Yad Vashem mourns the passing of Yad Vashem Pillar and Holocaust survivor, David Mitzner.
David was born in Warsaw in 1915 to a distinguished family in the sweater manufacturing industry. At the outbreak of WWII, he was recruited by underground organizations as a courier between the Russian- and German-occupied zones, helping people flee the Nazis, as well as reuniting families. Captured once by the Gestapo, he escaped certain death.
In the spring of 1941, David was caught crossing the Russian border without documentation. He was arbitrarily sentenced as an anti-Communist, and sent to the Siberian gulag system. After almost eight years of hard labor he was released; he returned to Warsaw, but found no trace of his family or community. David decided to make a new life for himself in the United States, where he arrived in 1949. There he quickly proved his talent in business; his company, ‘RIDA Development Corporation’ became one of the largest American real estate groups in Poland. “I barely escaped alive from Poland, but now I am known as a successful businessman, a proud Jew and a proud American,” he said.
In 1953, David married Ruth (née Buchbinder), a Polish immigrant to the United States. Ruth's father, Rabbi Jacob Tuvia Buchbinder, led the largest Orthodox synagogue in Harlem, NY, and was a renowned Torah scholar. In 1935, he moved his family to Jerusalem, joining the staff of Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of Israel. Ruth’s mother, Rebbetzin Batya Buchbinder z”l, was a distinguished teacher of Torah in her own right.
David and Ruth's life together centered on their commitment to the Jewish people and its future, as well as their deep love for Israel. As Pillars and dedicated friends of Yad Vashem, they generously supported the development and expansion of the Yad Vashem campus, specifically the Warsaw Ghetto Square. In addition to supporting Yad Vashem, they supported Yeshiva University, dedicated the Mitzner High School in Houston, the Mitzner Family Building of United Orthodox Synagogues and supported many other causes in Israel and the Jewish world. Ruth passed away in 2005.
David and Ruth are survived by their two sons, Jacob and Ira, their extended families, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Ira, who worked together with his father in the family business, has followed his father as a proud and generous supporter of Yad Vashem and many different Jewish and Israeli causes.
“My father taught my brother and me the importance of community involvement and tzedaka,” reflected Ira. “Both my parents were extraordinary role models to our entire family.”
May his memory be a blessing and an inspiration.
