Difference between revisions of "Boyan (Hasidic dynasty)"

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(Heilman 2017 (Who Will Lead Us?, ch. 3) with page refs: early history, the four sons' courts, Mordechai Shlomo in New York, the 1971–83 vacancy and the candidates, Brayer's background and wedding, installation date conflict (Heilman Dec 1983 vs Mishpacha Dec 1984), Meron Lag BaOmer privilege)
(Expand from Rabinowicz, Hasidism in Israel (2000), pp. 151, 155–157, 217: Yitzchak, Mordechai Shlomo, Tiferet Yisrael yeshiva, Brayer family, Betar (West Bank note), Meron; conflicts (1984 vs 1983, Leipzig son, doctorates, dates) attributed)
 
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His son [[Avraham Yaakov Friedman of Sadagora|Avraham Yaakov]] (1819–1883) led the Sadagora court. YIVO says he headed the Volhynia ''kolel'' and raised funds for the [[Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue]] in Jerusalem, named after his father. His elder son, [[Yitzchak Friedman of Boyan|Yitzchak]] (1849–1917), set up his own court in Boiany in 1886, while his younger son [[Yisrael Friedman of Sadagora|Yisrael]] (1852–1906) succeeded him in Sadagora.<ref name="YIVORuzhin" /> [[Samuel Heilman]] gives Yitzchak's dates as 1850–1917 and writes that the two brothers drew lots in 1883 to decide who would stay in Sadagora. Yitzchak and his wife, Malka (née Twersky), moved to Boiany three years later.<ref name="HeilmanBoyan69" />
 
His son [[Avraham Yaakov Friedman of Sadagora|Avraham Yaakov]] (1819–1883) led the Sadagora court. YIVO says he headed the Volhynia ''kolel'' and raised funds for the [[Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue]] in Jerusalem, named after his father. His elder son, [[Yitzchak Friedman of Boyan|Yitzchak]] (1849–1917), set up his own court in Boiany in 1886, while his younger son [[Yisrael Friedman of Sadagora|Yisrael]] (1852–1906) succeeded him in Sadagora.<ref name="YIVORuzhin" /> [[Samuel Heilman]] gives Yitzchak's dates as 1850–1917 and writes that the two brothers drew lots in 1883 to decide who would stay in Sadagora. Yitzchak and his wife, Malka (née Twersky), moved to Boiany three years later.<ref name="HeilmanBoyan69" />
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[[Tzvi Rabinowicz]] gives the dates of [[Israel Friedman of Ruzhin|Yisrael of Ruzhin]] as 1797–1851 and those of [[Yitzchak Friedman of Boyan|Yitzchak]] as 1850–1917. He writes that Yitzchak was president of the Volhynia ''[[kollel]]'', which covered Podolia, Kiev and Kherson, and that Hasidim called him ''Pahad Yitzhak'' ("the fear of Yitzhak") because of his great reverence for God. Rabinowicz describes the Ruzhin rebbes as "virtually the exilarchs of Hasidism", with palatial residences and large retinues.<ref name="Rabinowicz151" /> He says Yitzchak died on 17 Adar 1917.<ref name="Rabinowicz156" />
  
 
=== Boyan in the 20th century ===
 
=== Boyan in the 20th century ===
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Heilman writes that during the First World War, when Russian forces occupied Boiany, the court was burnt down and the family fled to [[Vienna]]. Before Yitzchak died in 1917 he left a will setting out roles for his four sons. After the war each son set up his own court: Menachem Nachum (1869–1936) in [[Chernivtsi|Czernowitz]], Yisrael (1878–1951) in [[Leipzig]], Avrohom Yaakov in [[Lviv|Lwów]] and Mordechai Shlomo (1891–1971), the youngest, in New York.<ref name="HeilmanBoyan69" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan70" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan71" /> Heilman's dynasty table gives Avrohom Yaakov's dates as 1884–1941, but his text later gives 1881–1941; Heilman says he was killed in Lemberg (Lwów) without successors. Menachem Nachum's elder son, Aaron, refused for more than a year to succeed him and was later killed by the Nazis with his younger brother and their families.<ref name="HeilmanBoyan70" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan80" />
 
Heilman writes that during the First World War, when Russian forces occupied Boiany, the court was burnt down and the family fled to [[Vienna]]. Before Yitzchak died in 1917 he left a will setting out roles for his four sons. After the war each son set up his own court: Menachem Nachum (1869–1936) in [[Chernivtsi|Czernowitz]], Yisrael (1878–1951) in [[Leipzig]], Avrohom Yaakov in [[Lviv|Lwów]] and Mordechai Shlomo (1891–1971), the youngest, in New York.<ref name="HeilmanBoyan69" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan70" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan71" /> Heilman's dynasty table gives Avrohom Yaakov's dates as 1884–1941, but his text later gives 1881–1941; Heilman says he was killed in Lemberg (Lwów) without successors. Menachem Nachum's elder son, Aaron, refused for more than a year to succeed him and was later killed by the Nazis with his younger brother and their families.<ref name="HeilmanBoyan70" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan80" />
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[[Tzvi Rabinowicz]] writes that [[Mordechai Shlomo Friedman|Mordechai Shlomo]] was born on 30 Tishri 1891 and married Havah Hayyah, a daughter of Shalom Yosef of [[Medzhybizh|Miedzeborz]], on 18 Sivan 1908, and that like many rebbes he lived in [[Vienna]] during the First World War. His list of the sons' courts after Yitzchak's death differs from Heilman's: Menahem Nahum in [[Chernivtsi|Czernowitz]], Shalom Yosef in [[Leipzig]], Avraham Yaakov in [[Lviv|Lvov]], and Mordechai Shlomo remaining as rebbe in Vienna until he settled on the [[Lower East Side]] in 1927.<ref name="Rabinowicz156" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan70" /> Rabinowicz says Mordechai Shlomo was president of the "Association of Rebbes", was active in [[Agudath Israel of America|the Aguda]], and often visited the Holy Land, timing his visits for [[Lag BaOmer]].<ref name="Rabinowicz156" /> He records that a Mordecai Friedman of Boyan was among the Jews deported from Czernowitz to [[Transnistria Governorate|Transnistria]] in October 1941.<ref name="Rabinowicz217" />
  
 
According to Heilman, Mordechai Shlomo stayed in Vienna until his mother died in December 1920. His uncle, [[Yisrael Friedman of Chortkov]], urged him and his cousin, Yitzchak Friedman of Sadiger-Rimanov, to build Hasidism in the United States. After a trial visit he settled in New York in November 1927 and opened a small synagogue at 247 East Broadway on the [[Lower East Side]]. He served on the [[Vaad Hatzalah|Va'ad Hatzala]] of [[Agudath Israel of America|Agudath Israel]] during the Holocaust, and later became a vice-president of Agudath Israel in America and a member of its Council of Torah Sages. Heilman describes him as modest and open to American life: he read the ''New York Times'', and his two sons and his daughter went to college. He helped establish the Ruzhin yeshiva in Jerusalem, which became his successor's headquarters, and visited Israel four times between 1949 and 1960.<ref name="HeilmanBoyan71" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan72" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan73" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan79" />
 
