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Agudath Israel Of America
Agudath Israel of America ( he, אגודת ישראל באמריקה) (also called Agudah) is an American organization that represents Haredi Orthodox Jews. It is loosely affiliated with the international World Agudath Israel. Agudah seeks to meet the needs of the Haredi community, advocates for its religious and civil rights, and services its constituents through charitable, educational, and social service projects across North America. Functions Agudah serves as a leadership and policy umbrella organization for Haredi Jews in the United States, representing the vast majority of members of the yeshiva world, sometimes known by the old label of '' misnagdim'', as well as a large number of Hasidic groups. However, not all Hasidic groups are affiliated with Agudath Israel. For example, the Hasidic group Satmar, which is vehemently anti-Zionist, dislikes Agudah's relatively moderate stance towards the State of Israel. Jonathan Rosenblum, "Reb Elimelech Gavriel (Mike) Tress", i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mike Tress
Elimelech Gavriel "Mike" Tress (1909-July 9, 1967-July 9) was a Jewish American who served as the national president of Agudath Israel of America from the 1940s until his death. He was a major figure in the movement's expansion and its chief lay leader. Tress was the son of an immigrant and born in the United States. Without training to become a rabbi, he was later titled "Reb Elimelech" due to his influential work and also known by his nickname "Mike". Before and during the Second World War, he founded various youth organizations to counteract assimilation. Tress was President of Agudath Israel of America for many years, helping the Union to become one of the greatest political, communal, and cultural representations of the Orthodoxy of its time in the United States. He led the organization until his death; his successor became Moshe Sherer. To finance Agudath Israel and help Jews escape from Europe, he gave up his career as a businessman and used his fortune to do so. Tress res ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Degel HaTorah
Degel HaTorah ( he, דגל התורה, , Banner of the Torah) is an Ashkenazi Haredi political party in Israel. For much of its existence, it has been allied with Agudat Yisrael, under the name United Torah Judaism. History Degel HaTorah was founded in 1988, as a splinter from Agudat Israel. Its establishment by Rabbi Elazar Shach was due to ongoing policy disputes with the Hasidic rabbis within Agudat Yisrael. In the 1988 elections, the party won two seats, taken by Avraham Ravitz and Moshe Gafni, and joined Yitzhak Shamir's coalition government. For the 1992 elections, the party allied itself with Agudat Yisrael, under the name United Torah Judaism. Although the party split shortly before the 1996 elections, they re-united for the elections. This was repeated for the 1999, 2006, and 2009 elections. Currently (2021), the party has three MKs (of the seven representing United Torah Judaism): Moshe Gafni, Ya'akov Asher, and Yitzhak Pindros. Ideology Degel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chortkov (Hasidic Dynasty)
Chortkov (also ''Chortkov'', ''Tshortkov'', ''Czortkow'') is a Hasidic dynasty that originated in Chortkiv ( pl, Czortków), present-day Ukraine. The town was part of the Tarnopol Voivodeship of the Second Polish Republic until September 1939. The town itself was founded in 1522 by Polish King Sigismund I the Old. The dynasty had a large following before the Second World War, but most of its adherents were murdered in the Holocaust. Chortkov is one of the branches of the Ruzhiner dynasty, together with the Bohush, Boyan, Husiatyn, Sadigura, Kapishnitz, Vasloi, and Shtefanesht dynasties. Chortkov dynasty history Rav Duvid Moshe Friedman The first Rebbe of Chortkov was Rabbi Duvid Moshe Friedman (1828–1903), son of Rabbi Yisroel Friedman of Ruzhyn. He was born in 1828 on the festival of Shavuos. His first wife was the daughter of Rabbi Aaron Twerski of Chernobyl. His second wife was his first cousin, a daughter of his brother Rabbi Shalom Yosef Friedman of Sadigura. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Avraham Mordechai Alter
