Ger (Hasidic dynasty)
Hasidic dynasty of the Alter family from Góra Kalwaria, Poland; the largest Hasidic group in Israel and the leading force in Agudat Yisrael
| Ger (Gur) | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1859 Góra Kalwaria (Ger), Warsaw district, Poland |
| Founder | Yitzchak Meir Alter (1799–1866) |
| Leader | Rebbe Yaakov Aryeh Alter (since 1996) |
| Headquarters | Jerusalem |
| Type | Hasidic dynasty |
| Languages | Notes |
Ger (also Gur; Yiddish: גער) is a Hasidic dynasty named after the town of Góra Kalwaria in the Warsaw district of Poland. Until the Holocaust it had the largest following of any Hasidic group in central Poland, and YIVO describes it as distinguished by its emphasis on yeshiva-style study and by its leaders' deep involvement in political and public affairs.[3] Rebuilt in Jerusalem after the Second World War, it is now the largest Hasidic group in Israel, with smaller centres in New York, London and elsewhere.[3] Its rebbe, Yaakov Aryeh Alter, has led the dynasty since 1996.[1] Ger directs the Agudat Yisrael party, one of the two components of United Torah Judaism.[4]
History
The dynasty was founded by Yitzchak Meir Rothenberg (1799–1866), known by the title of his work Chiddushei HaRim; the family name was changed to Alter after the Polish uprising of 1831. He was a leading figure in the circle of his brother-in-law Menachem Mendel of Kotzk (1787–1859), and became the chief spokesman of the Przysucha–Kotzk school after the Kotzker withdrew into seclusion in 1840. He campaigned against the 1846–1851 legislation intended to force Jews to give up traditional dress, and was briefly jailed. After first trying to base himself in Warsaw, he moved to Góra Kalwaria around 1860, and the town remained the movement's centre until 1939.[3]
His grandson Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter (1847–1905), known as the Sfas Emes after his five-volume collection of homilies, formally became rebbe in 1871 after a five-year interregnum. YIVO calls Sefat emet one of the most important works of Hasidic theology and homiletics.[3]
His son Avraham Mordechai Alter (1866–1948), the Imrei Emes, organised his following into a body with considerable political influence. He was a leading figure in the founding of Agudas Yisroel in 1912, and Ger Hasidim became a major constituency of the party; members close to the rebbe sat in the Polish parliament and later in the Knesset. He escaped from Warsaw and reached Jerusalem in 1940, where he worked to establish a new centre for Ger.[3]
That centre was built up mainly by his three sons, who led in turn, and then by a grandson.[3] The fifth rebbe died childless and was succeeded by his brother; the current rebbe is the son of the sixth.[1]
| Rebbe | Known as | Lifespan | Led |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yitzchak Meir Alter | Chiddushei HaRim | 1799–1866 | c. 1859–1866 |
| Interregnum of about five years[3] | |||
| Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter | Sfas Emes | 1847–1905 | 1871–1905 |
| Avraham Mordechai Alter | Imrei Emes | 1866–1948 | 1905–1948 |
| Yisrael Alter | Beis Yisroel | 1895–1977 | 1948–1977 |
| Simcha Bunim Alter | Lev Simcha | 1898–1992 | 1977–1992 |
| Pinchas Menachem Alter | Pnei Menachem | 1926–1996 | 1992–1996 |
| Yaakov Aryeh Alter | 1996– | ||
Sources for the table: YIVO;[3] Jewish Chronicle.[1]
Return to Góra Kalwaria
In April 2026 the Ger court's historic building in Góra Kalwaria, where its rebbes lived before the Holocaust, was returned to the dynasty's ownership after 15 years of effort and a purchase costing millions of dollars. The work was led by Rabbi Yonatan Bornstein, chief executive of the Union of Gur Institutions, and funded by the Werdiger and Fishoff families from the United States. The ceremony was attended by Rabbi Nechemia Alter, the rebbe's eldest son; a mikveh was installed and the old study hall restored.[5]
2019 split
In October 2019 the rebbe's cousin, Rabbi Shaul Alter, son of the seventh rebbe, broke away and held an event attended by hundreds of followers, despite warnings that those attending would be barred from Ger institutions. Shaul Alter had headed the Sfas Emes yeshiva in Jerusalem until the rebbe changed the style of Talmud study in Ger yeshivas, which led to the yeshiva's closure in 2016. School enrolment forms for a new network were handed out at the event. The Jewish Chronicle reported that the overwhelming majority of Ger Hasidim remained with Yaakov Aryeh Alter.[1] The Jerusalem Post reported that the splinter group had begun setting up its own institutions.[6]
Politics
The Jewish Chronicle noted that Ger exercises considerable political control within the strictly Orthodox community in Israel through its leadership of Agudas Yisroel.[1] According to Al-Monitor, the rebbe directs Agudat Yisrael, one of the two parties that make up United Torah Judaism. In 1999 he ordered the party to join the government of Ehud Barak, and 18 months later ordered it to leave, bringing the government down.[4]
