Koretz was born on 2 June 1884 in
Rzeszów,
Galicia,
Austria-Hungary. He would study in the
Higher Institute for Jewish Studies in
Berlin, where he received a
doctorate in
philosophy and
Semitic languages, writing his thesis on "The Description of
Hell in the
Quran and its Prototypes in Jewish Literature." Following this he would receive
semicha from this same institution. In 1927 he would marry a woman named Gita, a fellow native of Galicia, in
Hamburg. In 1933 Koretz, an
Ashkenazi Jew who followed a 'liberal tradition,' was made
Chief Rabbi of
Salonika, a
Sephardic community that mostly spoke
Ladino. His office was given, on the condition that he would be able to learn Ladino and
Greek within three months, and after doing so he would begin to make a name for himself by working with the government on their behalf. His politicking would make him an ally to several prominent members of the military, government, and
the King, among whom he would often make public declarations of support. Despite his connections outside of the community, Koretz had many detractors due to him not practicing
Orthodox Judaism and living lavishly. His first actions in office would make this apparent as his first priority had been to secure the community funds and establish a large salary for himself. His lack of familiarity with Sephardic traditions would result in much of the responsibilities normally held by the spiritual office being delegated to local rabbis. Because of these strained relations he would bring several Ladino newspapers to civil court in 1934 for
defamation, rather than the
Beth Din, for attacks against his taking a large personal salary and desecrating the
Sabbath. His choice to forgo the Beth Din, would raise questions of whether the institution needed
reform. While his predecessor focused the office on resolving matters of
halacha for the community, his first communal acts would update census information for the government; this would go into effect in 1934 and would be the basis for neighborhood lists that would be handed over to the
Nazis by Koretz. He would receive letters of reassurance from
General Metaxas that the
Jewish people would continue to be welcomed in
Greece during the 1930s and would successfully petition funding for two new
Jewish schools in Salonika. In March 1937 Koretz was able to negotiate an additional 500,000
drachmas for the local Jewish schools, however in June the community adopted measures to dismiss educators due to the threat of bankruptcy. Despite the personal criticisms and ongoing financial struggles of the community, he was chosen to continue serving as the Chief Rabbi in 1938 at the directive of General Metaxas. After Greece was conquered, Koretz was to be charged by the
Nazis for anti-German propaganda. He was arrested in
Athens on 15 April 1941 and deported to
Vienna where he was held in a
gestapo prison for nine months. He was released the following January and would return to Salonika, where he continued to serve as Chief Rabbi of the community before being imprisoned again for coming into conflict with, then
Judenrat president, Shabbetai Saltiel, despite the president previously approving him to continue serving the community. Koretz would be released in 1942 at the insistence of local industrialists to take part in the negotiations to replace
Jewish slave laborers with paid Greek workers. He was able to negotiate a deal where the Jews would be released from the camps in exchange for over 2 billion drachmas in
ransom, an amount the Nazis considered the Jews liable for due to their participation in the Greco-Italian War. By liquidating the community's property,
the cemetery in particular, they were able to successfully raise funds and free Jews who had been taken to do labor. That being said, because the Nazis had raised the demanded value and wealthier members of the community refused to provide the money the full demands were not met. On 11 December 1942 Koretz was named Judenrat president, replacing Saltiel, he was the only remaining Jewish community leader who spoke
German beside the former President, and would negotiate with the
SS officers
Dieter Wisliceny and
Alois Brunner over how the deportations of Jews were to be done. Rallis would claim that the deportations were out of his control. Koretz would be liberated from the Nazis by the
Red Army when the Soviets captured a train that was stranded in
Tröbitz while transporting Jews from Bergen-Belsen to
Theresienstadt, this train would become known as
The Lost Transport. He would die later, in June, from
typhus, which he had contracted in the
concentration camp, in
Trebitz. He was buried in the Tröbitz cemetery alongside other victims of The Lost Transport. His remains were exhumed, taken to Israel and interred there in 2000. He was survived by his wife, Ghita Sarig Zweigel (1897-1988), son
Arieh (1928-2016) and daughter Lilly (b. 1939). == Legacy ==