Avraham Mordechai Alter ( pl, Abraham Mordekhaj Alter, he, אברהם מרדכי אלתר; 25 December 1865 – 3 June 1948), also known as the ''Imrei Emes'' after the works he authored, was the fourth Rebbe of the Hasidic dynasty of Ger, a position he held from 1905 until his death in 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. Personal life Alter had eight children by his first wife, Chaya Ruda Czarna, daughter of Noah Czarny, a prominent Gerrer Hasid in Biala. His eldest son, Rabbi Meir Alter, who was a Torah scholar and businessman, was murdered in Treblinka during the Holocaust with his children and grandchildren. His second son, Rabbi Yitzchak Alter, died in 1934 in Poland. In 1922, his wife Chaya Ruda died. Some time later he married his niece, Feyge Mintshe Biderman, who bore him his youngest child, Pinchas Menac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Izhbitza – Radzin (Hasidic Dynasty)
Izhbitza-Radzin is the name of a dynasty of Hasidic rebbes. The first rebbe of this dynasty was Rabbi Mordechai Yosef Leiner, author of '' Mei Hashiloach'', in the city of Izhbitza. (Izhbitza is the Yiddish name of Izbica, located in present-day Poland.) Mordechai Yosef founded his own Hasidic movement in the year 5600 (1839), leaving the court of Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk. His son and successor, Rabbi Yaakov Leiner of Izhbitza, moved to Radzin. The dynasty today is therefore known more as the "Radziner Dynasty". The third Rebbe, Rabbi Gershon Henoch Leiner of Radzin, re-instituted the use of a version of techeiles of the tzitzis. The better known works of the Izhbitzer-Radziner Rebbeim are Mei Hashiloach, Beis Yaakov, Sod Yesharim, and Tiferes Yosef. Today, the largest center of Radziner Hasidim is found in Bnei Brak, Israel, under the leadership of Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Englard of Radzin. History Lineage of the Izhbitza-Radzin dynasty First generation The Iz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vilnius
Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urban area, which stretches beyond the city limits, is estimated at 718,507 (as of 2020), while according to the Vilnius territorial health insurance fund, there were 753,875 permanent inhabitants as of November 2022 in Vilnius city and Vilnius district municipalities combined. Vilnius is situated in southeastern Lithuania and is the second-largest city in the Baltic states, but according to the Bank of Latvia is expected to become the largest before 2025. It is the seat of Lithuania's national government and the Vilnius District Municipality. Vilnius is known for the architecture in its Old Town, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. The city was noted for its multicultural population already in the time of the Polish–Lithuanian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chaim Ozer Grodzinski
Chaim Ozer Grodzinski ( he, חיים עוזר גראדזענסקי; August 24, 1863 – August 9, 1940) was a ''Av beis din'' (rabbinical chief justice), '' posek'' (halakhic authority), and Talmudic scholar in Vilnius, Lithuania in the late 19th and early 20th centuriesfor over 55 years. He played an instrumental role in preserving Lithuanian yeshivas during the Communist era, and Polish and Russian yeshivas of Poland and during the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939, when he arranged for these yeshivas to relocate to Lithuanian cities. Biography Chaim Ozer Grodzinski was born on 9 Elul 5623 (24 August 1863)Rabbi Aharon Sorasky. ''Glimpses of Greatness: Reb Chaim Ozer ''Is'' Klal Yisrael''. Hamodia Features, 22 July 2010, p. C3. in Iwye, Belarus, a small town near Vilnius. His father, David Shlomo Grodzinski, was rabbi of Iwye for over 40 years, and his grandfather was rabbi of the town for 40 years before that. When he was 12 years old he went to study with the ''perushim'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chafetz Chaim
