Irving M. Bunim was a businessman, philanthropist, and a lay leader of Orthodox Jewry, in particular the Young Israel movement in the United States from the 1930s until his death in 1980.

[5] Bunim was born in 1901[6] in Valozhyn, in the Vilna Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Belarus),[7] then the major Torah centre of Europe and the home of the first Yeshiva, Etz Chaim.

Later, the Vaad's scope expanded to include all suffering Jews in Europe and helped them by sending food and other relief supplies, or by giving them refuge in non-European countries of safety.

Once, because the Torah gives life-saving activity priority over Sabbath observance, and under express instruction from prominent rabbis, Bunim took a cab ride on Shabbat to raise funds so that the Mir Yeshiva students and teachers could escape to Curaçao.

Bunim was also involved with Chinuch Atzmai, Israel's independent ultra-Orthodox elementary school system, aiding its chairman Stephen Klein, and Rabbi Aharon Kotler, its founder and head, and frequently spoke on behalf of the organization in America and helped raise funds for it.

He was a raconteur, filled with anecdotes and parables, a skill reflected in his three-volume commentary on Pirkei Avot, Ethics from Sinai.

[15] Irving's daughter, Chana Rubin Ausubel, wrote about her father's life and teachings,[9][16] as did her brother Amos.

Irving's son, Rabbi Amos Bunim, who on many projects was the right-hand man to his father, passed away Saturday, May 7, 2011.