Tetch (town)


The town of Tetch is located near the big city of Ungvar, Ukraine. Its settlement reached a peak of 1,000 Jewish inhabitants by the year 1940.

History

Upon the departure of Rabbi Chananya Yom Tov Lipa Teitelbaum, called the "Ba'al Kedushes Yom Tov" who was the city's rabbi until his father's death, the town replaced him with his brother, Rabbi Eliyahu Betzalel Teitelbaum.
A few years after Rabbi Eliyahu Betzalel's death, his son, Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum, was appointed to the rabbinate, but died soon after, leaving the position vacant for several years, until he was succeeded by Rabbi Mayer Gruenwald, son of Rabbi Avrohom Yosef of Ungvar, son of Rabbi Moshe Greenwald of Chust, Hungary and progenitor of the Pupa Hasidic dynasty, who inherited the previous rabbi's position upon marrying his daughter in 1928.
Rabbi Chaim Teitelbaum, Eliyahu Betzalel's other son, was the rabbi of the community of the Sighet hasidim, and was supported by the followers of the Kosov sect as well.
Rabbi Mayer established a yeshiva for 45 teenagers. In January 1940, Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum of Satmer visited the town to support his cousin Rabbi Chaim Teitelbaum's claim to the rabbinate.
In late May, 1944, the Nazis marched into town. Shortly thereafter the town's Jewish residents were deported to concentration camps. Rabbi Teitelbaum was put alive in fire, and Rabbi Grunwald and his family were taken to death camps in Auschwitz. While his wife and 9 children perished in Auschwitz, Rabbi Grunwald survived and after the war was instrumental in establishing and strengthening Orthodox Judaism in Toronto. He died in 1965.