Shlomo Zev Zweigenhaft

Rabbi Zweigenhaft died in New York City August 2, 2005, and was buried the next day on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.

In 1952 Rabbi Zweigenhaft emigrated to America and was invited by Rabbi Eliezer Silver to serve as the Rosh Hashochtim of the two Kosher slaughtering houses in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1953 Rabbi Zweigenhaft moved to New York where he was shocked by the low kashrus standards of shechita and he began to advocate for improvements. In time, Rabbi Zweigenhaft became the Rav Hamachshir of several kosher slaughterhouses. As Rav Hamachsir, he was very selective in the shochtim he hired and he trained them extensively. Rabbi Zweigenhaft also instituted many reforms previously unheard of in America. Meat certified as kosher by Rabbi Zweigenhaft was considered the gold standard of kashrus and many rabbis wouldn't eat meat unless it was certified by him. Over the years, many of Rabbi Zweigenhaft's reforms took root in the industry and led to the overall improvement of shechita in America.

In 1949, the British occupation of North-West Germany ended and the British Chief Rabbi's Religious Emergency Council and it's appointees were required to wrap up their operations in Germany. The newly independent Jewish community in Hannover then selected Rabbi Zweigenhaft as the only Rabbi of their city. Thereafter, many smaller Jewish communities throughout Lower Saxony appointed Rabbi Zweigenhaft as their Rabbi as well and he became Chief Rabbi of Hannover and Lower Saxony.

Rabbi Zweigenhaft together with Rabbi Yirsoel Moshe Olewski and Efraim Londoner were the leaders of Agudas Yisroel of the British Zone. Rabbi Zweigenhaft very much engaged in advocating for both the spiritual and physical needs to the Jews in the zone. In 1947, Rabbi Zweigenhaft provided necessary supplies to the former passengers of the Exodus in Hamburg before they were forced to disembark.

In the months after the liberation of Bergen Belsen, Jewish survivors slowly began to leave the D.P. Camp and settle in numerous towns and cities throughout the British Zone. When the fledgling community of Jewish survivors in Hannover became large enough to warrant its own Rabbi, Rabbi Zweigenhaft recommended to the British Chief Rabbi's Religious Emergency Council that they should appoint his friend (and future brother-in-law), Rabbi Chaim Pinchas Lubinsky to the position. In January 1946, Rabbi Lubinsky was appointed Chief Rabbi of Hannover. The community continued to grow and additional Rabbinic leadership was required. On a few rare occasions, the Vaad Harabonim of The British Zone convened a Bais Din under the leadership of Rabbi Yoel Halpern, in Hannover, consisting of various members of the Vaad including, Rabbi Lubinsky and Rabbi Yisroel Moshe Olewski (Chief Rabbi of Celle) and Rabbi Zweigenhaft. However, a more permanent solution was required and the community turned to Rabbi Zweigenhaft to be the second Rabbi of their city.

Rabbi Zweigenhaft survived the Holocaust and was liberated in Bergen Belsen on April 11, 1945. Ultimately, Rabbi Zweigenhaft retrieved a chalef from a museum in Hamburg and on August 21, 1945, performed the first shechitah on German soil since it was outlawed by the Nazis in 1933. Thereafter, the British Chief Rabbi's Religious Emergency Council appointed Rabbi Zweigenhaft to be the Rosh Hashochtim of the British Zone of Germany.

On November 7, 1945, the British Chief Rabbi's Religious Emergency Council established two massive kitchens in Celle to provide kosher food for the thousands of Jewish survivors living in the nearby Bergen-Belsen D.P. Camp and appointed Rabbi Zweigenhaft to be the Rav Hamachshir of Bergen-Belsen.

When Rabbi Zweigenhaft was 18 years old, he married his cousin Rebbetzin Esther, the daughter of Rabbi Shlomo Sztencl. They had two children, but Esther and the two children were murdered in Auschwitz on August 2, 1943.

In the mid-1930s Rabbi Zweigenhaft was appointed one of the seven members of the Vaad Roshei Hashochtim of Poland and Lithuania. As the youngest of the seven Roshei Hashochtim of Poland and Lithuania, Rabbi Zweigenhaft was tasked with overseeing thousands of shochtim throughout Poland. In 1936, a bill outlawing Shechitah was introduced in the Sejm. Rabbi Zweigenhaft was selected to demonstrate to members of the Sejm that Shechita was, in fact, a quick humane form of animal slaughter. The members of the Sejm gathered in a nearby courtyard and Rabbi Zweigenhaft demonstrated actual shechita for them. This demonstration together with an intense lobbying effort was partially successful and instead of banning shechita completely the Sejm allowed the practice to continue although they restricted it with a maximum quota.

Rabbi Zweigenhaft was born in Sosnowiec Poland in 1915. Rabbi Zweigenhaft's mother, Michla, was the daughter of Rabbi Meir Dovid Reinhertz, who was a son of the Rabbi of Yanov and a grandson of the Rabbi of Przedbórz. Rabbi Zweigenhaft's father, Rabbi Moshe Chaim, was a shochet and a student of the Avnei Nezer. At the age of two, Rabbi Zweigenhaft became an orphan and was raised by his paternal grandfather, Rabbi Efraim Mordechai Mottel Zweigenhaft who was shochet and dayin in Sosnowiec and a descendant of the Ta"z and the Ba"ch.