Biala (Hasidic dynasty)

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Hasidic dynasty of the Peshischa line, founded in Biała Podlaska, Poland; its Bnei Brak Rebbe has urged followers to buy homes in a West Bank settlement

Hasidic dynasties
Overview

Hasidic dynasties | Haredi and Hasidic groups in the US | Chabad-Lubavitch movement

Dynasties

Belz | Biala | Bobov | Boyan | Breslov | Chabad-Lubavitch | Chernobyl | Dushinsky | Ger | Karlin-Stolin | Lelov | Munkacs | Nadvorna | Pupa | Rachmastrivka | Sadigura | Sanz-Klausenburg | Sassov | Satmar | Shomer Emunim | Skver | Slonim | Spinka | Toldos Aharon | Toldos Avraham Yitzchak | Tosh | Vizhnitz

Founders and early masters

Baal Shem Tov | Dov Ber of Mezeritch | Elimelech of Lizhensk | Shneur Zalman of Liadi | Nachman of Breslov | Moshe Leib of Sassov

Present-day rebbes

Aaron Teitelbaum | Zalman Teitelbaum | Yissachar Dov Rokeach | Yaakov Aryeh Alter | Yisroel Hager | Ben Zion Aryeh Leibish Halberstam | David Twersky | Boruch Meir Yaakov Shochet

20th-century rebbes

Joel Teitelbaum | Aharon Rokeach | Menachem Mendel Schneerson

Politics and communal bodies

Agudat Yisrael | United Torah Judaism | Degel HaTorah | Edah HaChareidis | Neturei Karta | Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations

Places

Uman | Stamford Hill | Williamsburg, Brooklyn | Kiryas Joel, New York | Bnei Brak | Beitar Illit | Modi'in Illit

United Kingdom

Satmar institutions in the UK | Belz Communities | Satmar Kolel

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Biala
Founded Biała Podlaska, Poland
Founder Yaakov Yitzchak Rabinowicz (1847–1905)
Leader Rebbe
Headquarters Bnei Brak, Israel
Type Hasidic dynasty (Peshischa line)
Notes

Biala (Yiddish: Byale) is a Hasidic dynasty founded in the town of Biała Podlaska in eastern Poland by Yaakov Yitzchak Rabinowicz (1847–1905). It is a branch of Peshischa (Przysucha) Hasidism.[2][1] After the Holocaust the dynasty was continued in Jerusalem, and later rebbes of the family have led communities in Israel and London. A US charity in Lakewood, New Jersey, raises money for a Biala yeshiva.[2][1][3][4]

In 2017 a Biala Rebbe in Bnei Brak urged his followers to buy homes in Maale Amos, an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank.[5]

History

Poland

The Peshischa school of Hasidism was founded by Yaakov Yitzchak Rabinowicz, known as the Holy Jew (1766–1814). According to the YIVO Encyclopedia, its approach was continued in the courts of Kotsk, Ger, Vurke, Aleksander, Izhbits and Byale (Biala).[1]

The Holy Jew's son Yerachmiel Tzvi (1784–1839) and grandson Natan David of Szydłowiec (1814–1865) led Hasidic courts. Natan David's son, Yaakov Yitzchak (1847–1905), founded the Biala court and reintroduced Peshischa practices.[1] According to the Biała Podlaska yizkor book, he inherited his position from his father-in-law, Rabbi Yehoshua of Lentchna (Ostrowa), who had no sons. He probably settled in Biała because the town had a railway station. His court stood at the end of Mezricher Street, and thousands of Hasidim came to it from across Poland. He wrote the books Divrei Binah and Yishrei Lev. He died in Warsaw in Adar 1905 and was buried near his father-in-law.[6][2]

Four of his sons became rebbes in different towns:[6]

His daughters married the Radzymin and Skierniewice rebbes.[6]

Tzvi Rabinowicz gives a different account of the sons' courts: the eldest, Nathan David (1868–1930), in Parczew, where he was the father of Boruch Rabinowicz, later Rebbe of Munkács; Meir Shlomo Yehuda (1868–1942) in Międzyrzec; Avraham Yehoshua Heschel (1875–1933) in Lublin; and Yerahmiel Tzvi in Siedlce.[7] Rabinowicz dates the founder's death to 23 Adar 1905 in one passage and to 1906 in another, and names one of the founder's daughters, Golda Bluma, as the wife of Yosef Tzvi Kalish.[8][7]

