Chaim Yisroel Eiss

Personal life

Chaim Yisroel Eiss was born in 1876 in Istrik, Galicia. He was the only one of ten children to survive an epidemic of diphtheria, an illness for which there was no treatment at the time. After the death of his other children, his father Rebbe Moshe Nissan Eiss took young Yisroel to the Sadigora Rebbe who blessed him and gave him an additional name, Chaim.

Later in life he moved to Zurich in Switzerland and became a successful businessman there.

Agudath Israel

Eiss was a founding member of Agudath Israel and one of its main activists. He operated mainly behind the scenes and every proposal that was brought to the presidium for ratification was first presented to him.

During the First World War, Eiss set up a large aid system that located refugees, found out what they most needed and raised the required funds.

Eiss was entrusted by the leading Rabbis of the time with the directorship of all Switzerland-based Agudath Israel funds. These included the Orphan Aid Fund, the Land of Israel Yeshiva Fund and the Polish and Lithuanian Yeshiva Fund {[1]}. He received contributions from all over the world, and transferred the money to the recipients.

Eiss was a writer and published the Agudath Israel publication Haderech. He wrote all the articles himself and was personally responsible for printing and distributing the paper. He was also a regular contributor to the then Agudath Israel weekly Kol Yisrael,printed in Jerusalem, and used it to make his opinions known to the population of Eretz Israel.

Rescue work

Eiss lived in Switzerland, which was neutral during World War II, and was therefore able to serve as the link between people living in countries under Nazi occupation and residents of the free world. He transferred information and requests for help to the Agudath Israel offices in London, New York City, and Istanbul, and facilitated the transfer of money, passport photographs, and requests to locate family members into Europe. He received hundreds of letters from Nazi-occupied countries and was one of the first to obtain a clear picture of the atrocities that were being carried out there.

The communications system that he set up was complex and not without danger. The unofficial postal service was conducted by non-Jewish residents of the occupied countries, people he referred to in his letters as pure Aryans, and the phraseology that was used was designed to pass muster with the censors while being understood by the intended recipients. An example of this can be seen in a letter that he wrote to Agudath Israel’s American branch at an early stage, before people were yet aware of the Nazis’ extermination efforts. It stated: "Our friend Rav Alexander Susha Friedman wrote me a letter of thanks on behalf of Mr. Mekayem Nefesh" and that "Mr. Chalelei Raav (Dying of Hunger) is a permanent guest at our friends' homes."

Sometimes he was able to be more explicit, and he wrote to the London branch of Agudath Israel, "The situation of our French brethren and even more, of our Polish brethren, is getting worse each day. In Warsaw the Jews are dying at a rate of 6,000 per month, mostly from hunger."

Many people were prevented from dying by Eiss’s efforts, but these were not the only people he helped. Thousands of Jews trapped in occupied Europe were given hope by his activities.

Political Views

Eiss was critical of the Mizrachi movement. He wrote that Mizrachi did not teach its children the Torah but instead had a new religion, that of labor. According to Eiss, the only reason that Mizrachi affiliated itself to the Zionists was in order to receive monetary gain.

Eiss was also critical of the secular educational system. He wrote that "Forty thousand of the children of our people are being educated in schools which are such that the children will not turn out to be apikorsim (heretics), because they will not know enough Torah to be able to rebel against it, but will turn out to be ignoramuses."