Irving Bunim

Irving M. Bunim was a businessman, philanthropist, and a lay leader of Orthodox Jewry, in particular the Young Israel movement in the United States from the 1930s until his death in 1980. As an assistant to Aharon Kotler, he was involved in aspects of Torah dissemination, philanthropy and Holocaust rescue. He has been referred to as "perhaps the most impactful lay leader in American Jewish history".

Biography Bunim was born in 1901 in Valozhyn, in the Vilna Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Belarus), then the major Torah centre of Europe and the home of the first Yeshiva, Etz Chaim. Bunim was a Yeshiva student while young. When Bunim was nine years old, his family moved to the United States. There, Bunim attended high school, after which he started working. His brother-in-law hired him to work in his textile factory. When his brother-in-law moved to Palestine, Bunim bought the company.

Together with other American Orthodox leaders, Bunim was active in the Vaad Hatzalah, In these negotiations, the Vaad agreed to pay Nazis ransom to free Jews from Nazi concentration camps. After some dealings the Vaad agreed to pay $5 million for 300,000 Jews or $250,000 each month for 20 months to free 15,000 Jews. These negotiations failed, though some thousand Jews, out of the 300,000 Jews promised to be freed, were saved from a certain death. After the war the Vaad kept working to supply the survivors with food and other relief supplies.

Bunim also supported and was vice-president of Torah Umesorah, the National Society for Hebrew Day Schools founded by Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz, the head of Yeshiva and Mesivta Torah Vodaath. He traveled to distant places to raise funds. He also encouraged people to open schools, helped prevent communities from closing schools, and encouraged teachers and principals.

Bunim was also involved with Chinuch Atzmai, Israel's independent ultra-Orthodox elementary school system, aiding its chairman Stephen Klein, and Rabbi Aharon Kotler, its founder and head, and frequently spoke on behalf of the organization in America and helped raise funds for it. Bunim became devoted to Chinuch Atzmai after seeing a Sephardic child in Israel who did not know the meaning of the Shema Yisrael prayer.

Bunim was a philanthropist who gave loans and helped people in need. His main goal was spreading the word of the Torah to all Jews. He was a popular guest speaker at the functions of many Orthodox Jewish organizations and institutions. He was a raconteur, filled with anecdotes and parables, a skill reflected in his three-volume commentary on Pirkei Avot, Ethics from Sinai. attended "RJJ", the Rabbi Jacob Joseph religious school, which he later served as president.

Irving's daughter, Chana Rubin Ausubel, wrote about her father's life and teachings, as did her brother Amos.

Irving's son, Rabbi Amos Bunim, who on many projects was the right-hand man to his father, died Saturday, May 7, 2011.

And he was also one of the most famous supporters of Meir Kahane, founder of the Jewish Defense League: an organization that was classified as a terrorist group by the FBI.