After the Holocaust

According to YIVO, the founder's son Yerachmiel Tzvi (1878–1905) was a Talmudist, violinist and artist who died young. His son Yechiel Yehoshua (1901–1982) escaped from Poland through Siberia and Kurdistan and reached the Land of Israel in 1947. All four of his sons became rabbis.[1] The Pinkas Hakehillot says Yechiel Yehoshua continued the dynasty in Jerusalem, and that three of his sons were known as "Admor of Biala".[2]

Tzvi Rabinowicz gives Yerachmiel Tzvi's dates as 1880–1906, and his account differs from the yizkor book's statement that the Siedlce son died a year before his father. He writes that Yerachmiel Tzvi designed a shiviti plaque now kept in the Biala beit midrash in Jerusalem and married Havah Epstein of Ozarov in 1898. He became rebbe in Siedlce on 8 Iyar 1906 and died on 7 Heshvan, aged 26, leaving five children.[9][6] His widow married Immanuel Weltfreind of Przedbórz in 1926 and died of typhus in the Warsaw Ghetto. Their eldest son, Nathan David (1899–1947), later became the Biala Rabbi of London (see UK), and a daughter, Perl, married Alter Perlow of Koidanov and founded a religious institute for women in the Vilna Ghetto.[10]

Rabinowicz gives Yechiel Yehoshua's date of birth as 5 Shevat 1900; YIVO gives 1901. He was brought up by his grandfather, Arye Leibish of Ozarov, and then by uncles in Międzyrzec and Radzymin, married Beila Hannah Pesha Barenholz, and became Rebbe of Siedlce in 1924.[10][11] Rabinowicz writes that he was arrested by the Soviet authorities in 1940 but escaped, spent ten months in Baranowicze, and was then taken to Uzbekistan, Siberia and, in 1941, Tashkent; YIVO describes his escape as being through Siberia and Kurdistan.[11][1] After the war he went back to Poland and then to Paris, and with the help of Rabbi Solomon Schonfeld he reached Tel Aviv on Lag BaOmer 1947. According to Rabinowicz, he lived on Zevulun Street in Tel Aviv for eight years before moving to Yosef ben Matityahu Street in Jerusalem on 15 Tammuz 1955; the Pinkas Hakehillot places his leadership in Jerusalem without mentioning Tel Aviv.[11][2] His prefaces were collected as Helkat Yehoshua. He kept a small kollel, and there was a Biala shtiebl (small prayer house) in Bnei Brak; Rabinowicz says a dissenting shtiebl near his home caused him grief. He had a stroke in Elul 1977, died on 21 Shevat 1982 and was buried on the Mount of Olives.[11][12] His daughter Gila (1919–1996) married the industrialist Hayyim Meir Yehiel Gothelf, a benefactor of the Biala institutions.[13]

The four sons

Rabinowicz writes that all four of Yechiel Yehoshua's sons became rebbes, and that most of his followers went to the youngest.[14]

