Samuel Blinder

Samuel Blinder (1912-1973) was a Rabbi and US Army Chaplain who served in France, Holland, and Germany during World War II. He was instrumental in assisting the Jewish community in the immediate aftermath of World War II.

Biography Blinder was born in Poland in 1912, but moved with his family to Brooklyn, New York in 1921. He received his Bachelors degree in Social Science from the City University of New York, and undertook Rabbinical studies at Yeshiva Issac Elchanan. Rabbi Blinder spent time with congregations in several states through the beginning of the war, until 1943 when he enlisted as a Chaplain in the United States Army. He was promoted to Captain and posted to Europe, first to France, then Holland and Germany.

Europe Capt. Blinder was posted with a unit in the German state of Hesse, and he was present when US Army captured the city of Bad Nauheim on 29 March 1945. The synagogue had sustained significant damage during Kristallnacht,and was now "...a storage pit of iron, hemp rope, steel rope, and other heavy material. The walls were covered with fecal matter, the windows were broken, the floors damaged and torn up. There were no pews left at all, the Almemor [bima] and pulpit were destroyed.”

Under the supervision of Capt. Blinder "Captain Blinrad", He was also part of the discovery of another large cache of stolen Judaica in Schloss Friedrichstein in Kassel. Rabbi Blinder returned to Bad Nauheim with one of these Sifrei Torahs and rededicated the synagogue on 24 June 1945.