The Jewish community of Khust was founded in the mid-eighteenth century in the then Kingdom of Hungary. Within a century of its founding, the Khust community rose to great prominence due to the influence of the venerable scholar, Rabbi Moshe Schick, (“Mahara’m Schick”) (1807-1879) who served as its rabbi from 1861 until his passing. Rabbi Schick’s scholarship and piety was unparalleled, and he served as mentor to most of the Kingdom’s Orthodox Rabbis.

He was succeeded by Rabbi Yoel Tzvi Klein (d. 1892), author of Beis HaYotzer, and then by the eminent Rabbi Moshe Greenwald (1853-1910), progenitor of the Pupa Chassidic dynasty, via Rabbi Moshe’s son, Rabbi Yaakov Yechezkiya. Among Rabbi Moshe’s many published works is his well known responsa, Arugas HaBosem.

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