  • Bezalel Simha Menahem Benzion was born in Siedlce in 1935. He was one of the Tehran Children, who reached the Land of Israel on 18 February 1943, and studied at the Ponevezh Yeshiva under Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman. In 1958 he married Beila Bracha (Betty, died 1996), a daughter of Avraham Moshe Babad of Sunderland, and studied at the Gateshead kollel. Rabinowicz describes him as rabbi of Lugano (see Switzerland) and Rebbe of Biala in Jerusalem. In 1997 he married Mrs Steinwurzel, a widowed daughter of the rosh yeshiva of Bobov in New York.[14][15]
  • Yerahmiel Tzvi Yehuda was born in Siedlce in 1921. Rabbi Solomon Schonfeld brought him to London in 1945, where he lived with his uncle, the Biala Rebbe of London, and studied at the London Mesifta. He married Golda Galitsky of Lugano in 1954, studied at the Lugano kollel and emigrated to Israel in 1968, where he studied at the Vizhnitz kollel. Rabinowicz says he called himself Rebbe of Przysucha-Biala and had a small beit midrash in Jerusalem. Of his sons, Simha Benzion Isaac wrote Piske Teshuva (1991), Yaakov Shalom Elimelech led a Skierniewice shtiebl in Haifa, Mendel was principal of the Ruzhin yeshiva in Bnei Brak, and Baruch Leib became rabbi of the Biala shtiebl in London.[15][16]
  • David Matityahu was born in Siedlce on the eve of Hanukkah 1929. He went through Siberia and Turkestan, reached the Land of Israel with the Tehran Children and studied at Ponevezh. He set up the Nahalat Yehoshua beit midrash in Bnei Brak, founded Yeshivat Or Kedoshim and reprinted his ancestors' works. He became rebbe when his father died in 1982, died on 24 Tishri 1997 and was buried on the Mount of Olives. His sons were Shmuel, Yaakov Menahem, Avraham Yerahmiel, Pinhas Yirmiyahu and Aharon, and Yaakov Menahem succeeded him on 18 Elul 1998.[16][17]
  • Yitzhak Yaakov was born on 15 Tevet 1927. He married Miriam Sheindel Kaner in 1950 and lived in Haifa and later in Bnei Brak.[17][9]

Rebbes and succession

Biala line (from the Peshischa founder)
Name Dates Base Notes
Yaakov Yitzchak Rabinowicz, "the Holy Jew" 1766–1814 Peshischa (Przysucha) Founder of the Peshischa school.[1]
Yerachmiel Tzvi Rabinowicz 1784–1839 – Son of the Holy Jew.[1]
Natan David Rabinowicz 1814–1865 Szydłowiec Son of Yerachmiel Tzvi.[1]
Yaakov Yitzchak Rabinowicz 1847–1905 Biała Podlaska Founder of the Biala court.[1][6]
Yerachmiel Tzvi Rabinowicz 1878–1905 (YIVO); 1880–1906 (Rabinowicz) Siedlce (Rabinowicz) Son of the founder; Talmudist, violinist and artist.[1][9]
Yechiel Yehoshua Rabinowicz 1901–1982 (YIVO); 1900–1982 (Rabinowicz) Siedlce; Tel Aviv (1947); Jerusalem (from 1955, Rabinowicz) Reached the Land of Israel in 1947.[1][2][10][11]
Nathan David Rabinowicz born 1900 (Maynard); 1899–1947 (Rabinowicz) London (from 1927) Grandson of the founder; the "Biala Rabbi" of London.[3][10]
Bezalel Simha Menahem Benzion Rabinowicz born 1935 Jerusalem; Lugano Youngest son of Yechiel Yehoshua; most of his father's followers went to him (Rabinowicz).[14][15]
Yerahmiel Tzvi Yehuda Rabinowicz born 1921 Jerusalem Son of Yechiel Yehoshua; Rebbe of Przysucha-Biala (Rabinowicz).[15][16]
David Matityahu Rabinowicz 1929–1997 Bnei Brak Son of Yechiel Yehoshua; rebbe from 1982 (Rabinowicz).[16][17]
Yitzhak Yaakov Rabinowicz born 1927 Bnei Brak Son of Yechiel Yehoshua (Rabinowicz).[17][9]
Yaakov Menahem Rabinowicz rebbe from 1998 Bnei Brak Son and successor of David Matityahu (Rabinowicz).[17]

Institutions

Israel

In 2017 Israel National News described Bnei Brak as the base of the Biala Rebbe who wrote to his followers about Maale Amos (see below).[5]

Tzvi Rabinowicz, writing in 2000, lists Biala institutions in Jerusalem and Bnei Brak. In Jerusalem, Bezalel Simha Menahem Benzion Rabinowicz had a yeshiva and the publishing house Machon Ginze Mahariz at 45 Sorotskin Street in Kiryat Unsdorf, and controlled his father's beit midrash on Yosef ben Matityahu Street in Geula; Yerahmiel Tzvi Yehuda had a small beit midrash.[15][16] In Bnei Brak, David Matityahu set up the Nahalat Yehoshua beit midrash and Yeshivat Or Kedoshim at 14 Safed Street, built between 1964 and 1967, and had shtieblech on Yerushalayim Street in Bnei Brak and at Ohele Yosef in Jerusalem. A son-in-law, Yehuda Zeev Kornreich, led the Biala shtiebl in Bnei Brak.[17]

Occupied East Jerusalem and West Bank

The Waze live map lists a Biala Synagogue on Kedushat Levi Street (רחוב קדושת לוי), near HaRav Shach Street, in Beitar Illit, an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank.[18] See Settlements.

