Avraham Mordechai Alter
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| Avraham Mordechai Alter | ||
|---|---|---|
| Gerrer Rebbe | ||
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| The Gerrer Rebbe at a prayer gathering in the Hurva Synagogue, November 1942 | ||
| Term | 1905 – 3 June 1948 | |
| Full name | Avrohom Mordka Alter | |
| Main work | Imrei Emeth | |
| Born | 25 December, 1866 | |
| Ger | ||
| Died | 3 June, 1948 | |
| Jerusalem | ||
| Buried | Sfath Emeth Yeshiva, Jerusalem | |
| Dynasty | Ger | |
| Predecessor | Yehuda Aryeh Leib Alter | |
| Successor | Yisrael Alter | |
| Father | Yehuda Arye Leib Alter | |
| Mother | Yocheved Rivka Kaminer | |
| Wife1 | Chaya Ruda Czarna | |
| Issue1 | Myer Alter Yitschok Alter Feyge Alter Esther Alter Yisrael Alter Simchah Bunim Alter |
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| Wife 2 | Feyge Muntshe Biderman | |
| Issue 2 | Pinchas Menachem Alter. | |
Avraham Mordechai Alter, (December 25, 1866 – June 3, 1948), also known as the Imrei Emes after the works he authored, was the third spiritual leader of the hasidic dynasty of Ger, a position he held from 1905 till 1948. He was one of the founders of the Agudas Israel in Poland and was influential in establishing a network of Jewish schools there. It is claimed that at one stage he led over 200,000 Hasidim.
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[edit] Family
He had eight children by his first wife, Chaya Ruda Czarna, daughter of Noach Czarny, a prominent Gerrer chosid in Biala. His eldest son, Rabbi Myer Alter, who was a Torah scholar and businessman, perished in Treblinka during the Holocaust with his children and grandchildren. His second son, Rabbi Yitzchak Alter, died in 5695 (1934) in Poland.
In 1922 his wife Chaya Ruda died. Some time later he married his niece Feyge Muntshe Biderman, who bore him his youngest child, Pinchos Menachem, in 1926.
In 1924 Rabbi Avrohom Mordechai visited the Land of Israel together with his brother in-law, Rabbi Hirsh Heynekh Lewin, his son-in-law Rabbi Yitschok Myer Alter and the Sokolover Rebbe, Rabbi Yitschok Zelig Morgensztern. Over a six-week period they visited Jerusalem, Tsfat, Chevron, Tverya and Tel Aviv.[1]
[edit] World War II
During World War II Rabbi Avrohom Mordechai was a prime target of the Nazi authorities in Poland.
He managed to escape to the Palestine in 1940 with several of his sons and began to slowly rebuild his Hasidic dynasty. With the outbreak of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War he was trapped in Jerusalem and died of natural causes during the siege of the city by the Jordanian Arab Legion. He was buried there, in the grounds of the Sfath Emeth yeshiva.
After his death the dynasty continued with his three remaining sons, who became the consecutive next three heads of the Gerrer chasidim worldwide: Rabbi Yisrael Alter (fourth rebbe of Ger); Rabbi Simchah Bunim Alter (fifth rebbe of Ger); and Rabbi Pinchas Menachem Alter (sixth rebbe of Ger).
[edit] See also
[edit] Rebbes of Ger
- Yitzchak Meir Alter (1798–1866)
- Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter (1847–1905)
- Avraham Mordechai Alter (1866–1948)
- Yisrael Alter (1895–1977)
- Simchah Bunim Alter (1898–1992)
- Pinchas Menachem Alter (1926–1996)
- Yaakov Aryeh Alter (b. 1939)
[edit] References
- ^ Yitschak Alfasi, בית גור The House of Ger, vol 2, p 55
