On 1 Elul, a large throng accompanied R' Binyomin Ehrentreu,
zt"l, on his last earthly journey. He was the founder
and gabbaiof the Gra synagogue in the Bayit Vegan
neighborhood in Jerusalem, and one of the neighborhood's
prominent residents and askonim. He was niftar
at the age of 71, after having suffered a brief illness.
R' Binyomin Ehrentreu, who always referred to himself as a
simple baal habayis, was the son of HaRav Elchonon and
the grandson of HaRav Chanoch Ehrentreu, author of Kometz
Hamincha. He managed to survive the horrors of the
Holocaust, celebrating his bar mitzvah alone in a detention
camp in Belgium.
Immediately after the Holocaust he came to Eretz Yisroel and
entered the Kol Torah yeshiva in Jerusalem, where he became
very close with its rosh yeshiva, HaRav Shlomo Zalman
Auerbach, ztvk"l. Though he only managed to spend a
year and a half in yeshiva, the experience stamped him for a
lifetime. In time, he married Moras Esther of the Gans family
and together they built an outstanding Torah home. Throughout
the more than fifty years of their marriage she served him
with dedication.
He was one of the founders of the Netiva settlement, where Yad
Binyomin is currently situated. From there the family moved to
Bayit Vegan, where he became very close with HaRav Yechezkel
Abramsky and was his right-hand man in all that pertained to
neighborhood issues. At HaRav Abramsky's encouragement, R'
Binyomin founded the Gra shul, involving himself in all
aspects of its building. Until his final day, he served as
gabbai of this shul, where hundreds daven
and study.
He was modest and unassuming, never thinking of himself. He
attended to the needs of all who turned to him, and welcomed
lonely people and baalei teshuva into his home.
During one of Israel's wars, he heard that the young son of a
neighbor who had been killed in battle was too shy to recite
Kaddish in shul. Even though the youngster
wasn't a relative, Rav Binyomin accompanied him to shul
three times a day, to help him to recite Kaddish.
Once HaRav Abramsky told him that the municipal eruv in
Bayit Vegan was inadequate. A few days later, Rav Binyomin
began to make arrangements for an eruv that surrounded
the entire neighborhood and met all of the stringent demands
of halocho. Until his final day, he made certain that
the eruv was intact, checking it each erev
Shabbos, in the hot summer and in the rainy winters and in
between.
In his many activities on behalf of the neighborhood, he
maintained constant contact with the poskim of our
time. Thirty years ago he founded the daily shiur given
by HaRav Ezriel Auerbach in the Gra shul, as well as
many other daily and Shabbos shiurim for avreichim
and baalei battim.
His lifestyle was one of pashtus. Although he worked
for a living, he delivered a shiur for baalei
battim every morning at 5 a.m. in the Sochotchov
shul in Bayit Vegan. This shiur was maintained
for forty years.
When he retired from his first job, he began to work as an
administrator for Yeshivas Ohr Somayach. There too, he granted
help and support to all in need, and hosted yeshiva students
in his home on Shabbosim, encouraging them in every aspect of
their return to Yiddishkeit. One of the maspidim after
the shiva said that one of the yeshiva's suppliers
cried when he heard that R' Binyomin had passed away. Though
he considered himself a chiloni to this day, he said
that because he was so impressed with R' Binyomin he puts on
tefillin every day!
Concern for the spiritual needs of the residents of Bayit
Vegan was his primary endeavor. When the Shalom Hotel was
built in Bayit Vegan, he insisted that its entrance be
situated outside the neighborhood and spent much time in quiet
negotiations with the developers to ensure this. When the Chen
Hotel opened, he made a concerted effort to prevent it from
building a swimming pool and hall, so that the Jewish
character of the neighborhood would not be compromised.
Last week at a family simcha, he suffered a stroke and
was hospitalized. While in hospital, despite his condition, he
was kept abreast of developments at Ohr Somayach as well as
the eruv and his many other important projects.
Monday morning, after putting on tefillin and
davening, he suffered another stroke and was
niftar. His levaya, which set out from the Gra
shul, was attended by a massive throng. Since it was
rosh chodesh, divrei his'orerus were delivered by HaRav
Leib Heiman, rav of the Gra shul; HaRav Ezriel
Auerbach, rav of the Kehilas Chanichei Hayeshivos; HaRav
Yisroel Gans, the niftar's brother-in-law and one of
the roshei yeshiva of Kol Torah; and by HaRav Mendel Weinbach,
the rosh yeshiva of Or Somayach. He was buried on Har
Hazeisim.
He is survived by his wife, Moras Esther, and by his
outstanding sons: HaRav Elchonon, a rosh yeshiva in a
yeshiva ketana in Ramat Shlomo and Rav Yechiel, a
prominent avreich in Modi'in Illit. His daughters are,
respectively, married to the following prominent avreichim:
Rav Yerachmiel Dobrovitcher, Rav Nochum Tauber, Rav Yaakov
Zril, Rav Micha Rothschild, Rav Aharon Haber, Rav Simcha
Deutsch, Rav Shlomo Havlin, and Rav Menachem Freundlich. His
many grandchildren and great-grandchildren are all firmly
planted in Beis Hashem.