Switzerland

Tzvi Rabinowicz describes Bezalel Simha Menahem Benzion Rabinowicz as rabbi of Lugano, whose Jewish population he puts at about 800, including 50 Hasidic families. He says he was also the kashrut supervisor at the Hotel Silberhorn in Grindelwald.[14][15] Yerahmiel Tzvi Yehuda Rabinowicz studied at the Lugano kollel after his marriage in 1954.[15]

UK

Nathan David Rabinowicz, a grandson of the founder, was born in Ozarov in 1900 and came to London on 18 December 1927. He set up a shtiebel (small prayer house) at 6 Osborn Place, Chicksand Street, off Brick Lane, in the East End. In 1931 he moved to 10 St Marks Road, Dalston. He fell ill in 1947, and his ethical will was published in London by the Narodiczky Press. His son was the writer Rabbi Dr Harry Rabinowicz.[3]

Tzvi Rabinowicz gives Nathan David's dates as 1899–1947.[10] He writes that Nathan David's nephew Yerahmiel Tzvi Yehuda Rabinowicz was brought to London by Rabbi Solomon Schonfeld in 1945, lived with him and studied at the London Mesifta, and that Yerahmiel Tzvi Yehuda's son Baruch Leib, who married a daughter of Yeshaya Lew, head of the Satmar community in London, became rabbi of the Biala shtiebl in London.[15][16]

The Biala Synagogue Trust is based at 32 Leadale Road, London N16 6DA, and operates in Hackney and Haringey. Its chair is Rabbi Leone Rabinowitz.[19]

United States

American Friends of Biala Yeshiva Inc is a charity at Lakewood, New Jersey (see Finances and charities).[4]

Settlements

In October 2017 Israel National News reported that the Biala Rebbe of Bnei Brak, whom it named as Avraham Yerachmiel Rabinowicz, had written to his followers urging those looking to buy a home to buy in Maale Amos, in south-eastern Gush Etzion. Citing the Haredi website Behadrei Haredim, INN quoted the letter as saying that "at this time there is no other place better to purchase apartments than Maale Amos", given rising housing costs. The Rebbe also recommended Maale Amos to investors, writing that "it is clear that the investors there will earn a lot". Yoel Silver, deputy head of the Gush Etzion Regional Council, welcomed "this important community".[5]

Yeshiva World News named the Rebbe who wrote the letter as "Rabbi Tzvi Rabinowicz, the leader of the central rabbinic council of Agudas Yisroel". It reported that he recommended the town "especially for young newlywed couples" and promised to set up Biala institutions there.[20] Matzav.com named him as "Rav Ben Tzion Rabinowitcz".[21]

Maale Amos lies about 20 km south-east of Jerusalem.[20] It was founded in 1981.[21] INN said the Haredi community "now makes up a third of all residents" of Judea and Samaria, the Israeli government's term for the West Bank. It named Beitar Illit and Modiin Illit as the main Haredi towns there, along with Tel Tzion, Emmanuel and Givat Zeev Hahadasha.[5] Matzav said Haredi towns hold a third of the West Bank's Jewish population.[21]

Maale Amos, Beitar Illit, Modiin Illit, Tel Tzion, Emmanuel and Givat Zeev Hahadasha are Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. In 2024 the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found that Israel's settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem "have been established and are being maintained in violation of international law".[22]

Politics

Yeshiva World News described the Biala Rebbe named in its 2017 report as "the leader of the central rabbinic council of Agudas Yisroel" (Agudat Yisrael).[20]

Tzvi Rabinowicz writes that Yechiel Yehoshua Rabinowicz supported Agudat Yisrael and the Hinuch Atzmai school network, was a member of the Moetzet Gedolei HaTorah, signed a proclamation against abortion and supported Keren Shemitta. He urged his followers to vote for the United Religious Front and opposed military service for women.[11][12]

