Judith Grunfeld

Judith Grunfeld born Judith Rosenbaum (18 December 1902 – 14 May 1998) was a Hungarian born Jewish German teacher who spent much of her life in the United Kingdom. She was a pioneer of the revolutionary Bais Yaakov girl's education movement. They aimed to teach girls and their teachers and get them to appreciate their culture and religion. For five years from 1924 she was involved with teaching teachers at the Beit Yaakov teachers' Seminary. She also had to raise the funds and this would involve some travel. In 1929 the school was adopted by the Orthodox "Agudat Yisrael" now that Rabbi Jacob Rosenheim was its President.

She married lawyer Isidor Grunfeld on 22 November 1932. He was a lawyer in Würzburg until 1933. The Nazis' rise to power prompted them to move to Israel, they moved to London in 1933 because they struggled to find work in Israel.

London Grunfeld was employed at the girls' Jewish secondary school, and by 1934 she was the head teacher. The school had been running since 1917, but two years after she started, the board of education refused to recognise the school. Grunfeld's leadership led to improvements and new buildings were found for her school and the boys school. In 1938 to 1939 a large number of Jewish refugees arrived in the UK and Grunfeld's school gained a share and by the outbreak of war the school had 450 pupils.

Death and legacy Grunfeld died in London Borough of Hackney in 1998 and she was buried in Jerusalem beside her husband. Miriam Stark Zakon credited Grunfeld as being a co-founder of the Bais Yaakov movement in her 2001 book The Queen of Bais Yaakov: The Story of Dr. Judith Grunfeld.