According to Heilman, Mordechai Shlomo stayed in Vienna until his mother died in December 1920. His uncle, [[Yisrael Friedman of Chortkov]], urged him and his cousin, Yitzchak Friedman of Sadiger-Rimanov, to build Hasidism in the United States. After a trial visit he settled in New York in November 1927 and opened a small synagogue at 247 East Broadway on the [[Lower East Side]]. He served on the [[Vaad Hatzalah|Va'ad Hatzala]] of [[Agudath Israel of America|Agudath Israel]] during the Holocaust, and later became a vice-president of Agudath Israel in America and a member of its Council of Torah Sages. Heilman describes him as modest and open to American life: he read the ''New York Times'', and his two sons and his daughter went to college. He helped establish the Ruzhin yeshiva in Jerusalem, which became his successor's headquarters, and visited Israel four times between 1949 and 1960.<ref name="HeilmanBoyan71" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan72" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan73" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan79" />
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Heilman gives a fuller account of the candidates. The elder son, Israel Friedman, held a senior post in the New York City Welfare Department and was married to Nathalie, a sociologist at [[Barnard College]] and a daughter of Rabbi [[Joseph Lookstein]]. He told an interviewer he could not give up his worldly interests for a strict Orthodox community, and he ran the small Boyan synagogue on Manhattan's West Side instead. The younger son, Yitzchok, was an architect in real-estate construction. The Hasidim then approached the rebbe's daughter, Malka, and her husband, Menachem Mendel Brayer, a rabbi with doctorates in biblical studies and clinical psychology who taught at [[Yeshiva University]]. Rabbi [[Yitzchok Hutner]] reportedly tried to persuade Brayer, but he refused; he died in 2007.<ref name="HeilmanBoyan80" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan81" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan82" /> The Hasidim then turned to Brayer's elder son, Yisrael Avraham (Yigal), who studied at the Ruzhin yeshiva in Jerusalem for three years in the late 1970s and was ordained, but went back to the United States and became an aerospace engineer.<ref name="HeilmanBoyan82" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan83" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan84" /> Heilman notes that later Hasidic accounts of the Gerrer Rebbe's 1971 meeting with Menachem Brayer, such as the 2013 ''Mishpacha'' profile, leave out the earlier candidates.<ref name="HeilmanBoyan84" /> ''Matzav.com'' says Brayer was 20 when he was installed.<ref name="Matzav2020" /> Heilman gives a different date and age. He writes that an elder persuaded Brayer at Sukkot in 1983 and that a few months later, at Hanukkah, nearly 14 years after his grandfather's death and almost four years after his wedding, Brayer became rebbe. He led his first ''tish'' on Friday night, 2 December 1983, wore the ''kolpik'' hat of his predecessors and began accepting petitions. Heilman gives Brayer's birth year as 1959 and says he was 20 at his wedding in June 1980.<ref name="HeilmanBoyan70" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan87" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan89" /> Heilman also writes that about 25 years after his succession Brayer admitted privately that he still did not want the role but could no longer refuse it.<ref name="HeilmanBoyan87" />
 
Heilman gives a fuller account of the candidates. The elder son, Israel Friedman, held a senior post in the New York City Welfare Department and was married to Nathalie, a sociologist at [[Barnard College]] and a daughter of Rabbi [[Joseph Lookstein]]. He told an interviewer he could not give up his worldly interests for a strict Orthodox community, and he ran the small Boyan synagogue on Manhattan's West Side instead. The younger son, Yitzchok, was an architect in real-estate construction. The Hasidim then approached the rebbe's daughter, Malka, and her husband, Menachem Mendel Brayer, a rabbi with doctorates in biblical studies and clinical psychology who taught at [[Yeshiva University]]. Rabbi [[Yitzchok Hutner]] reportedly tried to persuade Brayer, but he refused; he died in 2007.<ref name="HeilmanBoyan80" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan81" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan82" /> The Hasidim then turned to Brayer's elder son, Yisrael Avraham (Yigal), who studied at the Ruzhin yeshiva in Jerusalem for three years in the late 1970s and was ordained, but went back to the United States and became an aerospace engineer.<ref name="HeilmanBoyan82" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan83" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan84" /> Heilman notes that later Hasidic accounts of the Gerrer Rebbe's 1971 meeting with Menachem Brayer, such as the 2013 ''Mishpacha'' profile, leave out the earlier candidates.<ref name="HeilmanBoyan84" /> ''Matzav.com'' says Brayer was 20 when he was installed.<ref name="Matzav2020" /> Heilman gives a different date and age. He writes that an elder persuaded Brayer at Sukkot in 1983 and that a few months later, at Hanukkah, nearly 14 years after his grandfather's death and almost four years after his wedding, Brayer became rebbe. He led his first ''tish'' on Friday night, 2 December 1983, wore the ''kolpik'' hat of his predecessors and began accepting petitions. Heilman gives Brayer's birth year as 1959 and says he was 20 at his wedding in June 1980.<ref name="HeilmanBoyan70" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan87" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan89" /> Heilman also writes that about 25 years after his succession Brayer admitted privately that he still did not want the role but could no longer refuse it.<ref name="HeilmanBoyan87" />
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[[Tzvi Rabinowicz]], writing in 2000, says the interregnum lasted fifteen years and that [[Nachum Dov Brayer]] became rebbe on Hanukkah 1984, agreeing with ''Mishpacha'' on the year rather than with Heilman. He describes Brayer's mother, Bluma Malka (died 1998), as the rebbe's only daughter, and his father, [[Menachem Mendel Brayer]], as a professor at the Graduate School of Jewish Education of [[Yeshiva University]] with doctorates in Hebrew literature and clinical psychology; Heilman gives the doctorates as biblical studies and clinical psychology (see above). Rabinowicz says the elder son, Yigal Yisrael, became an aerospace engineer at [[NASA]].<ref name="Rabinowicz155" /> He writes that Nahum Dov was born in New York in 1959, studied at the Ruzhin yeshiva in Jerusalem, and married Shoshanah, a daughter of Zusya, son of Avraham Yehoshua Heschel, the rebbe of Kopyczynitz; they had eight children by 2000. At that time, Rabinowicz says, he travelled regularly between Israel and the United States, where he lived on East Broadway in his grandfather's former home.<ref name="Rabinowicz155" /><ref name="Rabinowicz156" />
  
 
Heilman writes that Brayer, about 12 when his grandfather died, went to the Yiddish-language Yeshiva Zichron Moshe, headed by Yerucham Gorelick, for elementary school. He attended the Ruzhin yeshiva during a family sabbatical in Jerusalem and went to high school at the Chasam Sofer yeshiva in Brooklyn, while a Boyan Hasid, Eliezer Rabinowitz, taught him Boyan customs. He was sent to the Ruzhin yeshiva about four years after his brother. Before taking office he spent many Sabbaths at the court of his great-uncle, the Sadigura Rebbe [[Mordechai Shalom Yosef Friedman]], and visited the Gerrer, [[Sanz-Klausenburg|Klausenburger]] and Lubavitcher rebbes.<ref name="HeilmanBoyan84" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan85" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan86" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan88" /> Before moving to Israel Brayer studied at Yeshivas Chasam Sofer in [[Borough Park]]. In Sivan 5740 (1980) he married a daughter of Rabbi [[Zyshe Heschel]], an executive of the [[Orthodox Union]] and a brother of Rabbi [[Moshe Heschel]] of Kopycznitz; the [[Vizhnitz (Hasidic dynasty)|Vizhnitzer]] Rebbe conducted the ceremony.<ref name="Mishpacha2013" /> Heilman names the bride as Shoshana, then 19, a granddaughter of the Kopyczynitzer Rebbe. He says the wedding took place in Jerusalem in June 1980, was conducted by [[Moshe Yehoshua Hager]] of Vizhnitz and was attended by all the rebbes descended from Ruzhin.<ref name="HeilmanBoyan87" />
 
