Elimelech Gavriel "Mike" Tress (1909-July 9, 1967-July 9) was a

Jewish American American Jews or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by religion, ethnicity, culture, or nationality. Today the Jewish community in the United States consists primarily of Ashkenazi Jews, who descend from diaspora Je ...

who served as the national president of

Agudath Israel of America Agudath Israel of America ( he, אגודת ישראל באמריקה) (also called Agudah) is an American organization that represents Haredi Orthodox Jews. It is loosely affiliated with the international World Agudath Israel. Agudah seeks to ...

from the 1940s until his death. He was a major figure in the movement's expansion and its chief lay leader. Tress was the son of an immigrant and born in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Without training to become a rabbi, he was later titled "Reb Elimelech" due to his influential work and also known by his nickname "Mike". Before and during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he founded various youth organizations to counteract assimilation. Tress was President of

for many years, helping the Union to become one of the greatest political, communal, and cultural representations of the Orthodoxy of its time in the United States. He led the organization until his death; his successor became

Moshe Sherer Rabbi Moshe Sherer (June 18, 1921 – May 17, 1998) was co-Chairman of the Agudath Israel World Organization from 1980, and the Chairman of Agudath Israel of America from the 1960s, until his death in 1998. Career Sherer "joined Agudath Israel a ...

. To finance Agudath Israel and help Jews escape from Europe, he gave up his career as a businessman and used his fortune to do so. Tress rescued many European Jews at the time of the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

through his engagement. His biographer is the journalist and spokesperson

Jonathan Rosenblum Jonathan (Yonason) Rosenblum (born 1951) is the director, spokesperson, and founder of Jewish Media Resources, an organization which attempts to clarify journalists' understanding of Haredi Jewish society. Jonathan is related to the well known ...

, whose work is based in part on research by historian David Kranzler.

cf. The abbreviation ''cf.'' (short for the la, confer/conferatur, both meaning "compare") is used in writing to refer the reader to other material to make a comparison with the topic being discussed. Style guides recommend that ''cf.'' be used onl ...

br>catalog entry, National Library of Israel
/ref> In his honor, Agudath Israel awards the Reb Elimelech Tress Memorial Award.

Literature

His life and work are the subject of a biography: *

: ''They Called Him Mike.'' Reb Elimelech Tress, his era, hatzalah and the building of an American Orthodoxy. Artscroll Publications, Brooklyn, N.Y. 1995, .

External links

* Obituary: Gerson Kranzler
'' "He Who Saves a Soul in Israel". His heroic rescue work during the Holocaust and its aftermath''
on www.tzemachdovid.org

References

Jewish-American history American Orthodox Jews 1909 births 1967 deaths {{Judaism-bio-stub