Finances and charities

Charities linked to Biala
Charity Registration Address Latest year Income Spending Trustees or directors
Friends of Biala Limited Charity 271377; company 00803733; registered 3 June 1976 74 Whitehall Road, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear NE8 4ET Year to 31 March 2026 £119,188 £80,712 Yechezkel Michael Halberstadt (chair), Michael De Jong, Moshe Thomas Glausiusz[23]
Biala Synagogue Trust Charity 1071797; registered 1 October 1998 32 Leadale Road, London N16 6DA Year to 31 March 2025 £1,904,440 £892,376 Leone Rabinowitz (chair), Miriam Rabinowitz, Maurice Freund[19]
American Friends of Biala Yeshiva Inc EIN 11-2966678; tax-exempt since October 1990 Lakewood, New Jersey Year to December 2024 $2,877,641 $2,635,598 Jeffrey Rabinovich, Jeffrey Rabinowitz[4]

Friends of Biala Limited is a grant-making charity that operates throughout England and in Israel.[23] Most of the Biala Synagogue Trust's income in 2024–25 came from donations (£1.71 million), with £189,760 from investments.[19] In 2023 American Friends of Biala Yeshiva had revenue of $2,072,148 and expenses of $2,025,792; its net assets at the end of 2024 were $472,953.[4]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 Glenn Dynner, Pshiskhe Hasidic Dynasty YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe, accessed 26 October 2026.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 JewishGen, Biala Podlaska Pinkas Hakehillot Polin, vol. 7 (JewishGen translation), accessed 26 October 2026.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Jeffrey Maynard, The Will of the Biala Rabbi, London, 1948 Jewish Miscellanies, 19 January 2020, accessed 26 October 2026.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 ProPublica, American Friends of Biala Yeshiva Inc Nonprofit Explorer, accessed 26 October 2026.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Tzvi Lev, Hassidic Rebbe instructs followers to live in Judean town Israel National News, 26 October 2017, accessed 26 October 2026.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Asher Hoffer, The Rebbe's Court Biała Podlaska yizkor book, pp. 264–274, translated by Gloria Berkenstat Freund (JewishGen), accessed 26 October 2026.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Tzvi Rabinowicz, Hasidism in Israel: A History of the Hasidic Movement, Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 2000, p. 272.
  8. ↑ Tzvi Rabinowicz, Hasidism in Israel: A History of the Hasidic Movement, Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 2000, p. 162.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Tzvi Rabinowicz, Hasidism in Israel: A History of the Hasidic Movement, Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 2000, p. 129.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 Tzvi Rabinowicz, Hasidism in Israel: A History of the Hasidic Movement, Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 2000, p. 130.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 Tzvi Rabinowicz, Hasidism in Israel: A History of the Hasidic Movement, Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 2000, p. 131.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Tzvi Rabinowicz, Hasidism in Israel: A History of the Hasidic Movement, Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 2000, p. 132.
  13. ↑ Tzvi Rabinowicz, Hasidism in Israel: A History of the Hasidic Movement, Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 2000, p. 133.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 Tzvi Rabinowicz, Hasidism in Israel: A History of the Hasidic Movement, Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 2000, p. 125.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 Tzvi Rabinowicz, Hasidism in Israel: A History of the Hasidic Movement, Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 2000, p. 126.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 Tzvi Rabinowicz, Hasidism in Israel: A History of the Hasidic Movement, Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 2000, p. 127.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4 17.5 Tzvi Rabinowicz, Hasidism in Israel: A History of the Hasidic Movement, Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 2000, p. 128.
  18. ↑ Waze, Biala Synagogue, Betar Illit Waze live map, accessed 27 October 2026.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 Charity Commission for England and Wales, Biala Synagogue Trust, charity 1071797: full print register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk, accessed 26 October 2026.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 Yeshiva World News, Biala Rebbe Sends Followers to Live in Gush Etzion The Yeshiva World, 29 October 2017, accessed 26 October 2026.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 Matzav.com, Biale Rebbe Urges Move To West Bank Matzav.com, 18 November 2017, accessed 26 October 2026.
  22. ↑ International Court of Justice, Summary of the Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024 icj-cij.org, 19 July 2024, accessed 26 October 2026.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Charity Commission for England and Wales, Friends of Biala Limited, charity 271377: full print register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk, accessed 26 October 2026.
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