Pupa (Hasidic dynasty)

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Hasidic dynasty that grew out of the rabbinate and yeshiva of Pápa (Pupa), Hungary, and is now based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Hasidic dynasties
Overview

Hasidic dynasties | Haredi and Hasidic groups in the US | Chabad-Lubavitch movement

Dynasties

Belz | Biala | Bobov | Boyan | Breslov | Chabad-Lubavitch | Chernobyl | Dushinsky | Ger | Karlin-Stolin | Lelov | Munkacs | Nadvorna | Pupa | Rachmastrivka | Sadigura | Sanz-Klausenburg | Sassov | Satmar | Shomer Emunim | Skulen | Skver | Slonim | Spinka | Toldos Aharon | Toldos Avraham Yitzchak | Tosh | Vizhnitz

Founders and early masters

Baal Shem Tov | Dov Ber of Mezeritch | Elimelech of Lizhensk | Shneur Zalman of Liadi | Nachman of Breslov | Moshe Leib of Sassov

Present-day rebbes

Aaron Teitelbaum | Zalman Teitelbaum | Yissachar Dov Rokeach | Yaakov Aryeh Alter | Yisroel Hager | Ben Zion Aryeh Leibish Halberstam | David Twersky | Boruch Meir Yaakov Shochet

20th-century rebbes

Joel Teitelbaum | Aharon Rokeach | Menachem Mendel Schneerson

Politics and communal bodies

Agudat Yisrael | United Torah Judaism | Degel HaTorah | Edah HaChareidis | Neturei Karta | Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations

Places

Uman | Stamford Hill | Williamsburg, Brooklyn | Kiryas Joel, New York | Bnei Brak | Beitar Illit | Modi'in Illit

United Kingdom

Satmar institutions in the UK | Belz Communities | Satmar Kolel

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Pupa (Pápa)
Founded 1929 Pápa, Veszprém county, Hungary
Founder Yaakov Yechezkia Greenwald (1882–1941)
Leader Rebbe Yaakov Yechezkia Grunwald
Headquarters Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York
Type Hasidic dynasty
Notes

Pupa (from Pápa, Hungary; also Puppa) is a Hasidic dynasty that grew out of the rabbinate and yeshiva of Yaakov Yechezkia Greenwald, rabbi of Pápa from 1929. After the Holocaust his son Yosef Grunwald re-established the community in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and it is now led by Yosef's son, who is named after his grandfather.[1][2][3] The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) reported in 1984 that the movement was also known by the name of its main institution, Yeshivath Kehilath Yakov.[3] The name is spelt Greenwald, Grunwald or Grünwald in different sources.

History

Pápa

Pápa is a town in Veszprém county in western Hungary. The YIVO Encyclopedia says its Jewish community was formally founded in 1749 and had about 2,600 members by the 1830s. Numbers peaked at about 3,500 around 1880, a quarter of the town's population, and had fallen back to about 2,500 by the Second World War. After the Hungarian Jewish Congress of 1868–69 the community chose to remain Orthodox.[4]

Yaakov Yechezkia Greenwald

Yaakov Yechezkia Greenwald was born in 1882. He was the son of Moshe Greenwald, rabbi of Chust and author of Arugas Habosem. The sources differ on Moshe's dates: the Budapest Orthodox community Shomrei Hadas gives 1853–1910, and the kevarim.com grave directory gives 1853–1911.[1][2][5] According to Boro Park 24, he studied under his father and was strongly influenced by the rebbes of Belz. At 18 he married his cousin Sarah Rivkah, daughter of Yisroel Menachem Brown, rabbi of Brezvitz.[1]

He became rabbi of Likov in 1906. He then served at Zhelim, where he succeeded his uncle Eliezer Duvid Greenwald. In 1929 he became rabbi of Pápa and founded a yeshiva there, which Boro Park 24 says grew to about 300 students. Boro Park 24 also writes that he sent many students on to Belz, and that they came back to largely Ashkenazi-rite Pápa in Hasidic dress. His published works include Vayaged Yaakov on the Torah and the responsa Mishpatecha l'Yaakov.[1] Biale and his co-authors cite his Va-Yaged Ya'akov (1960) for the claim that the Zionist revival of Hebrew had severed its link with the language of the Bible: "the Hebrew language that the Zionist cult speaks today is not the holy tongue at all, as the holy part has been uprooted from it".[6] He died on the Sabbath, 2 Adar 1941.[1][2]

