In 1936 Josef Dunner was appointed Chief Rabbi of East Prussia, serving in its capital, Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia).
The Nazi authorities were, however, prevented from moving him to the Dachau concentration camp as that entailed a land journey through Poland, which refused to allow access to its territory for the transport of political prisoners.
He continued to head the Beis Yaakov Seminary until the mid-1990s, when he handed leadership of the institution to his nephew, Rabbi Binyomin Dunner.
Dunner succeeded Schonfeld in 1960 as head of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, the umbrella organisation of chareidi Jewry in London, and as rabbi of Adath Yisroel.
Dunner further imbued the JSSM with the philosophy of "Torah im Derech Eretz", pioneered by the great Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch—the 19th-century father of German "neo-Orthodoxy".
Its adherents strictly observe orthodox Judaism whilst at the same time are actively engaged in wider society as loyal citizens of the country of their residence.
[2] Dunner also subsequently served as European President of Agudath Israel, the main organisation representing the political interests of azionistic Orthodox Jews.
Typically, he argued that if kosher meat had to be imported, the costs would become so prohibitive that the largely poor Orthodox communities of Stamford Hill and beyond would effectively be forced to become vegetarians.
In his early years at the Adath and UOHC he chaired the Kashrus Committee (Kedassia), where he took a personal interest in seeing that all the requirements of halacha were met.