| Representative | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Yaakov Litzman | Leader of United Torah Judaism; de facto head of the Health Ministry from 2009, except 2013–2015 | In April 2020 Channel 12 reported that he had offered to move from the Health Ministry to the Housing portfolio, apparently on the instruction of Yaakov Aryeh Alter.[7] He left the Knesset in 2022 under a plea agreement.[4] |
| Yitzhak Goldknopf | Chosen by the rebbe in 2022 to represent Ger in the Knesset; chairman of United Torah Judaism; Minister of Housing and Construction until June 2025 | Resigned as housing minister on 12 June 2025 over the failure to pass a bill exempting most Haredim from IDF service.[4][8] |
Conscription
On 12 June 2025 Yitzhak Goldknopf resigned as Minister of Housing and Construction. In a letter to Benjamin Netanyahu he said that before the government was formed in late 2022 he had received a written promise that a new Haredi draft bill would pass by the time the 2023 budget did. The Jerusalem Post described him as having consistently taken the most hawkish position on Haredi IDF service.[8]
In September 2024 IDF Radio reported that Ger had reached a deal with the Ministry of Defence: about 250 Hasidim would serve in police roles in return for exemptions for the rest. Rabbi Avraham Binyamin Zilberberg, head of the Ger yeshiva in Hatzor HaGlilit, denied the report in a letter to Goldknopf: "It never happened." He wrote that the only aim was to restore the arrangement under which full-time Torah students were exempt, "without conditions and without deals".[9]
Settlements
Biale and his co-authors write that the heads of Ger, Vizhnits and Belz "on the whole took a more flexible and dovish stance on the question of the territories that Israel came to control after the 1967 War" than the Lubavitcher Rebbe.[10]
In August 2024, as housing minister, Yitzhak Goldknopf visited the newly recognised settlement of Evyatar in Samaria with Settlements Minister Orit Strock. He told residents that Israel needed to "establish more 'Evyatars' in Samaria, the Galilee, and the Negev", and said that after 7 October "our response must be to settle as much of the Land of Israel as possible".[11]
In June 2026, after appeals from the mayors of Beitar Illit, Modi'in Illit and Immanuel, Goldknopf wrote to Netanyahu "on behalf of 200,000 ultra-Orthodox residents of Judea and Samaria". He protested that a government plan for temporary sites in rural West Bank communities left out the Haredi local authorities: "Is the blood of the residents of Beitar Illit, Modi'in Illit, and Emmanuel less red?" He wrote that "the ultra-Orthodox public is part of the settlement in the Holy Land".[12] The International Court of Justice found in 2024 that Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem "have been established and are being maintained in violation of international law".[13]
United States and United Kingdom
YIVO notes smaller Ger centres in New York and London.[3] For related organisations see Ger/Gur non profits in the US and Ger/Gur non profits in the UK.
See also
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Daniel Sugarman, Ger, one of the largest chasidic dynasties in the world, splits after 160 years of unity Jewish Chronicle, 24 October 2019, accessed 27 October 2026.
- ↑ Yitzchok Frankfurter, A Conversation With Professor Marcin Wodziński on Hasidism The Seforim Blog, 2 September 2018 (reprinted from Ami Magazine, 11 July 2018), accessed 27 October 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 Arthur Green, Ger Hasidic Dynasty YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe, accessed 27 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Israel Hershkovitz, Israel’s Gur Hassidic leader picks next Knesset representative Al-Monitor, 6 June 2022, accessed 27 October 2026.
- ↑ Israel National News, Gur Hasidim reclaim their founders' house Israel National News, 26 April 2026, accessed 27 October 2026.
- ↑ Jeremy Sharon, Rebellion in Gur dynasty threatens Israel’s biggest hassidic group Jerusalem Post, 23 October 2019, accessed 27 October 2026.
- ↑ Times of Israel staff, Litzman said willing to leave Health Ministry for Housing portfolio Times of Israel, 23 April 2020 (archived 6 September 2022), accessed 27 October 2026.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Eliav Breuer, Ultra-Orthodox minister Yitzhak Goldknopf resigns over IDF draft laws Jerusalem Post, 12 June 2025, accessed 27 October 2026.
- ↑ Gila Isaacson, Head of Gur Yeshiva denies draft exemption deal for Gur Hasidim, "It never happened." JFeed, 5 September 2024, accessed 27 October 2026.
- ↑ David Biale, David Assaf, Benjamin Brown, Uriel Gellman, Samuel C. Heilman, Moshe Rosman, Gadi Sagiv and Marcin Wodziński, Hasidism: A New History, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2018, p. 713.
- ↑ JNS, Ministers visit newly recognized Samaria town of Evyatar JNS, 2 August 2024, accessed 27 October 2026.
- ↑ Anna Barsky, Goldknopf protests 'exclusion' of haredi West Bank settlements from budget Jerusalem Post, 11 June 2026, accessed 27 October 2026.
- ↑ International Court of Justice, Summary of the Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024 icj-cij.org, 19 July 2024, accessed 26 October 2026.