Hugo Gryn

Hugo Gabriel Gryn (25 June 1930 – 18 August 1996) was a British Reform rabbi and a regular broadcaster and a leading voice in interfaith dialogue.

Rabbi

Hugo Gryn
Personal
Born25 June 1930
Berehovo, Czechoslovakia
Died18 August 1996 (aged 66)
London, England
ReligionJudaism
SpouseJacqueline Selby
DenominationReform Judaism
Alma materKing's College, Cambridge
OccupationRabbi
Jewish leader
Websitewww.hugogryn.com
PositionSenior Rabbi
SynagogueWest London Synagogue
BuriedGolders Green Jewish Cemetery
Hugo Gryn's grave at Golders Green Jewish Cemetery, London

Hugo Gryn was born into a prosperous Jewish family in the market town of Berehovo in Carpathian Ruthenia, which was then in Czechoslovakia and is now in Ukraine. His parents, who married in 1929, were Geza Gryn (1900–1945), a timber merchant, and Bella Neufeld.[1]

Gryn’s family were deported to Auschwitz in 1944. Hugo and his mother survived but his ten-year-old brother, Gabriel, was gassed on arrival at Auschwitz, while his father died a few days after he and Hugo were liberated from Gunskirchen, a sub-camp of Mauthausen, in May, 1945.

Gryn moved to the United Kingdom in 1946, and was sent to board at the Polton House Farm School in Lasswade, near Edinburgh. He won a scholarship to study Mathematics at King's College, Cambridge, and after graduation volunteered to serve in the Israeli Army during that country's war of independence. In 1950 he moved to Cincinnati, where he earned several degrees in Hebrew scripture at the Hebrew Union College, a seminary for Reform rabbis.[2]

Upon receiving his doctoral degree Gryn was sent to Bombay by the World Union for Progressive Judaism, which had sponsored his studies, and following a spell working for the union in New York he returned to Britain in 1964, where he served in one of the largest congregations in Europe, the West London Synagogue, initially as assistant rabbi and later as senior rabbi, for 32 years.[2] Gryn became a regular radio broadcaster and appeared for many years on BBC Radio 4's Thought for the Day and The Moral Maze.

In 1989, Gryn returned to Berehovo together with his daughter Naomi to make a film about his childhood.[3] After his death, Naomi Gryn edited his autobiography, also called Chasing Shadows,[4] which deals movingly with his experiences as a Holocaust survivor.

He married Jacqueline Selby on 1 January 1957[1] and they had four children together: Gaby, Naomi, Rachelle and David.

He died of cancer on 18 August 1996 and is buried at Hoop Lane Cemetery in Golders Green, London. The grave lies in a relatively prominent location, just north-east of the main entrance.

He was described as "probably the most beloved rabbi in Great Britain" by Rabbi Albert Friedlander, who was also the author of the entry about Gryn in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.[2]

References
  1. Albert Friedlander. "About Hugo Gryn". Rabbi Hugo Gryn. Retrieved 16 April 2013.
  2. Albert Friedlander, 'Gryn, Hugo Gabriel (1930–1996)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edition, October 2008. Accessed 2 July 2020. (Note that online access to this requires a subscription, either as an individual or through a library that has a subscription.)
  3. Chasing Shadows (1991) – Plot summary:imdb.com
  4. "Hugo Gryn Chasing Shadows – Introduction by Naomi Gryn (penguin.co.uk)". Archived from the original on 22 May 2007. Retrieved 1 June 2007.
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