The '' Sefer'' ''Chafetz Chaim'' (or ''Chofetz Chaim'' or ''Hafetz Hayim'') ( he, חָפֵץ חַיִּים, trans. "Desirer of Life") is a book by Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan, who is also called "the Chofetz Chaim" after it. The book deals with the Jewish ethics and laws of speech. The Sefer The title of the ''Chafetz Chaim'' is taken from Psalms: The subject of the book is ''hilchos shmiras halashon'' (laws of clean speech). Kagan provides copious sources from the Torah, Talmud and '' Rishonim'' about the severity of Jewish law on tale-mongering and gossip. Lashon hara, meaning "'evil speech" (or loosely gossip and slander and prohibitions of defamation), is sometimes translated as "prohibitions of slander", but in essence is concerning the prohibitions of saying evil/bad/unpleasant things about a person, whether or not they are true. The book is divided into three parts: * ''Mekor Chayim'' ("Source of Life"), the legal text. * ''Be'er mayim chayim'' ("Well of livi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yisrael Meir Kagan
Rabbi Yisrael Meir ha-Kohen Kagan (January 26, 1838 – September 15, 1933), known popularly as the Chofetz Chaim, after his book on lashon hara, who was also well known for the Mishna Berurah, his book on ritual law, was an influential Lithuanian Jewish rabbi, Halakhist, posek, and ethicist whose works continue to be widely influential in Orthodox Jewish life. Biography Kagan was born on 26 January 1838 in Dzienciol ( yi, זשעטל, Zhetl), Grodno Governorate in Russian Empire (today Dzyatlava in Belarus), and died on 15 September 1933 in Raduń ( yi, ראַדין, Radin), Nowogródek Voivodeship in Second Polish Republic (now in Belarus). His surname, Poupko, is not widely known. Kagan himself used the name "Kagan" (The Russian form of "Kohen") in official and legal documents. When Kagan was ten years old, his father died. His mother moved the family to Vilnius in order to continue her son's Jewish education. While in Vilnius, Kagan became a student of Rabbi Jacob Ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rabbi
A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as '' semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of the rabbi developed in the Pharisaic (167 BCE–73 CE) and Talmudic (70–640 CE) eras, when learned teachers assembled to codify Judaism's written and oral laws. The title "rabbi" was first used in the first century CE. In more recent centuries, the duties of a rabbi became increasingly influenced by the duties of the Protestant Christian minister, hence the title " pulpit rabbis", and in 19th-century Germany and the United States rabbinic activities including sermons, pastoral counseling, and representing the community to the outside, all increased in importance. Within the various Jewish denominations, there are different requirements for rabbinic ordination, and differences in opinion regarding who is recognized as a rabbi. For ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses on Mount Sinai and faithfully transmitted ever since. Orthodox Judaism, therefore, advocates a strict observance of Jewish law, or '' halakha'', which is to be interpreted and determined exclusively according to traditional methods and in adherence to the continuum of received precedent through the ages. It regards the entire ''halakhic'' system as ultimately grounded in immutable revelation, and beyond external influence. Key practices are observing the Sabbath, eating kosher, and Torah study. Key doctrines include a future Messiah who will restore Jewish practice by building the temple in Jerusalem and gathering all the Jews to Israel, belief in a future bodily resurrection of the dead, divine reward and punishment for the righteo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agudath Israel Movement
World Agudath Israel ( he, אגודת ישראל), usually known as the Aguda, was established in the early twentieth century as the political arm of Ashkenazi Torah Judaism. It succeeded ''Agudas Shlumei Emunei Yisroel'' (Union of Faithful Jewry) in 1912. Its base of support was located in Eastern Europe before the Second World War but, due to the revival of the Hasidic movement, it included Orthodox Jews throughout Europe. Prior to World War II and the Holocaust, Agudath Israel operated a number of Jewish educational institutions throughout Europe. After the war, it has continued to operate such institutions in the United States as Agudath Israel of America, and in Israel. Agudath Israel is guided by its Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah (Council of Sages) in Israel and the USA. History Katowice Conference World Agudath Israel was established by Jewish religious leaders at a conference held at Kattowitz (Katowice) in 1912. They were concerned that the Tenth Zionist Congress had def ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
