Menashe Klein was born in 1924 in the town of Orlova, Czechoslovakia (now known as Irlyava, Ukraine) near the city of
Ungvar,
Czechoslovakia (now known as Uzhhorod,
Ukraine). He studied in the
yeshiva of the
Rav of Ungvar, Yosef Elimelech Kahane. During World War II, he was incarcerated in
Auschwitz-Birkenau, Auschwitz-Buna, and finally in
Buchenwald. At Buchenwald, he was sent out to "Stein," a
Nazi satellite camp at
Eschershausen, but was listed in camp records as returned to Buchenwald, where he was liberated and where he completed a postwar military interview. On June 2, 1945, he was evacuated by train with 427 other former Buchenwald inmates ages 7 to 17 – among them
Yisrael Meir Lau,
Naphtali Lau-Lavie, and
Elie Wiesel – to France, where they boarded at a sanitarium in
Écouis. Klein immigrated to the United States in 1947. After World War II, he served as Rav in the "Chevrah Liyadi"
shul, (which was located in the
Williamsburg section of Brooklyn) and Principal of Yeshivas
Shearis Hapleitah, under the direction of
Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam, Klausenberger Rebbe. In 1964, he founded
Yeshiva Beis Shearim in
Borough Park, Brooklyn, where he served as
rosh yeshiva. In 1983, he established "Kiryat Ungvar" in the
Ramot section of Jerusalem in memory of his hometown. The Ungvarer Rav was active until old age. He had thousands of students. In 2009, he stirred controversy. He published a
responsa which, in part, denoted
Chabad messianists as "
apikoras" (heretics). At the time, he referred to them and was quoted; "This sect of crazies, which falsify the Torah and our sages' words, to say the Moshiach is dead but is really alive... these are things against our holy Torah." Referring to
Chabad messianism within Chabad which has adopted the late Rebbe,
Menachem Mendel Schneerson as the
Jewish messiah. He died on the last day of
Elul (September 28) 2011, and was buried in
Safed Old Jewish Cemetery, near the grave of the
Arizal, the
Alshich Hakadosh and
Beis Yosef. after his passing his three sons asummed the mantle of leadership, each establishing their court in the place of their residence, the oldest son, david shlomo, in
Ramot, East Jerusalem the second son, amrom, in
Borough Park, Brooklyn and the third son, moshe, in
Modi'in Illit. amrom's son eliazer zev opened a
yeshiva, bies hearim, in the geulah neighborhood in
jerusalem where hundreds of students study ==Works==