Rav Akiva Glasner (Tishrei 29, 5717 / 1956 - 68th Yahrzeit)
A descendant of the Chasam Sofer and of Rav Akiva Eiger, Rav Glasner succeeded his father, Rav Moshe Shmuel Glasner, as Chief Rav of Klausenburg, Romania, in 1922, and served there until the deportation of the Jews in 1944. He was deported to Bergen-Belsen, but was saved from there on the famous “Kasztner train”. (Rudolf Kasztner was a non-religious Hungarian Zionist who struck a deal with Adolf Eichmann to save some 1,700 Jews in exchange for trucks. Years later, an Orthodox Israeli journalist accused Kasztner of acting improperly, and Kasztner sued for libel. After a celebrated trial, Kasztner lost. He was exonerated on appeal, but only posthumously, having been murdered in 1957. Among those saved by Kasztner was Rav Yoel Teitelbaum, the Satmar Rebbe.) After the War, Rav Glasner lived in Zurich until his petira at age seventy-one. His works include Dor Dorim and Ikvei HaTzon.