Heilman writes that Brayer, about 12 when his grandfather died, went to the Yiddish-language Yeshiva Zichron Moshe, headed by Yerucham Gorelick, for elementary school. He attended the Ruzhin yeshiva during a family sabbatical in Jerusalem and went to high school at the Chasam Sofer yeshiva in Brooklyn, while a Boyan Hasid, Eliezer Rabinowitz, taught him Boyan customs. He was sent to the Ruzhin yeshiva about four years after his brother. Before taking office he spent many Sabbaths at the court of his great-uncle, the Sadigura Rebbe [[Mordechai Shalom Yosef Friedman]], and visited the Gerrer, [[Sanz-Klausenburg|Klausenburger]] and Lubavitcher rebbes.<ref name="HeilmanBoyan84" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan85" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan86" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan88" /> Before moving to Israel Brayer studied at Yeshivas Chasam Sofer in [[Borough Park]]. In Sivan 5740 (1980) he married a daughter of Rabbi [[Zyshe Heschel]], an executive of the [[Orthodox Union]] and a brother of Rabbi [[Moshe Heschel]] of Kopycznitz; the [[Vizhnitz (Hasidic dynasty)|Vizhnitzer]] Rebbe conducted the ceremony.<ref name="Mishpacha2013" /> Heilman names the bride as Shoshana, then 19, a granddaughter of the Kopyczynitzer Rebbe. He says the wedding took place in Jerusalem in June 1980, was conducted by [[Moshe Yehoshua Hager]] of Vizhnitz and was attended by all the rebbes descended from Ruzhin.<ref name="HeilmanBoyan87" />
  
 
=== Community and institutions ===
 
=== Community and institutions ===
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''Mishpacha'' reported in 2013 that Boyan had about 2,000 families, including about 700 in Borough Park and Monsey and a few hundred in [[London]] and [[Antwerp]]. Hundreds of families lived in [[Beitar Illit]], which had five Boyan ''kloizen'' (prayer houses) and which "some say" was the group's real stronghold. The main building, on Malchei Yisrael Street in the [[Geula]] neighbourhood of Jerusalem, housed a yeshiva of about 400 students. There were junior yeshivas in Jerusalem (about 150 students) and Beitar Illit (about 200), and a talmud torah, a junior yeshiva and a large ''kloiz'' were being built in Borough Park. The girls' schools are called Beis Chava.<ref name="Mishpacha2013" /> Heilman writes that Brayer built Boyan neighbourhoods in Beitar Illit, and some in Modi'in Illit and [[Kiryat Gat]], and that Boyan is now the largest of the Ruzhin courts in numbers. Citing 2010 census figures, he notes high unemployment among working-age men and women in those neighbourhoods. Brayer lives in the Makor Baruch neighbourhood of Jerusalem.<ref name="HeilmanBoyan92" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan93" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan94" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan95" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan285" />
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''Mishpacha'' reported in 2013 that Boyan had about 2,000 families, including about 700 in Borough Park and Monsey and a few hundred in [[London]] and [[Antwerp]]. Hundreds of families lived in [[Beitar Illit]], which had five Boyan ''kloizen'' (prayer houses) and which "some say" was the group's real stronghold. The main building, on Malchei Yisrael Street in the [[Geula]] neighbourhood of Jerusalem, housed a yeshiva of about 400 students. There were junior yeshivas in Jerusalem (about 150 students) and Beitar Illit (about 200), and a talmud torah, a junior yeshiva and a large ''kloiz'' were being built in Borough Park. The girls' schools are called Beis Chava.<ref name="Mishpacha2013" /> [[Tzvi Rabinowicz]] wrote in 2000 that Brayer had set up a boys' centre, a synagogue and a ''kollel'' in Betar ([[Beitar Illit]]), an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank.<ref name="Rabinowicz156" /> Heilman writes that Brayer built Boyan neighbourhoods in Beitar Illit, and some in Modi'in Illit and [[Kiryat Gat]], and that Boyan is now the largest of the Ruzhin courts in numbers. Citing 2010 census figures, he notes high unemployment among working-age men and women in those neighbourhoods. Brayer lives in the Makor Baruch neighbourhood of Jerusalem.<ref name="HeilmanBoyan92" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan93" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan94" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan95" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan285" />
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Rabinowicz writes that Mordechai Shlomo supported the expansion of the Tiferet Yisrael yeshiva in Jerusalem, named after Yisrael of Ruzhin. It began with a few students in temporary premises at Batei Orenstein under a Boyan Hasid, [[Yehoshua Heschel Brim]] (died 1986), a pupil of [[Isser Zalman Meltzer]] who guided it for more than 30 years. The foundation stone of a new building was laid on 15 Shevat 1964 and the building was completed on 15 Av 1967. Shlomo Friedman of Tel Aviv set up an association to support it, with an appeal signed by nine Ruzhin rebbes. By 2000 the campus had three buildings: a ''kollel'', the Tiferet Menahem junior school and the Bet Havah girls' school, with 300 pupils, as well as a library of rare books. The yeshiva drew students from the United States and England. Rabinowicz says Mordechai Shlomo died in 1971 and was buried in Israel.<ref name="Rabinowicz156" /><ref name="Rabinowicz157" />
  
 
=== Meron and Lag BaOmer ===
 
=== Meron and Lag BaOmer ===
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The Boyan rebbe lights the main bonfire on [[Lag BaOmer]] on the roof above the tomb of [[Shimon bar Yochai]] at [[Meron, Israel|Meron]]. Heilman writes that Yisrael Friedman of Ruzhin bought this privilege from the guardians of Meron and Safed. It passed to his son Avraham Yaakov of Sadagora and then to Avraham Yaakov's eldest son, Yitzchak of Boyan, and his descendants. For many years the fire was lit on the Boyan rebbe's behalf by Rabbi Kaplan, chief rabbi of [[Safed]], whom Brayer accompanied as a teenager. After Kaplan's death Brayer lit the fire himself; Heilman says it burns for more than 25 hours.<ref name="HeilmanBoyan93" />
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The Boyan rebbe lights the main bonfire on [[Lag BaOmer]] on the roof above the tomb of [[Shimon bar Yochai]] at [[Meron, Israel|Meron]]. Heilman writes that Yisrael Friedman of Ruzhin bought this privilege from the guardians of Meron and Safed. It passed to his son Avraham Yaakov of Sadagora and then to Avraham Yaakov's eldest son, Yitzchak of Boyan, and his descendants. For many years the fire was lit on the Boyan rebbe's behalf by Rabbi Kaplan, chief rabbi of [[Safed]], whom Brayer accompanied as a teenager. After Kaplan's death Brayer lit the fire himself; Heilman says it burns for more than 25 hours.<ref name="HeilmanBoyan93" /> Rabinowicz also writes that "by tradition" the honour of lighting the bonfire belongs to the rebbes of Boyan, and that Mordechai Shlomo liked to take part in the Meron pilgrimage.<ref name="Rabinowicz156" />
  
 
The same report said thousands of Boyan Hasidim had signed a pledge not to use the internet or iPhones as a condition of membership, with filtered internet allowed only after review by a committee. In Boyan housing projects about 30% of homes were to be sold to people outside the group.<ref name="Mishpacha2013" /> Israel's register lists a housing committee of Boyan Hasidim, registered in 2024.<ref name="AmutotBayan" />
 
The same report said thousands of Boyan Hasidim had signed a pledge not to use the internet or iPhones as a condition of membership, with filtered internet allowed only after review by a committee. In Boyan housing projects about 30% of homes were to be sold to people outside the group.<ref name="Mishpacha2013" /> Israel's register lists a housing committee of Boyan Hasidim, registered in 2024.<ref name="AmutotBayan" />
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! Leader !! Dates !! Base !! Notes
 
