Menachem Mendel Taub

Menachem Mendel Taub was born in 1923 in Marghita

Taub was born in 1923 in Marghita, Transylvania. His father was Rabbi Yehuda Yechiel Taub, and his family descended from Rabbi Yitzchak Izak of Kaliv, founder of the dynasty. Before World War II he married Chana Sara Shapiro, daughter of Rabbi Pinchas Shapiro.

In 1944 he was deported to Auschwitz, where Josef Mengele performed experiments on him. These left him unable to have children or grow a beard. He was later moved to Breslau and then to Bergen-Belsen.

After the war he reunited with his wife in Sweden, and in 1947 they moved to Cleveland, Ohio. In 1963 he founded Kiryas Kaliv in Rishon LeZion. He later moved his center to Bnei Brak and then to Jerusalem.

He spoke widely about the Holocaust and encouraged saying Shema Yisrael in memory of its victims at the end of religious events. He started a Holocaust encyclopedia and wrote the song Nar Emunah. He also gave lectures to doctors, police officers and other groups.

In 2012 he married Sheindel Malnik, and they later divorced. He died on 28 April 2019. At his funeral his step-grandson Yisrael Mordechai Yoel Horowitz was named his successor.