One hand brushed the ghetto wall; the other clutched Aryan identity papers. Questions pursued her: Should she take on the persona of a gentile, or live as a Jew? Run to freedom, or slip into the horrific ghetto prison? Rosa Rubinfeld faced a choice that would alter the course of her entire life. Whatever befalls my nation will be my lot, as well, she decided. And in placing her lot with her people, Rosa was accorded a special role in history: she saved the life of the Satmar Rebbe.
Ma once attempted to make her way into the Satmar Rebbe’s inner chamber. The chassidim barred her entry.” Toby Rubinfeld Rosa’s granddaughter retells a story that is now a family legend: “His rebbetzin Alta Feiga instructed that she be allowed inside telling the chassidim ‘What’s ours and what’s yours — it’s all hers.’ ”
On the Run
Rosawas born into a legacy. Raised in Tirnau (then inCzechoslovakia) her parents were prominent Torah personalities. Her father Rav Yosef Fürst was orphaned at the age of 14 and grew up in the home of the Kashever Rav. He married Hanele Frey a granddaughter of the Ksav Sofer.Rosa’s mother often reminisced about how the Ksav Sofer attended her brother’s bar mitzvah.
In between his obligations at his winery Rosa’s father learned relishing every second and filling the house with a plaintive niggun. The Fürsts’ ten-bedroom home hosted prominent guests and their private mikveh bespoke their position in the community.
The Nazis invadedCzechoslovakiawhenRosawas a teen. Fearful of the whispered rumors her parents sent her to live in the home of a non-Jew. When the risk got too great the gentile refused to harbor her and Rosa was hidden in another non-Jew’s attic until plans could be made to smuggle her into freeHungary.
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