Rav Meir Dovid Reinhertz, who was a son of the Rav of Yanov and a grandson of the Rav of Przedbórz.

He became an orphan at the age of two and was raised by his paternal grandfather, Rav Efraim Mordechai Mottel Zweigenhaft, a shochet and dayan (judge) in Sosnowiec and a descendant of the Taz and the Bach. His family had been shochtim for generations. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather all held the knife, and from boyhood he was privy to the family masorah (tradition) of shechita, which reached back hundreds of years.

Until the age of twelve he learned in a Radomsker cheder in Sosnowiec. He then spent two years as a talmid of Rav Dov Berish Einhorn in Amstov. By fourteen he knew by heart the Gemara of Maseches Zevachim and Maseches Menachos, with Rashi and Tosafos. He returned to Sosnowiec and learned in the select Kibbutz Govoha yeshiva under Rav David Moshe Rabinowicz.

At sixteen he began to learn privately with Rav Aryeh Tzvi Frumer, the Eretz Tzvi of Koshligov. Two years later he received semichah (rabbinic ordination) and the Heter Horaah from him. This was a rare distinction, for the Eretz Tzvi ordained only five students during his whole life.

Torah and leadership

It is told that when he was fourteen and still learning in Amstov, the shochtim of the city met a halachic difficulty and called for Rav Einhorn. Rav Einhorn took his young talmid along to the slaughterhouse. While the rav considered the problem, the boy lifted the chalef (slaughtering knife), showed how the shechita should be done and settled the question. From then on Rav Einhorn accepted meat as kosher only if Rav Shlomo Zev had slaughtered it, despite his youth.

Soon afterward Rav Einhorn proudly spoke of him to Rav Yitzchok Mordechai Rabinowicz, Chief Rabbi of Polavno, who asked that the young man be sent to him. He taught Rav Shlomo Zev the masorah of shechita that he had received from his own grandfather, the Tiferes Shlomo of Radomsk. After that the Radomsker Rebbe ate only meat from his shechita. Years later, when the Minchas Elazar of Munkach visited Sosnowiec, he too would eat only what Rav Shlomo Zev had slaughtered.

At eighteen he married his cousin, Rebbetzin Esther, the daughter of Rav Shlomo Sztencl. They had two children.

By the age of twenty he was the shochet of many cities in Poland, among them Radomsk, Polavno, Amstov, Volbrum, Elkish and Tchebin, and he was Rosh Hashochtim (head of the shochtim) of the large Jewish community of Sosnowiec. In the mid-1930s he was named one of the seven members of the Vaad Roshei Hashochtim of Poland and Lithuania. As the youngest of the seven, he was entrusted with overseeing thousands of shochtim across Poland. He was also a member of the Vaad HaShechita for the Arba Arotzos.

In 1936 a bill to outlaw shechita was brought before the Sejm. Rav Shlomo Zev was chosen to show its members that shechita is a quick and humane way to slaughter. They gathered in a nearby courtyard, and he performed shechita before them. Together with an intense lobbying effort, the demonstration brought partial success. The Sejm did not ban shechita but allowed it to continue under a maximum quota.

After the war

Rav Shlomo Zev survived the Holocaust and was liberated in Bergen-Belsen on April 11, 1945. His first wife, Rebbetzin Esther, and their two children had been murdered in Auschwitz on August 2, 1943. He took a chalef from a museum in Hamburg and on August 21, 1945 performed the first shechita on German soil since the Nazis outlawed it in 1933. The British Chief Rabbi's Religious Emergency Council then appointed him Rosh Hashochtim of the British Zone of Germany.

On November 7, 1945, the Council set up two large kitchens in Celle to provide kosher food for the thousands of survivors living in the nearby Bergen-Belsen displaced persons camp. It named Rav Shlomo Zev the Rav Hamachshir (supervising rabbi for kashrus) of Bergen-Belsen. He also joined the Vaad Harabonim of the British Zone, which was founded and led by Rav Yoel Halpern. Because he travelled constantly to arrange and oversee shechita, the Vaad asked him to serve as Rav of many small communities in the zone that had no rav of their own.

As survivors left the camp and settled in towns and cities across the zone, the young Jewish community of Hannover grew large enough to need its own rav. Rav Shlomo Zev recommended his friend and future brother-in-law, Rav Chaim Pinchas Lubinsky, and in January 1946 Rav Lubinsky was appointed Chief Rabbi of Hannover. When more rabbinic leadership was needed, the Vaad Harabonim occasionally convened a Bais Din in Hannover under Rav Yoel Halpern. Its members included Rav Lubinsky, Rav Yisroel Moshe Olewski (Chief Rabbi of Celle) and Rav Shlomo Zev. Seeking a more lasting arrangement, the community then turned to him to be its second rav.

In 1949 the British occupation of North-West Germany ended, and the Council and its appointees had to close their work there. The newly independent Jewish community of Hannover chose Rav Shlomo Zev as its only rav. Many smaller communities across Lower Saxony then appointed him as well, and he became Chief Rabbi of Hannover and Lower Saxony.

Together with Rav Yisroel Moshe Olewski and Efraim Londoner, he led Agudas Yisroel of the British Zone, and he worked to meet both the spiritual and the physical needs of the Jews there. In 1947 he provided the former passengers of the Exodus in Hamburg with the supplies they needed before they were forced to disembark. He also visited the Pöppendorf displaced persons camp, where he was photographed speaking with Captain Ike Aronowicz about the former passengers of the SS Exodus.

Later years and passing

In 1952 Rav Shlomo Zev emigrated to America. Rav Eliezer Silver invited him to serve as Rosh Hashochtim of the two kosher slaughterhouses in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1953 he moved to New York, where he was shocked by the low kashrus standards of shechita and began to campaign for improvement.

In time he became the Rav Hamachshir of several kosher slaughterhouses. He chose his shochtim with great care and trained them thoroughly, and he introduced many reforms that had been unheard of in America. Meat certified by him was regarded as the gold standard of kashrus, and many rabbanim would not eat meat unless he had certified it. Over the years many of his reforms took root and raised the standard of shechita across the country.

After the war he married Rebbetzin Frieda, the daughter of Rav Chiel-Meyer Lubinsky, who at the time taught Judaic studies at the girls' seminary (kibbutz) in Bergen-Belsen. In New York she volunteered regularly at the Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital. She was one of the founders of Rivkah Laufer Bikur Cholim, a board member of the Crown Heights chapter of N'shei Agudas Yisroel, and vice president of the Rabbi Meir Baal Hanes Kupath Polin Ladies Auxiliary of Brooklyn. They had two children.

Rav Shlomo Zev passed away in New York City on 26 Tammuz 5765 (August 2, 2005). He was buried the next day on Har HaZeisim in Yerushalayim.

Legacy

Rav Shlomo Zev was known throughout the world as an authority on every matter of shechita. He was constantly asked to travel to lecture, to inspect kosher slaughterhouses and to recommend improvements. Over the years he taught and trained hundreds of shochtim, who carry on his work.

The Orthodox Union certifies certain species of quail as kosher on the basis of his masorah.