Esther Jungreis, founder of Hineni

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The Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis of North Woodmere, founder of Hineni, died Tuesday. Rebbetzin is a rabbi's wife.

Jungreis, once named Herald Person of the Year, was known in the media as “the Jewish Billy Graham.” Born in Szeged, Hungary in 1936, where her father, HoRave Avrohom HaLevi Jungreis, was chief rabbi, she was a Holocaust survivor and considered a trailblazer of more than 50 years, traveling throughout the world with what many called her message of loving-kindness and hope. She taught the Torah to millions of Jews from every strata of life.

The Jungreis family had been deported with other Jews from Szeged. After suffering through many concentration camps the family eventually arrived in Switzerland.

In 1947, the Jungreis family arrived in Brooklyn, New York where she married a distant cousin, HoRav Meshulem HaLevi Jungreis, who predeceased her. They settled in North Woodmere, where Rabbi Jungreis was the spiritual leader of Ohr HaTorah.

Together they embarked on a lifelong mission devoting their lives opposing interfaith marriages, secularization, and other forms of assimilation, which she firmly believed was an existential threat to the continued existence of Judaism. Hineni became a worldwide movement, inspiring Jews to seek out their roots.

Jungreis wrote several best-selling books including “The Jewish Soul On Fire,” “The Committed Life” and “The Committed Marriage,” all of which have been translated in many languages and distributed globally. Her latest book – “Life Is A Test” was widely acclaimed as one of the 10 best Jewish inspiration books of all time.

Her work was widely recognized, and she received encouragement from several Jewish leaders such as Satmar Rebbe, HaRav Yoel Teitelbaum, HaRav Yosef Eliyahu, HaRav Moshe Feinstein, and many others.

She was recognized by numerous world leaders for her work within the Jewish community, including former Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin and President George W. Bush who asked Jungreis to accompany him to Jerusalem for the celebration of the Jewish state’s 60th anniversary in 2008.

Jungreis is survived by her children Chaya Sora Gertzulin, Rabbi Yisroel Jungreis, Slovi Wolff and Rabbi Osher Jungreis, and by many grandchildren and great grandchildren.

The funeral was on Wednesday at the Agudath Israel of Long Island in Far Rockaway.