! Leader !! Dates !! Base !! Notes
 
|-
 
|-
−
| [[Israel Friedman of Ruzhin|Yisrael Friedman of Ruzhin]] || 1796–1850 || Ruzhin, then Sadagora || Founder of the Ruzhin dynasty<ref name="YIVORuzhin" />
+
| [[Israel Friedman of Ruzhin|Yisrael Friedman of Ruzhin]] || 1796–1850 (YIVO); 1797–1851 (Rabinowicz) || Ruzhin, then Sadagora || Founder of the Ruzhin dynasty<ref name="YIVORuzhin" /><ref name="Rabinowicz151" />
 
|-
 
|-
 
| [[Avraham Yaakov Friedman of Sadagora|Avraham Yaakov Friedman]] || 1819–1883 || Sadagora || Son of Yisrael; father of Yitzchak<ref name="YIVORuzhin" />
 
| [[Avraham Yaakov Friedman of Sadagora|Avraham Yaakov Friedman]] || 1819–1883 || Sadagora || Son of Yisrael; father of Yitzchak<ref name="YIVORuzhin" />
 
|-
 
|-
−
| [[Yitzchak Friedman of Boyan|Yitzchak Friedman]] || 1849–1917 || Boiany || Set up the Boyan court in 1886; author of ''Pachad Yitzchak''<ref name="YIVORuzhin" /><ref name="Mishpacha2013" />
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| [[Yitzchak Friedman of Boyan|Yitzchak Friedman]] || 1849–1917 (YIVO); 1850–1917 (Heilman; Rabinowicz) || Boiany || Set up the Boyan court in 1886; author of ''Pachad Yitzchak''<ref name="YIVORuzhin" /><ref name="Mishpacha2013" /><ref name="Rabinowicz151" />
 
|-
 
|-
−
| [[Mordechai Shlomo Friedman]] || 1891–1971 || Lower East Side, New York || Youngest son of Yitzchak<ref name="Mishpacha2013" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan70" />
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| [[Mordechai Shlomo Friedman]] || 1891–1971 || Lower East Side, New York || Youngest son of Yitzchak<ref name="Mishpacha2013" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan70" /><ref name="Rabinowicz156" />
 
|-
 
|-
−
| [[Nachum Dov Brayer]] || born 1959; rebbe from 1983 or 1984 (sources differ) || Jerusalem || Grandson of Mordechai Shlomo<ref name="Mishpacha2013" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan70" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan89" />
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| [[Nachum Dov Brayer]] || born 1959; rebbe from 1983 (Heilman) or 1984 (''Mishpacha''; Rabinowicz) || Jerusalem || Grandson of Mordechai Shlomo<ref name="Mishpacha2013" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan70" /><ref name="HeilmanBoyan89" /><ref name="Rabinowicz155" />
 
|}
 
|}
  
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<ref name="HeilmanBoyan95">Samuel C. Heilman, "Boyan and Kopyczynitz: Running Out of Rebbes" in ''Who Will Lead Us? The Story of Five Hasidic Dynasties in America'', Oakland: University of California Press, 2017, ISBN 9780520277236, p. 95.</ref>
 
<ref name="HeilmanBoyan95">Samuel C. Heilman, "Boyan and Kopyczynitz: Running Out of Rebbes" in ''Who Will Lead Us? The Story of Five Hasidic Dynasties in America'', Oakland: University of California Press, 2017, ISBN 9780520277236, p. 95.</ref>
 
<ref name="HeilmanBoyan285">Samuel C. Heilman, ''Who Will Lead Us? The Story of Five Hasidic Dynasties in America'', Oakland: University of California Press, 2017, ISBN 9780520277236, p. 285, n. 80 (notes to the Boyan chapter).</ref>
 
<ref name="HeilmanBoyan285">Samuel C. Heilman, ''Who Will Lead Us? The Story of Five Hasidic Dynasties in America'', Oakland: University of California Press, 2017, ISBN 9780520277236, p. 285, n. 80 (notes to the Boyan chapter).</ref>
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<ref name="Rabinowicz151">Tzvi Rabinowicz, [https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0765760681 Hasidism in Israel: A History of the Hasidic Movement], Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 2000, p. 151.</ref>
 +
<ref name="Rabinowicz155">Tzvi Rabinowicz, [https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0765760681 Hasidism in Israel: A History of the Hasidic Movement], Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 2000, p. 155.</ref>
 +
<ref name="Rabinowicz156">Tzvi Rabinowicz, [https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0765760681 Hasidism in Israel: A History of the Hasidic Movement], Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 2000, p. 156.</ref>
 +
<ref name="Rabinowicz157">Tzvi Rabinowicz, [https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0765760681 Hasidism in Israel: A History of the Hasidic Movement], Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 2000, p. 157.</ref>
 +
<ref name="Rabinowicz217">Tzvi Rabinowicz, [https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0765760681 Hasidism in Israel: A History of the Hasidic Movement], Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 2000, p. 217.</ref>
 
</references>
 
</references>
  

Latest revision as of 10:55, 27 October 2026

Branch of the Ruzhin Hasidic dynasty, founded at Boiany in Bukovina in 1886 and now led from Jerusalem

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

-
Boyan
Founded 1886 Boiany, Bukovina
Founder Yitzchak Friedman (1849–1917)
Leader Rebbe Nachum Dov Brayer (since 1983 or 1984; sources differ)
Headquarters Jerusalem
Type Hasidic dynasty
Notes

Boyan, also called Boyan-Ruzhin, is a Hasidic dynasty descended from Yisrael Friedman of Ruzhin. It takes its name from Boiany in Austrian Bukovina, where Yitzchak Friedman set up a court in 1886. The YIVO Encyclopedia names Boyan-Ruzhin in Jerusalem and Sadagora in Bnei Brak as the only active branches of the Ruzhin dynasty today.[1]

After the death of Rebbe Mordechai Shlomo Friedman in 1971 the group had no rebbe for nearly 14 years, until his grandson Nachum Dov Brayer was installed at Hanukkah in 1983 or 1984 (sources differ; see below). Mishpacha reported in 2013 that Boyan had about 2,000 families, including about 700 in Borough Park and Monsey and hundreds in the West Bank settlement of Beitar Illit, and that it banned unfiltered internet use among its members.[3] Most of the associations bearing the Boyan name in Israel's register are based in the settlements of Beitar Illit and Modi'in Illit.[2]

History

Ruzhin origins

YIVO describes the Ruzhin dynasty as founded by the Friedman family, with several dozen rebbes. Its founder, Yisrael Friedman (1796–1850), was a great-grandson of Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezeritch, and led his court in Ruzhin in Kiev province in a "regal way". He fled Russia in 1842 and settled in Sadagora in Austrian Bukovina, and his sons founded courts in Sadagora, Chortkiv, Husiatyn, Ştefăneşti and elsewhere.[1]

His son Avraham Yaakov (1819–1883) led the Sadagora court. YIVO says he headed the Volhynia kolel and raised funds for the Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue in Jerusalem, named after his father. His elder son, Yitzchak (1849–1917), set up his own court in Boiany in 1886, while his younger son Yisrael (1852–1906) succeeded him in Sadagora.[1] Samuel Heilman gives Yitzchak's dates as 1850–1917 and writes that the two brothers drew lots in 1883 to decide who would stay in Sadagora. Yitzchak and his wife, Malka (née Twersky), moved to Boiany three years later.[4]

Tzvi Rabinowicz gives the dates of Yisrael of Ruzhin as 1797–1851 and those of Yitzchak as 1850–1917. He writes that Yitzchak was president of the Volhynia kollel, which covered Podolia, Kiev and Kherson, and that Hasidim called him Pahad Yitzhak ("the fear of Yitzhak") because of his great reverence for God. Rabinowicz describes the Ruzhin rebbes as "virtually the exilarchs of Hasidism", with palatial residences and large retinues.[5] He says Yitzchak died on 17 Adar 1917.[6]

Boyan in the 20th century

YIVO says many of the dynasty's leaders moved to Vienna during the First World War, and that many of them favoured Ḥibat Tsiyon.[1] Mishpacha describes Yitzchak, author of Pachad Yitzchak, as the founder of Boyan and the father of Mordechai Shlomo Friedman, who moved his court to the Lower East Side of Manhattan 13 years before the Second World War.[3] Matzav.com says Mordechai Shlomo was 26 when he became rebbe.[7]

