Pinchas Kahlenberg Synagogue Interior

Pinchas Kahlenberg was born in 19121. He is the son of Rabbi Moïse Kalhenberg and Chana Gittel Kahlenberg, née Teitelbaum (July 7, 1883 – September 1942). His paternal grandfather is Rabbi Avraham Yehudah Feibush Kahlenberg, a Posseq at the court of the Kopycznitzer Rebbe2. His maternal grandfather is Rabbi Yisrael Mordechai Teitelbaum, a Hasid from Husyatin3. Pinchas Kahlenberg comes from a long line of rabbis and he follows their path. His origins are Hasidic, but he officiates in more modern communities. His brother, Marc Kalhenberg, is the rabbi of Brussels. Pinchas Kahlenberg has a double education: from rabbi and Hasan. Pinchas Kahlenberg's parents are interned at Camp de la Lande de Monts, in Monts, Indre-et-Loire, having taken refuge in Bordeaux, after the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine by the Nazis. They were deported from Drancy to Auschwitz by Convoy No. 31 on September 11, 1942 and murdered the day after their arrival at Auschwitz. A week later, his paternal grandfather was also assassinated. The two brothers, Marc and Pinchas Kahlenberg, survived the war but remained marked by the Holocaust. Pinchas Kahlenberg participated in the development of the religious youth group, Bné Akiba Européen, by giving regular lectures6. In exchanges of letters with the German Jewish painter Ludwig Meidner, one can perceive the interests of Pinchas Kahlenberg, in particular on the subject of the relations between Judaism (Orthodox) and painting, himself also being a watercolourist7.