1. Akiva Ehrenfeld was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi who helped establish the Kiryat Mattersdorf and Unsdorf neighborhoods of northern Jerusalem.
15 Facts About Akiva Ehrenfeld
1. 2.
Akiva Ehrenfeld served as president of Kiryat Mattersdorf and president of the Chasan Sofer Institutions in the United States.
3.
Akiva Ehrenfeld was born in Mattersdorf, Austria, to Rabbi Shmuel Ehrenfeld, then rosh yeshiva of the Mattersdorf yeshiva, and Rochel Ehrenfeld.
4.
Akiva Ehrenfeld was named after his parents' ancestor, Rabbi Akiva Eger.
5.
At the time of his birth, his grandfather, Rabbi Simcha Bunim Ehrenfeld, was the Rav of the city; upon his death in 1926, Rabbi Shmuel Ehrenfeld succeeded him as Rav.
6.
Akiva Ehrenfeld had a younger brother, Simcha Bunim, and five sisters.
7.
Two months later, Akiva Ehrenfeld's father established Yeshivas Chasan Sofer on the Lower East Side.
8.
Akiva Ehrenfeld studied in Yeshiva Torah Vodaas and later joined his father's yeshiva, Yeshivas Chasan Sofer.
9.
Akiva Ehrenfeld appointed Ehrenfeld as his representative to supervise the construction and sale of apartments.
10.
Akiva Ehrenfeld sold some of the first apartments in the neighborhood to Rabbi Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg, his family members and students, encouraging Scheinberg to relocate his yeshiva, Torah Ore, to Jerusalem from Bensonhurst, Brooklyn by offering attractive terms for apartments and land for the yeshiva at the southeast end of the neighborhood.
11.
Akiva Ehrenfeld moved to Kiryat Mattersdorf in the early 1990s and served as president of all these institutions.
12.
Akiva Ehrenfeld founded Yeshivas Beis Shmuel, named for his father, in the mid-1980s.
13.
Akiva Ehrenfeld established close ties with the government of Austria to obtain funding for several institutions, including a kindergarten and the Neveh Simcha nursing home.
14.
Akiva Ehrenfeld underwent surgery for an abdominal obstruction on July 16,2012 but did not recover.
15.
Akiva Ehrenfeld died on August 16,2012, at Shaare Zedek Medical Center and was buried that night on Har HaMenuchot near the grave of his father.