Heilman writes that during the First World War, when Russian forces occupied Boiany, the court was burnt down and the family fled to Vienna. Before Yitzchak died in 1917 he left a will setting out roles for his four sons. After the war each son set up his own court: Menachem Nachum (1869–1936) in Czernowitz, Yisrael (1878–1951) in Leipzig, Avrohom Yaakov in Lwów and Mordechai Shlomo (1891–1971), the youngest, in New York.[4][8][9] Heilman's dynasty table gives Avrohom Yaakov's dates as 1884–1941, but his text later gives 1881–1941; Heilman says he was killed in Lemberg (Lwów) without successors. Menachem Nachum's elder son, Aaron, refused for more than a year to succeed him and was later killed by the Nazis with his younger brother and their families.[8][10]

Tzvi Rabinowicz writes that Mordechai Shlomo was born on 30 Tishri 1891 and married Havah Hayyah, a daughter of Shalom Yosef of Miedzeborz, on 18 Sivan 1908, and that like many rebbes he lived in Vienna during the First World War. His list of the sons' courts after Yitzchak's death differs from Heilman's: Menahem Nahum in Czernowitz, Shalom Yosef in Leipzig, Avraham Yaakov in Lvov, and Mordechai Shlomo remaining as rebbe in Vienna until he settled on the Lower East Side in 1927.[6][8] Rabinowicz says Mordechai Shlomo was president of the "Association of Rebbes", was active in the Aguda, and often visited the Holy Land, timing his visits for Lag BaOmer.[6] He records that a Mordecai Friedman of Boyan was among the Jews deported from Czernowitz to Transnistria in October 1941.[11]

According to Heilman, Mordechai Shlomo stayed in Vienna until his mother died in December 1920. His uncle, Yisrael Friedman of Chortkov, urged him and his cousin, Yitzchak Friedman of Sadiger-Rimanov, to build Hasidism in the United States. After a trial visit he settled in New York in November 1927 and opened a small synagogue at 247 East Broadway on the Lower East Side. He served on the Va'ad Hatzala of Agudath Israel during the Holocaust, and later became a vice-president of Agudath Israel in America and a member of its Council of Torah Sages. Heilman describes him as modest and open to American life: he read the New York Times, and his two sons and his daughter went to college. He helped establish the Ruzhin yeshiva in Jerusalem, which became his successor's headquarters, and visited Israel four times between 1949 and 1960.[9][12][13][14]

Vacancy and the installation of Nachum Dov Brayer

Heilman writes that Mordechai Shlomo suffered a severe stroke in 1967 and could no longer fully act as rebbe, and that he died after a second stroke in March 1971. His funeral in Israel drew more than 25,000 people. He had not chosen a successor, and by then most active Boyan Hasidim lived in Israel.[10] According to Mishpacha, Mordechai Shlomo died in Adar 5731 (1971). Neither of his two sons would become rebbe, and his son-in-law, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Brayer, also refused. The Gerrer Rebbe, Yisrael Alter, said Brayer's son would become the Boyaner Rebbe. On the Shabbat of Hanukkah 5745 (December 1984), after nearly 14 years without a rebbe, Nachum Dov Brayer was installed as rebbe. Mishpacha says he had been persuaded by the Gerrer and Lubavitcher rebbes and by Rabbi Moshe Feinstein. Until then the Bohusher Rebbe had received petitions (kvitlach) from Boyan Hasidim.[3] Heilman names him as Yitzchak Friedman, Rebbe of Bohush and dean of the Ruzhin dynasty, and says that some Boyan Hasidim moved to the Sadigura rebbe during the vacancy.[15][16]

Heilman gives a fuller account of the candidates. The elder son, Israel Friedman, held a senior post in the New York City Welfare Department and was married to Nathalie, a sociologist at Barnard College and a daughter of Rabbi Joseph Lookstein. He told an interviewer he could not give up his worldly interests for a strict Orthodox community, and he ran the small Boyan synagogue on Manhattan's West Side instead. The younger son, Yitzchok, was an architect in real-estate construction. The Hasidim then approached the rebbe's daughter, Malka, and her husband, Menachem Mendel Brayer, a rabbi with doctorates in biblical studies and clinical psychology who taught at Yeshiva University. Rabbi Yitzchok Hutner reportedly tried to persuade Brayer, but he refused; he died in 2007.[10][15][17] The Hasidim then turned to Brayer's elder son, Yisrael Avraham (Yigal), who studied at the Ruzhin yeshiva in Jerusalem for three years in the late 1970s and was ordained, but went back to the United States and became an aerospace engineer.[17][18][19] Heilman notes that later Hasidic accounts of the Gerrer Rebbe's 1971 meeting with Menachem Brayer, such as the 2013 Mishpacha profile, leave out the earlier candidates.[19] Matzav.com says Brayer was 20 when he was installed.[7] Heilman gives a different date and age. He writes that an elder persuaded Brayer at Sukkot in 1983 and that a few months later, at Hanukkah, nearly 14 years after his grandfather's death and almost four years after his wedding, Brayer became rebbe. He led his first tish on Friday night, 2 December 1983, wore the kolpik hat of his predecessors and began accepting petitions. Heilman gives Brayer's birth year as 1959 and says he was 20 at his wedding in June 1980.[8][20][21] Heilman also writes that about 25 years after his succession Brayer admitted privately that he still did not want the role but could no longer refuse it.[20]

Tzvi Rabinowicz, writing in 2000, says the interregnum lasted fifteen years and that Nachum Dov Brayer became rebbe on Hanukkah 1984, agreeing with Mishpacha on the year rather than with Heilman. He describes Brayer's mother, Bluma Malka (died 1998), as the rebbe's only daughter, and his father, Menachem Mendel Brayer, as a professor at the Graduate School of Jewish Education of Yeshiva University with doctorates in Hebrew literature and clinical psychology; Heilman gives the doctorates as biblical studies and clinical psychology (see above). Rabinowicz says the elder son, Yigal Yisrael, became an aerospace engineer at NASA.[22] He writes that Nahum Dov was born in New York in 1959, studied at the Ruzhin yeshiva in Jerusalem, and married Shoshanah, a daughter of Zusya, son of Avraham Yehoshua Heschel, the rebbe of Kopyczynitz; they had eight children by 2000. At that time, Rabinowicz says, he travelled regularly between Israel and the United States, where he lived on East Broadway in his grandfather's former home.[22][6]

Heilman writes that Brayer, about 12 when his grandfather died, went to the Yiddish-language Yeshiva Zichron Moshe, headed by Yerucham Gorelick, for elementary school. He attended the Ruzhin yeshiva during a family sabbatical in Jerusalem and went to high school at the Chasam Sofer yeshiva in Brooklyn, while a Boyan Hasid, Eliezer Rabinowitz, taught him Boyan customs. He was sent to the Ruzhin yeshiva about four years after his brother. Before taking office he spent many Sabbaths at the court of his great-uncle, the Sadigura Rebbe Mordechai Shalom Yosef Friedman, and visited the Gerrer, Klausenburger and Lubavitcher rebbes.[19][23][24][25] Before moving to Israel Brayer studied at Yeshivas Chasam Sofer in Borough Park. In Sivan 5740 (1980) he married a daughter of Rabbi Zyshe Heschel, an executive of the Orthodox Union and a brother of Rabbi Moshe Heschel of Kopycznitz; the Vizhnitzer Rebbe conducted the ceremony.[3] Heilman names the bride as Shoshana, then 19, a granddaughter of the Kopyczynitzer Rebbe. He says the wedding took place in Jerusalem in June 1980, was conducted by Moshe Yehoshua Hager of Vizhnitz and was attended by all the rebbes descended from Ruzhin.[20]

