A Beacon of Light in Bergen-Belsen: The Legacy of Rabbi Yekutiel Neubauer

Hermann Neubauer was a well-known diamond merchant in Leipzig. He knew nothing about Judaism; his father was an intellectual from an intellectual family. His grandfather studied in a cheder, but at a young age abandoned religion and saw himself as a loyal son of Prussian culture. The past of the Jewish people did not interest him, and certainly not the present. As Hermann became more involved in the diamond trade, he interacted more with other Jewish diamond merchants. Leipzig was a hub for Galician traders, most of whom were observant Jews. This was new to him—a Jew with a traditional appearance on one hand, but straight, loyal, and devoted on the other.

The Jewish merchants maintained warm and good relations, supporting one another, and when the holiday came... oops, they all disappeared to the courtyard of the Rebbe. It was beyond his comprehension. What would intelligent and wealthy traders seek in the courtyard of some old Jewish rabbi? Eventually, Hermann "broke," and traveled for one Shabbat to the courtyard of the Rebbe of Belz. He returned enchanted and became a Belz Chasid himself. His surroundings couldn't understand the strange step: how could someone as intelligent as he become a traditional Chasid? But reality is stronger than anything. Hermann established a splendid Chasidic home, his wife walked with him, and their children were born into a Torah-observant and Chasidic household.

His eldest son, Yekutiel, was a prodigy. At 17, he became engaged to an important family and studied Torah under famous rabbis in Galicia, among them Rabbi Elijah Bombach, the rabbi of the town "Oswiecim" (near which the Auschwitz extermination camp was later established, a German distortion of the original name), from whom he also received rabbinic ordination. He also studied Semitic languages and law, including Hebrew law, at the University of Leipzig and submitted a doctoral thesis on marriage laws in the Talmud. Despite his academic success, he returned to Torah study, not choosing a research career.

In those years, "Biblical criticism" spread through German universities, and Rabbi Yekutiel engaged in the subject. He wrote a book refuting the theories of Biblical criticism, causing quite a stir in the German academic world, as the young doctor's research abilities were acknowledged and recognized.

After World War I, Hermann Neubauer bought a large area near Regensburg, intending to establish a yeshiva led by his son, the famous prodigy, where Torah would be studied along with agricultural training for immigration to Israel. After some time, Rabbi Yekutiel was invited by Rabbi Yitzchak Dov Bamberger, a leader of Orthodox Judaism in Germany (known as "the Rabbi of Würzburg"), to teach at the Würzburg Teachers' Seminary, a respected and influential institution. His esteem grew there, but with the rise of the Nazis to power in 1933, he did not wish to remain in Germany.

At that time, he was offered the position of head of the Rabbinical Seminary in Amsterdam, and he moved to the Netherlands, but the Nazis, as known, also reached there. On the 2nd of Iyar, 5700 (1940), the Nazis deported Rabbi Neubauer and his entire family to the Bergen-Belsen camp. In the camp, the rabbi was among the spiritual figures who influenced many. He delivered a lesson in the Talmudic tractate Bava Metzia, under the most challenging and grueling conditions, day after day, as much as he could. He also answered halachic questions on issues of agunot from his place in the Bergen-Belsen camp! For four and a half years, Rabbi Neubauer lived in the inferno of Bergen-Belsen, radiating wisdom, Torah, and spirit to the suffering prisoners.

On the 8th of Nisan, 5705, days before liberation, he succumbed and passed away, among all the other Jewish victims tortured to death in the Bergen-Belsen death camp. His wife made her way to Israel, becoming one of the founders of the "Ohel Nechama" synagogue in his memory.