Yosef Grunwald

His son Yosef (author of Vayechi Yosef) had led a large yeshiva in Satmar before the Second World War. According to kevarim.com, he succeeded his father and moved the yeshiva to Pápa.[2] The Jews of Pápa were confined to a ghetto two months after the German occupation of Hungary in March 1944. On 4 and 5 July 1944, 2,565 of them were deported to Auschwitz; YIVO records that only about 500 returned.[4] The sources give different figures for Yosef's family losses. The JTA reported that his wife and ten children were killed, and that he survived a death camp. Kevarim.com gives nine children.[3][2]

After the war Yosef remarried and gathered the surviving students. According to kevarim.com, he gave them lodging and meals and arranged their marriages. He settled in Williamsburg in 1950 and re-established his congregation and yeshiva there.[2] The JTA reported that he set up orphanages and schools for refugees from Pápa. It also reported that he served as president of the Rabbinical Congress of the United States and Canada, based in Williamsburg. A source at the congress told the agency that he was the founder and head of the Pupa movement and not a Satmar Hasid.[3]

Yosef Grunwald died in August 1984 at the age of 81, after a stroke. He died at a medical centre in Westchester, and about 2,000 mourners gathered outside his Brooklyn home.[3] He is buried at the Kiryas Pupa cemetery in Ossining, Westchester County.[2]

Since 1984

The JTA expected Yosef's son Jacob (Yaakov) to succeed him, and it later reported that the elder son, Yakov Grunwald, had taken the title and led the main Pupa community in Williamsburg.[3][7] A younger son, Israel Grunwald, led a breakaway group of about 100 followers in Borough Park. Citing the New York Jewish Week, the JTA reported a long feud in which Israel did not recognise his older brother's authority.[8][7]

The sources give very different figures for the size of the movement:

  • In 1984 a source told the JTA that Yosef Grunwald had built a worldwide movement of about 100,000.[3]
  • JTA reports from 1995 and 1997 describe Pupa as a 12,000-member movement.[8][9]

In February 2024 the current Pupa Rebbe, Yaakov Yechezkiyah Grünwald, visited Pápa with about 50 Hasidim for his grandfather's yahrzeit on 2 Adar. Shomrei Hadas reported that he prayed with its community and then travelled to Pressburg to visit the grave of the Chatam Sofer.[5] Boro Park 24 writes that the movement has branches in other communities besides Williamsburg.[1]

Rebbes

Rebbes of Pupa
Rebbe Dates Seat Notes
Yaakov Yechezkia Greenwald (Vayaged Yaakov) 1882–1941 Pápa (from 1929) Son of Moshe Greenwald of Chust.[1][2]
Yosef Grunwald (Vayechi Yosef) died 1984, aged 81 Pápa; Williamsburg (from 1950) Son of the above.[2][3]
Yaakov Yechezkia (Jacob) Grunwald — Williamsburg Son of Yosef; named after his grandfather.[3][7][1][5]

Legal cases

Convictions

On 31 May 1995 Israel Grunwald and his assistant, Yehudah Friedlander, were arrested at Los Angeles International Airport after an overnight flight from Melbourne. A 15-year-old girl had complained that the two men touched her during the flight.[8][9] A federal grand jury indicted Friedlander on one count of sexual abuse of a minor. He at first maintained his innocence, then pleaded guilty and was sentenced in 1996 to 22 months in prison.[8][7][10][9]

Allegations

Israel Grunwald was charged with the lesser misdemeanour of abusive sexual contact with a minor. Prosecutors dismissed the complaint in mid-1995 but kept the option of refiling it, and they revived it in October 1996. The charge carried a maximum of six months in jail.[7][10] His lawyer at the time said the prosecution had doubts about the girl's truthfulness and about whether the charge could be proved.[7]

In September 1997 his later lawyer, Nathan Lewin, said that the girl's father had offered to have her withdraw her testimony in return for $1.2 million from Hasidic communities in Australia and Brooklyn. Lewin said an undercover FBI agent had handed over a $50,000 "down payment", and that the government had agreed in writing to drop the charge. A spokesman for the US Attorney's Office said the charges were still pending, with trial set for 22 September 1997. The FBI would not comment on the alleged undercover operation.[9] Biale and his co-authors, who date the incident to 1995 and describe Israel Grunwald as the younger brother of the Pupa Rebbe and head of Congregation Toldos Yakov Yosef, write that the charges against him "were dropped after he agreed to perform 500 hours of community service and to seek counseling". They call the incident "hardly representative" of Hasidim, but say it points to "the dangers, from the point of view of the Hasidim, of mixing with the general public".[11]