Community and institutions

Mishpacha reported in 2013 that Boyan had about 2,000 families, including about 700 in Borough Park and Monsey and a few hundred in London and Antwerp. Hundreds of families lived in Beitar Illit, which had five Boyan kloizen (prayer houses) and which "some say" was the group's real stronghold. The main building, on Malchei Yisrael Street in the Geula neighbourhood of Jerusalem, housed a yeshiva of about 400 students. There were junior yeshivas in Jerusalem (about 150 students) and Beitar Illit (about 200), and a talmud torah, a junior yeshiva and a large kloiz were being built in Borough Park. The girls' schools are called Beis Chava.[3] Tzvi Rabinowicz wrote in 2000 that Brayer had set up a boys' centre, a synagogue and a kollel in Betar (Beitar Illit), an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank.[6] Heilman writes that Brayer built Boyan neighbourhoods in Beitar Illit, and some in Modi'in Illit and Kiryat Gat, and that Boyan is now the largest of the Ruzhin courts in numbers. Citing 2010 census figures, he notes high unemployment among working-age men and women in those neighbourhoods. Brayer lives in the Makor Baruch neighbourhood of Jerusalem.[26][27][28][29][30]

Rabinowicz writes that Mordechai Shlomo supported the expansion of the Tiferet Yisrael yeshiva in Jerusalem, named after Yisrael of Ruzhin. It began with a few students in temporary premises at Batei Orenstein under a Boyan Hasid, Yehoshua Heschel Brim (died 1986), a pupil of Isser Zalman Meltzer who guided it for more than 30 years. The foundation stone of a new building was laid on 15 Shevat 1964 and the building was completed on 15 Av 1967. Shlomo Friedman of Tel Aviv set up an association to support it, with an appeal signed by nine Ruzhin rebbes. By 2000 the campus had three buildings: a kollel, the Tiferet Menahem junior school and the Bet Havah girls' school, with 300 pupils, as well as a library of rare books. The yeshiva drew students from the United States and England. Rabinowicz says Mordechai Shlomo died in 1971 and was buried in Israel.[6][31]

Meron and Lag BaOmer

The Boyan rebbe lights the main bonfire on Lag BaOmer on the roof above the tomb of Shimon bar Yochai at Meron. Heilman writes that Yisrael Friedman of Ruzhin bought this privilege from the guardians of Meron and Safed. It passed to his son Avraham Yaakov of Sadagora and then to Avraham Yaakov's eldest son, Yitzchak of Boyan, and his descendants. For many years the fire was lit on the Boyan rebbe's behalf by Rabbi Kaplan, chief rabbi of Safed, whom Brayer accompanied as a teenager. After Kaplan's death Brayer lit the fire himself; Heilman says it burns for more than 25 hours.[27] Rabinowicz also writes that "by tradition" the honour of lighting the bonfire belongs to the rebbes of Boyan, and that Mordechai Shlomo liked to take part in the Meron pilgrimage.[6]

The same report said thousands of Boyan Hasidim had signed a pledge not to use the internet or iPhones as a condition of membership, with filtered internet allowed only after review by a committee. In Boyan housing projects about 30% of homes were to be sold to people outside the group.[3] Israel's register lists a housing committee of Boyan Hasidim, registered in 2024.[2]

Military service

Writing in The Jerusalem Post in November 2023, Levi Cooper of the Pardes Institute said that "as a rule, Boyan Hassidim … do not serve in the IDF", but that the group is relatively open and some Zionist Boyan Hasidim do serve. On Rosh Hodesh Heshvan (15–16 October 2023), during the war with Hamas, Brayer sent a prayer book, Tehinot Et Ratzon, with a Hebrew letter to Hasidim whose children or spouses were serving. Cooper notes that the letter did not mention the state, the IDF or the word "soldier", and that the group's weekly email did not mention it.[32]

Selected leaders

Leader Dates Base Notes
Yisrael Friedman of Ruzhin 1796–1850 (YIVO); 1797–1851 (Rabinowicz) Ruzhin, then Sadagora Founder of the Ruzhin dynasty[1][5]
Avraham Yaakov Friedman 1819–1883 Sadagora Son of Yisrael; father of Yitzchak[1]
Yitzchak Friedman 1849–1917 (YIVO); 1850–1917 (Heilman; Rabinowicz) Boiany Set up the Boyan court in 1886; author of Pachad Yitzchak[1][3][5]
Mordechai Shlomo Friedman 1891–1971 Lower East Side, New York Youngest son of Yitzchak[3][8][6]
Nachum Dov Brayer born 1959; rebbe from 1983 (Heilman) or 1984 (Mishpacha; Rabinowicz) Jerusalem Grandson of Mordechai Shlomo[3][8][21][22]

Institutions in Israel

Israel's register of associations lists the following active associations with Boyan in their names. Eleven more with the name have been struck off and are left out, as are two whose stated objects, but not names, mention Boyan.[2][33]

