Zew Wawa Morejno ( he, הרב זאב מורינו, HaRav Zev Moreino; 28 February 1916 – 19 March 2011) was a Polish and American rabbi. He was the last rabbi of the communist People's Republic of Poland, in 1973 emigrating from Poland to the United States without naming a successor.Leszczyński, Paweł.
Regulacja majątkowa w odniesieniu do mienia żydowskiego w północnej części województwa lubuskiego
" ''Studia z Prawa Wyznaniowego'' 12 (2009): 121-149.

Biography

Morejno was born into a hasidic family in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

. He studied at rabbinical schools in Baranovichi,

Mir, Belarus Mir ( be, Мір; russian: Мир; ) is a town in the Karelichy District (Карэліцкі раён) of Grodno Region, Belarus on the banks of Miranka River, about 85 kilometers southwest of the national capital, Minsk. History Mir village was ...

and in

Kamieniec Litewski Kamieniec may refer to several places: Poland *Kamieniec, Gmina Kłecko in Greater Poland Voivodeship (west-central Poland) * Kamieniec, Gmina Trzemeszno in Greater Poland Voivodeship (west-central Poland) *Kamieniec, Grodzisk Wielkopolski County i ...

. In 1939 he became a rabbi in Zuprany. He survived the German occupation of Poland, serving as a rabbi in the ghettoes of

Ashmyany Ashmyany ( be, Ашмя́ны; Łacinka: ''Ašmiany''; russian: Ошмя́ны; lt, Ašmena; pl, Oszmiana; yi, אָשמענע, ''Oshmene'') is a town in Grodno Region, Belarus, located at 50 km from Vilnius. The town is Ashmyany District' ...

and

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

, and later (1943–44) he was imprisoned in

Klooga concentration camp Klooga concentration camp was a Nazi forced labor subcamp of the Vaivara concentration camp complex established in September 1943 in Harju County, during World War II, in German-occupied Estonia near the village of Klooga. The Vaivara camp comple ...

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

. During the years 1945 and 1946, he served as dean and founder of The Advanced Rabbinical School Netzach Israel in

Łódź Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of cant ...

. From 1948, he served as the Chief Rabbi of Łódź. In 1952, he was removed from this position by the Communist leadership of Łódź over a dispute regarding Jewish cemetery rights in the city. In 1956, reinstalled as Chief Rabbi of Łódź, he also became the director of the Main Religious Council and the Chief Rabbi of Poland. The following year, however, he was again removed from the position. Persecuted throughout the 1960s by the Communist party for protesting the destruction of Jewish cemeteries in Poland and for the widespread resurgence of political antisemitism culminating in the mass expulsion of Polish Jews in 1968 ( March 1968 events), after the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states (primarily Egypt, Syria, and Jordan) from 5 to 10 Ju ...

. As the last rabbi of Communist Poland, in 1973 he emigrated to the United States where he became a rabbi in the Hasidic Ger community in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. He died in New York on 19 March 2011 aged 95.

References

Bibliography

* Grabski August, ''Współczesne życie religijne Żydów w Polsce'', in: ''Studia z dziejów i kultury Żydów w Polsce po 1945 r.'', Warsaw 1997 {{DEFAULTSORT:Morejno, Zew Wawa 1916 births 2011 deaths Chief rabbis of Poland Polish Hasidic rabbis American Hasidic rabbis Polish emigrants to the United States Polish Orthodox Jews Rabbis from Warsaw Vilna Ghetto inmates Vaivara concentration camp survivors