Registered organisations

United Kingdom

Friends of Kehilath Yakov and Pupa (registered charity 1003247) is a trust on the register of the Charity Commission for England and Wales. Its address is 115 Craven Park Road, London N15 6BL.[12]

  • Its objects are the advancement of the Orthodox Jewish faith, in particular by supporting institutions that teach it, in the United Kingdom or elsewhere. It makes grants to other charities.
  • It was first registered on 19 June 1991. It was removed as not operating on 2 September 2009 and registered again on 18 September 2009.
  • Its trustees are Aron Oberlander (chair), Solomon Kritzler and Chaim Aron Reiner.
  • It reported income of £2,000 for the year to April 2021 and none for the four years after that.
  • The register records the annual returns for 2023 to 2025 as received late, on 13 July 2026.[12]

United States

The organisations below carry the Pupa or Kehilath Yakov name and are recorded in IRS data published by ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer. Most are recorded with the IRS foundation code for churches, and ProPublica shows no Form 990 filings for any of them.

US tax-exempt organisations with Pupa or Kehilath Yakov names
Organisation EIN Address (register) IRS ruling
Birkas Yosef Pupa 33-2695389 1274 49th St Ste 480, Brooklyn, NY 11219 June 2025[13]
Camp Kehilath Yakov 23-7332842 638 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11249 December 1973[14]
Camp Pupa 82-5328697 87 Penn Street Suite 201, Brooklyn, NY 11249 September 2018[15]
Chesed Kehilath Yakov 06-1603877 137 Lynch St, Brooklyn, NY 11206 January 2001[16]
Chevra Kadisha Dkhal Kehilath Yakov Pupa Inc 46-2036888 12 Silverwood Cir, Suffern, NY 10901 December 2016[17]
Cong Kehilath Yakov Of Linden 88-0587428 1600 Summit Ter, Linden, NJ 07036 September 2022[18]
Cong Kehilath Yakov Pupa Of Monsey 27-3856776 PO Box 187, Monsey, NY 10952 September 2014[19]
Cong Pupa Cks 99-3667757 199 Lee Ave Ste 822, Brooklyn, NY 11211 February 2025[20]
Kehilath Yakov Dpupa Of Boro Park 11-2852763 1137 53rd St, Brooklyn, NY 11219 May 1987[21]
Kehilath Yakov Rabbinical Seminary 11-3073915 638 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11249 July 1992[22]
Kolel Erev Kehilath Yakov 06-1535798 213 Lee Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11206 March 1999[23]
Kolel Kehilath Yakov Rabbinical Center Inc 11-2910958 12 Silverwood Cir, Suffern, NY 10901 July 1988[24]
Mosdos Pupa Linden 92-0896080 937 Orchard Ter, Linden, NJ 07036 January 2023[25]
Mosdos Pupa Monsey Inc 13-3896165 4 Widman Ct, Spring Valley, NY 10977 August 1996[26]
Pupa Bikur Cholim 39-4960779 19 Rodney Street, Brooklyn, NY 11249 November 2025[27]
Pupa Kolel 82-0572412 636 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211 December 2002[28]
Pupa Spring Valley 87-2908037 36 Collins Ave, Spring Valley, NY 10977 June 2022[29]
Pupa Yeshiva 06-1616269 206 Wilson St, Brooklyn, NY 11211 May 2001[30]
Yeshivath Kehilath Yakov Inc 11-6003354 638 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11249 December 1980[31]
Yeshivath Kehilath Yakov Of Monsey Inc 11-3071839 15 Widman Ct, Spring Valley, NY 10977 October 1991[32]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Living Legacy: Rav Yaakov Yechezkia Greenwald, the 'Vayaged Yaakov' of Pupa Boro Park 24, accessed 28 October 2026.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 Rebbe Yosef Greenwald kevarim.com, 8 January 2009, accessed 28 October 2026.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 Rabbi Joseph Grunwald Dead at 81 Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 14 August 1984, accessed 28 October 2026.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Michael K. Silber, Pápa YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe, accessed 28 October 2026.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 The visit of the Pupa Rebbe Somré Hádász Egyesület, February 2024, accessed 28 October 2026.