Registered as באיאן
Association Number Registered Address Income (latest report)
Beit HaKnesset Beit Avraham VeOhel Yaakov DeChasidei Boyan, Tiberias (בית הכנסת בית-אברהם ואהל-יעקב דחסידי באיאן בעיה"ק טבריא) 580015642 21 August 1987 3 David Yellin Street, Jerusalem –
Merkaz Kehillat Chasidei Boyan BaIr Beitar (מרכז קהילת חסידי באיאן בעיר ביתר) 580187839 14 July 1991 2 HaAdmor MiRuzhin Street, Beitar Illit ₪123,829
Mosdot Boyan Bnei Brak (מוסדות באיאן בני ברק) 580193993 3 September 1991 3 HaRav Rabinov Street, Bnei Brak ₪1,568,444 (2024)
Beit HaSefer LeBanot DeChasidei Boyan-Ruzhin Yerushalayim (ביה"ס לבנות דחסידי באיאן-רוזין ירושלים) 580230118 25 July 1993 4 Avigdori Street, Jerusalem ₪4,406,989 (2024)
Talmud Torah VeGanim LeYaldei Boyan BeBeitar Illit (תלמוד תורה וגנים לילדי באיאן בביתר עילית) 580460343 17 May 2006 26 HaAdmor MiRuzhin Street, Beitar Illit ₪10,226,877 (2025)
Mosdot Kehillat Boyan Modi'in Illit VeKiryat Gat (מוסדות קהילת באיאן מודיעין עילית וקרית גת) 580563500 20 September 2012 8 Ba'al Shem Tov Street, Modi'in Illit ₪13,221,723 (2024)
Mif'al Torah VaChesed SheAl Yedei Chasidei Boyan Beitar Illit (מפעל תורה וחסד שע"י חסידי באיאן ביתר עילית) 580584159 3 February 2014 19 Aharon Fishel Street, Jerusalem ₪2,235,295 (2024)
Ya'azoru Boyan (יעזורו באיאן) 580591048 11 September 2014 29 Rabbi Akiva Street, Beitar Illit ₪25,950,236 (2024)
Mekor HaChesed SheAl Yedei Chasidei Boyan BeEretz HaKodesh (מקור החסד שע"י חסידי באיאן בארה"ק) 580629707 24 November 2016 18/5 Rabbi Akiva Street, Beitar Illit ₪94,000 (2023)
Ezer Nisu'in DeChasidei Boyan (עזר נישואין דחסידי באיאן) 580658235 22 March 2018 5 HaNatziv Street, Jerusalem ₪114,818 (2023)
HaMerkaz HaOlami Ruzhin Boyan – Beit Chayeinu (המרכז העולמי רוז'ין באיאן - בית חיינו) 580709426 12 October 2020 22 Nahar HaYarden Street, Beit Shemesh ₪385,300 (2022)
Amudei Bracha VaChesed – Boyan (עמודי ברכה וחסד - באיאן) 580714822 29 December 2020 8 Yismach Yisrael Street, Beitar Illit ₪9,339,574 (2025)
Shtilim Tze'irei Bachurei Boyan (שתילים צעירי בחורי באיאן) 580718021 10 February 2021 11 Chayei Yitzchak Street, Beitar Illit ₪21,600
Yeshivat Ruzhin-Boyan Mesivta Tiferet Yisrael – Modi'in Illit – Elad (ישיבת רוזין-באיאן מתיבתא תפארת ישראל-מודיעין עילית-אלעד) 580720324 25 March 2021 2 HaRav MiPonevezh Boulevard, Modi'in Illit ₪7,553,491 (2025)
Merkaz HaChasidut Boyan (מרכז החסידות באיאן) 580735652 20 January 2022 3 Yochanan ben Zakai Street, Beitar Illit ₪5,551,790 (2025)
Kehillat Chasidei Boyan Modi'in Illit (קהילת חסידי באיאן מודיעין עילית) 580757367 15 December 2022 23 Ba'al Shem Tov Street, Modi'in Illit ₪30,000
Mosdot Boyan Rama Dalet Beit Shemesh (מוסדות באיאן רמה ד' בית שמש) 580764413 27 March 2023 6 Mar Ukva Street, Beit Shemesh ₪147,789
Tomchei Torah Yeshivat Boyan (תומכי תורה ישיבת באיאן) 580768885 14 June 2023 18 Rabbi Akiva Street, Beitar Illit ₪1,625,713 (2024)
HaMerkaz LeEzra LeChasidei Boyan BaAretz UVaChul (המרכז לעזרה לחסידי באיאן בארץ ובחו"ל) 580780005 6 December 2023 29 Rabbi Akiva Street, Beitar Illit ₪36,720
Orach LaTzaddik Boyan (אורח לצדיק באיאן) 580781391 25 December 2023 18 Yismach Yisrael Street, Beitar Illit –
Yad Lachma Anya – Kollel Boyan (יד לחמא עניא - כולל באיאן) 580782027 3 January 2024 35 HaChozeh MiLublin Street, Beitar Illit ₪928,068 (2025)
HaKloiz HaGadol DeChasidei Boyan (הקלויז הגדול דחסידי באיאן) 580785103 14 February 2024 37 HaRav Yaakov Mutzafi Street, Beitar Illit –
Yeshivat Boyan "Tiferet Eliezer" Elad (ישיבת באיאן "תפארת אליעזר" אלעד) 580786721 5 March 2024 7 HaRan Street, Beitar Illit ₪406,729
Va'adat HaDiyur DeChasidei Boyan BeEretz HaKodesh (ועדת הדיור דחסידי באיאן בארה"ק) 580796381 29 July 2024 17 Nachum Hefetzadi Street, Jerusalem –
Nachalat Yisrael Boyan – Achim LeSimcha (נחלת ישראל באיאן - אחים לשמחה) 580802239 28 October 2024 45 Kedushat Levi Street, Beitar Illit ₪37,987
Kehillat Boyan Chayei Yitzchak – Beitar (קהילת באיאן חיי יצחק - ביתר) 580825651 17 September 2025 9 HaMaggid MiMezritch Street, Beitar Illit ₪38,305 (2025)
Registered as בויאן
Association Number Registered Address Income (latest report)
Tiferet Yisrael BeMasoret Boyan (תפארת ישראל במסורת בויאן) 580623189 14 February 2016 17 Bnei Brit Street, Jerusalem ₪1,827,239 (2024)

Eighteen of these 27 associations are registered in West Bank settlements: 15 in Beitar Illit and three in Modi'in Illit.[2] The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem (ARIJ) says Beitar Illit was set up in 1985 on Palestinian-owned land from Husan (3,430 dunums), Nahhalin (688 dunums) and Wadi Fukin (567 dunums).[34] ARIJ says Modi'in Illit was established in 1990 on land from the Palestinian villages of Ni'lin, Deir Qiddis, Bil'in, Al Midya and Kharbatha al-Misbah, 5,656 dunums in all, and that Israel declared it a city in 2008.[35] In its advisory opinion of 19 July 2024 the International Court of Justice found that Israel's transfer of settlers to the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and its maintenance of their presence there, is contrary to the sixth paragraph of article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.[36]

United States

The IRS Business Master File for New York lists these tax-exempt organisations with Boyan or Ruzhin in their names. Organisations that only have an address on Ruzhin Road in Monroe are left out.[37]

Organisation EIN Address on IRS file IRS ruling Notes
Congregation Boyaner Kloiz Tifereth Mordechai Shlomo 23-7216374 1320 45th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11219 August 1972 Church[37]
Chevras Tzirim Yad Efraim Ostrowce of Boyan Inc 11-3015366 260 Marcy Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11211 June 1990 Church[37]
Gomlei Chesed of Boyan 11-3137704 3054 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11210 April 1993 Church[37]
Congregation Zichron Mordechai Shlomo 13-3751249 441–451 West End Avenue, New York, NY 10024 April 1995 Church; sort name "Cong Boyan of the West Side"[37]
Mosdos Boyan 11-3450215 1205 44th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11219 September 1998 Church[37]
Yeshivas Boyan Tiferes Mordechai Schlomo 11-3450353 1205 44th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11219 October 1998 Church[37]
Congregation Gomlei Chesed Chasdeiyosef Elizer of Boyan 75-2992950 1 Stetner Street, Spring Valley, NY 10977 March 2002 Church; sort name "Project O&R"[37]
Congregation Machane Boyan Aishel Avrohom 33-1004276 Hurleyville Road, Loch Sheldrake, NY 12759 June 2002 Church[37]
Congregation East Side Rebbis Kloiz Chevrah Bnei Yitzchak Boyan Inc 82-5337082 247 East Broadway, New York, NY 10002 March 2010 Church[37]
Kupas Maos Eretz Yisroel Meir Baal Hanes Rizhin Boyan Inc 46-0929080 1045 54th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11219 February 2014 Public charity[37]
Khal Boyan of Monsey 47-5276086 230 Viola Road, Monsey, NY 10952 November 2016 Church[37]
Congregation Kloiz Boyan 86-1390889 1414 56th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11219 May 2021 Church[37]
Cong Yazorey of Boyan 87-2451077 4118 14th Avenue, Suite 171, Brooklyn, NY 11219 June 2022 Church[37]
Boyan Toddlers Inc 99-1467819 4315 12th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11219 September 2024 Church[37]
Mesivta Tifereth Israel of Rizhin Jerusalem Inc 13-2682612 247 East Broadway, New York, NY 10002 May 2025 Church[37]
Cong Boyan Merkaz Haolumi 42-2572908 4118 14th Avenue, Suite 171, Brooklyn, NY 11219 May 2026 Church[37]

None of these organisations appears on the IRS list of automatic revocations of tax exemption.[38]

United Kingdom

Friends of Boyan Trust (registered charity 1114498, registered 1 June 2006) is based at 23 Durley Road, London N16 5JW, in Stamford Hill. The register describes its activities as "the advancement of the orthodox Jewish faith, orthodox Jewish religious education, and the relief of poverty in the orthodox Jewish community". Its trustees are Jacob Getter, Mordechai Freund and Nathan Kuflik. In the year to 31 December 2024 its income, all from donations and legacies, was £974,237 and its spending £897,784.[39]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 David Assaf, translated by David Louvish, Ruzhin Hasidic Dynasty YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe, accessed 27 October 2026.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Registrar of Associations, Israeli Ministry of Justice, Register of associations and public benefit companies: search "באיאן" data.gov.il, accessed 27 October 2026.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 Aryeh Ehrlich, Majesty and Mystery in Boyan Mishpacha, 20 March 2013, accessed 27 October 2026.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Samuel C. Heilman, "Boyan and Kopyczynitz: Running Out of Rebbes" in Who Will Lead Us? The Story of Five Hasidic Dynasties in America, Oakland: University of California Press, 2017, ISBN 9780520277236, p. 69.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Tzvi Rabinowicz, Hasidism in Israel: A History of the Hasidic Movement, Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 2000, p. 151.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 Tzvi Rabinowicz, Hasidism in Israel: A History of the Hasidic Movement, Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 2000, p. 156.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Matzav.com Israel News Bureau, 24-Year-Old Son of Sadigura Rebbe Named as His Successor Matzav.com, 18 August 2020, accessed 27 October 2026.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 Samuel C. Heilman, "Boyan and Kopyczynitz: Running Out of Rebbes" in Who Will Lead Us? The Story of Five Hasidic Dynasties in America, Oakland: University of California Press, 2017, ISBN 9780520277236, p. 70.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Samuel C. Heilman, "Boyan and Kopyczynitz: Running Out of Rebbes" in Who Will Lead Us? The Story of Five Hasidic Dynasties in America, Oakland: University of California Press, 2017, ISBN 9780520277236, p. 71.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Samuel C. Heilman, "Boyan and Kopyczynitz: Running Out of Rebbes" in Who Will Lead Us? The Story of Five Hasidic Dynasties in America, Oakland: University of California Press, 2017, ISBN 9780520277236, p. 80.
  11. ↑ Tzvi Rabinowicz, Hasidism in Israel: A History of the Hasidic Movement, Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 2000, p. 217.
  12. ↑ Samuel C. Heilman, "Boyan and Kopyczynitz: Running Out of Rebbes" in Who Will Lead Us? The Story of Five Hasidic Dynasties in America, Oakland: University of California Press, 2017, ISBN 9780520277236, p. 72.
  13. ↑ Samuel C. Heilman, "Boyan and Kopyczynitz: Running Out of Rebbes" in Who Will Lead Us? The Story of Five Hasidic Dynasties in America, Oakland: University of California Press, 2017, ISBN 9780520277236, p. 73.
  14. ↑ Samuel C. Heilman, "Boyan and Kopyczynitz: Running Out of Rebbes" in Who Will Lead Us? The Story of Five Hasidic Dynasties in America, Oakland: University of California Press, 2017, ISBN 9780520277236, p. 79.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Samuel C. Heilman, "Boyan and Kopyczynitz: Running Out of Rebbes" in Who Will Lead Us? The Story of Five Hasidic Dynasties in America, Oakland: University of California Press, 2017, ISBN 9780520277236, p. 81.
  16. ↑ Samuel C. Heilman, "Boyan and Kopyczynitz: Running Out of Rebbes" in Who Will Lead Us? The Story of Five Hasidic Dynasties in America, Oakland: University of California Press, 2017, ISBN 9780520277236, p. 91.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Samuel C. Heilman, "Boyan and Kopyczynitz: Running Out of Rebbes" in Who Will Lead Us? The Story of Five Hasidic Dynasties in America, Oakland: University of California Press, 2017, ISBN 9780520277236, p. 82.
  18. ↑ Samuel C. Heilman, "Boyan and Kopyczynitz: Running Out of Rebbes" in Who Will Lead Us? The Story of Five Hasidic Dynasties in America, Oakland: University of California Press, 2017, ISBN 9780520277236, p. 83.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 Samuel C. Heilman, "Boyan and Kopyczynitz: Running Out of Rebbes" in Who Will Lead Us? The Story of Five Hasidic Dynasties in America, Oakland: University of California Press, 2017, ISBN 9780520277236, p. 84.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 Samuel C. Heilman, "Boyan and Kopyczynitz: Running Out of Rebbes" in Who Will Lead Us? The Story of Five Hasidic Dynasties in America, Oakland: University of California Press, 2017, ISBN 9780520277236, p. 87.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Samuel C. Heilman, "Boyan and Kopyczynitz: Running Out of Rebbes" in Who Will Lead Us? The Story of Five Hasidic Dynasties in America, Oakland: University of California Press, 2017, ISBN 9780520277236, p. 89.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 Tzvi Rabinowicz, Hasidism in Israel: A History of the Hasidic Movement, Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 2000, p. 155.
  23. ↑ Samuel C. Heilman, "Boyan and Kopyczynitz: Running Out of Rebbes" in Who Will Lead Us? The Story of Five Hasidic Dynasties in America, Oakland: University of California Press, 2017, ISBN 9780520277236, p. 85.
  24. ↑ Samuel C. Heilman, "Boyan and Kopyczynitz: Running Out of Rebbes" in Who Will Lead Us? The Story of Five Hasidic Dynasties in America, Oakland: University of California Press, 2017, ISBN 9780520277236, p. 86.
  25. ↑ Samuel C. Heilman, "Boyan and Kopyczynitz: Running Out of Rebbes" in Who Will Lead Us? The Story of Five Hasidic Dynasties in America, Oakland: University of California Press, 2017, ISBN 9780520277236, p. 88.
  26. ↑ Samuel C. Heilman, "Boyan and Kopyczynitz: Running Out of Rebbes" in Who Will Lead Us? The Story of Five Hasidic Dynasties in America, Oakland: University of California Press, 2017, ISBN 9780520277236, p. 92.
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 Samuel C. Heilman, "Boyan and Kopyczynitz: Running Out of Rebbes" in Who Will Lead Us? The Story of Five Hasidic Dynasties in America, Oakland: University of California Press, 2017, ISBN 9780520277236, p. 93.
  28. ↑ Samuel C. Heilman, "Boyan and Kopyczynitz: Running Out of Rebbes" in Who Will Lead Us? The Story of Five Hasidic Dynasties in America, Oakland: University of California Press, 2017, ISBN 9780520277236, p. 94.
  29. ↑ Samuel C. Heilman, "Boyan and Kopyczynitz: Running Out of Rebbes" in Who Will Lead Us? The Story of Five Hasidic Dynasties in America, Oakland: University of California Press, 2017, ISBN 9780520277236, p. 95.
  30. ↑ Samuel C. Heilman, Who Will Lead Us? The Story of Five Hasidic Dynasties in America, Oakland: University of California Press, 2017, ISBN 9780520277236, p. 285, n. 80 (notes to the Boyan chapter).
  31. ↑ Tzvi Rabinowicz, Hasidism in Israel: A History of the Hasidic Movement, Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 2000, p. 157.
  32. ↑ Levi Cooper, A hassidic grand rabbi's voice of support of the IDF amid war with Hamas The Jerusalem Post, 4 November 2023, accessed 27 October 2026.
  33. ↑ Registrar of Associations, Israeli Ministry of Justice, Register of associations and public benefit companies: search "בויאן" data.gov.il, accessed 27 October 2026.
  34. ↑ Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem, "Expanding the settlement of Betar Illit" Warmly welcoming to the US Mideast special envoy G. Mitchell POICA, 9 March 2010, accessed 27 October 2026.
  35. ↑ Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem, While debating about settlements; "Israel declared the settlement of Modi'in 'Illit as the third Jewish city in the occupied West Bank" POICA, 5 May 2008, accessed 27 October 2026.
  36. ↑ International Court of Justice, Summary of the Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024 icj-cij.org, 19 July 2024, accessed 27 October 2026.
  37. ↑ 37.00 37.01 37.02 37.03 37.04 37.05 37.06 37.07 37.08 37.09 37.10 37.11 37.12 37.13 37.14 37.15 37.16 Internal Revenue Service, Exempt Organizations Business Master File Extract: New York irs.gov, 13 October 2026, accessed 27 October 2026.
  38. ↑ Internal Revenue Service, Automatic Revocation of Exemption List (data download) irs.gov, accessed 27 October 2026.
  39. ↑ Charity Commission for England and Wales, Friends of Boyan Trust (1114498): full print Register of Charities, accessed 27 October 2026.
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