  6. ↑ David Biale, David Assaf, Benjamin Brown, Uriel Gellman, Samuel C. Heilman, Moshe Rosman, Gadi Sagiv and Marcin Wodziński, Hasidism: A New History, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2018, p. 628.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 Charges Dropped Against Rabbi Accused of Molesting Teen-ager Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 2 July 1995, accessed 28 October 2026.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Grand Jury Issues Indictment of Chasid Accused of Sex Abuse Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 14 June 1995, accessed 28 October 2026.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Federal Prosecutors May Drop Sexual Abuse Case Against Rabbi Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 10 September 1997, accessed 28 October 2026.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Molestation Charge Refiled Against Rabbi Los Angeles Times, 9 October 1996, accessed 28 October 2026.
  11. ↑ David Biale, David Assaf, Benjamin Brown, Uriel Gellman, Samuel C. Heilman, Moshe Rosman, Gadi Sagiv and Marcin Wodziński, Hasidism: A New History, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2018, p. 763.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Charity Commission, FRIENDS OF KEHILATH YAKOV AND PUPA – 1003247: full print Charity Commission for England and Wales, accessed 28 October 2026.
  13. ↑ ProPublica, Birkas Yosef Pupa Nonprofit Explorer (IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File data), EIN 33-2695389, accessed 28 October 2026.
  14. ↑ ProPublica, Camp Kehilath Yakov Nonprofit Explorer (IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File data), EIN 23-7332842, accessed 28 October 2026.
  15. ↑ ProPublica, Camp Pupa Nonprofit Explorer (IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File data), EIN 82-5328697, accessed 28 October 2026.
  16. ↑ ProPublica, Chesed Kehilath Yakov Nonprofit Explorer (IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File data), EIN 06-1603877, accessed 28 October 2026.
  17. ↑ ProPublica, Chevra Kadisha Dkhal Kehilath Yakov Pupa Inc Nonprofit Explorer (IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File data), EIN 46-2036888, accessed 28 October 2026.
  18. ↑ ProPublica, Cong Kehilath Yakov Of Linden Nonprofit Explorer (IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File data), EIN 88-0587428, accessed 28 October 2026.
  19. ↑ ProPublica, Cong Kehilath Yakov Pupa Of Monsey Nonprofit Explorer (IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File data), EIN 27-3856776, accessed 28 October 2026.
  20. ↑ ProPublica, Cong Pupa Cks Nonprofit Explorer (IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File data), EIN 99-3667757, accessed 28 October 2026.
  21. ↑ ProPublica, Kehilath Yakov Dpupa Of Boro Park Nonprofit Explorer (IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File data), EIN 11-2852763, accessed 28 October 2026.
  22. ↑ ProPublica, Kehilath Yakov Rabbinical Seminary Nonprofit Explorer (IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File data), EIN 11-3073915, accessed 28 October 2026.
  23. ↑ ProPublica, Kolel Erev Kehilath Yakov Nonprofit Explorer (IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File data), EIN 06-1535798, accessed 28 October 2026.
  24. ↑ ProPublica, Kolel Kehilath Yakov Rabbinical Center Inc Nonprofit Explorer (IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File data), EIN 11-2910958, accessed 28 October 2026.
  25. ↑ ProPublica, Mosdos Pupa Linden Nonprofit Explorer (IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File data), EIN 92-0896080, accessed 28 October 2026.
  26. ↑ ProPublica, Mosdos Pupa Monsey Inc Nonprofit Explorer (IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File data), EIN 13-3896165, accessed 28 October 2026.
  27. ↑ ProPublica, Pupa Bikur Cholim Nonprofit Explorer (IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File data), EIN 39-4960779, accessed 28 October 2026.
  28. ↑ ProPublica, Pupa Kolel Nonprofit Explorer (IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File data), EIN 82-0572412, accessed 28 October 2026.
  29. ↑ ProPublica, Pupa Spring Valley Nonprofit Explorer (IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File data), EIN 87-2908037, accessed 28 October 2026.
  30. ↑ ProPublica, Pupa Yeshiva Nonprofit Explorer (IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File data), EIN 06-1616269, accessed 28 October 2026.
  31. ↑ ProPublica, Yeshivath Kehilath Yakov Inc Nonprofit Explorer (IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File data), EIN 11-6003354, accessed 28 October 2026.
  32. ↑ ProPublica, Yeshivath Kehilath Yakov Of Monsey Inc Nonprofit Explorer (IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File data), EIN 11-3071839, accessed 28 October 2026.
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