Ger (

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...

: גער, also Gur, adj. Gerrer) is a Polish Hasidic dynasty originating from the town of

Góra Kalwaria Góra Kalwaria (; "Calvary Mountain", yi, גער, ''Ger'') is a town on the Vistula River in the Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. It is situated approximately southeast of Warsaw and has a population of around 12,109 (as of 2019). ...

, Poland, where it was founded by Yitzchak Meir Alter (1798–1866), known as the "Chiddushei HaRim". Ger is a branch of

Peshischa Peshischa (Yiddish: פשיסחה) was an important Hasidic school of thought based out of Przysucha, Poland founded by Yaakov Yitzchak Rabinowicz, which flourished during the late 18th to early 19th century. Its teachings are the foundation for ...

Hasidism, as Yitzchak Meir Alter was a leading disciple of Simcha Bunim of Peshischa (1765–1827). Before the Holocaust, followers of Ger were estimated to number in excess of 100,000, making it the largest and most influential Hasidic group in Poland. Today, the movement is based in Jerusalem, and its membership is estimated at 11,859 families, as of 2016, most of whom live in Israel, making Ger the largest Hasidic dynasty in Israel. However, there are also well-established Ger communities in the United States and in Europe. In 2019, some 300 families of followers led by

Shaul Alter Shaul Alter (born July 6, 1957) is the founder and current leader of Kehilas Pnei Menachem (an offshoot from the Ger Hasidic dynasty). He served as Rosh Yeshivah of Sfas Emes Yeshivah from 1993 until its closing in 2016. Early life Born in ...

, split off from the dynasty led by his cousin Yaakov Aryeh Alter.

History

In his early years, Yitzchak Meir Alter became a close disciple of Simcha Bunim of Peshischa, who preached the ideals of Talmudic-rationalism, and the pursuance of personal authenticity, which would later go on to be foundational tenets of Ger Hasidism. After Simcha Bunim's death in 1827, Yitzchak Meir Alter was among his more radical supporters who followed Menachem Mendel of Kotzk, rather than Simcha Bunim's son, Avraham Moshe. The Kotzker Rebbe continued in the ideological tradition of Peshischa, and after his death in 1859, the vast majority of his followers, accepted Yitzchak Meir Alter as his successor, rather than his son Dovid. Yitzchak Meir Alter was living in Warsaw at the time, where he operated a Kotzker shtiebel. Shortly after accepting the role of Rebbe, Yitzchak Meir was appointed as the

Av Beit Din The ''av beit din'' ( ''ʾabh bêth dîn'', "chief of the court" or "chief justice"), also spelled ''av beis din'' or ''abh beth din'' and abbreviated ABD (), was the second-highest-ranking member of the Sanhedrin during the Second Temple period, ...

(Ger in Yiddish), where he established his own Hasidic court. After his death in 1866, his followers wanted his eighteen-year-old grandson, Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter, to succeed him. When Yehuda Aryeh Leib refused to accept this position, most of the Hasidim became followers of the elderly Hasid, Chanokh Heynekh HaKohen Levin, after whose death, Yehudah Aryeh Leib, acceded to the request of the Hasidim to become their next rebbe. The Gerrer movement flourished under the leadership of Yehudah Aryeh Leib and his eldest son and successor, Avraham Mordechai Alter, known as the "Imrei Emes". In 1926, in a bold departure for Polish Hasidim, Avraham Mordechai established a yeshiva in Jerusalem, naming it for his father, the ''Sfas Emes''. The first

rosh yeshiva Rosh yeshiva ( he, ראש ישיבה, pl. he, ראשי ישיבה, '; Anglicized pl. ''rosh yeshivas'') is the title given to the dean of a yeshiva, a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primar ...

was Rabbi

Nechemiah Alter Nehemiah is the central figure of the Book of Nehemiah, which describes his work in rebuilding Jerusalem during the Second Temple period. He was governor of Persian Judea under Artaxerxes I of Persia (465–424 BC). The name is pronounced ...

, a brother of the Imrei Emes. Today, the yeshiva remains the flagship of the Ger yeshivas.Under the leadership of the fifth Gerrer Rebbe,

Yisrael Alter Yisrael Alter ( pl, Izrael Alter, Hebrew: ; October 1895 – 20 February 1977), also known as the ''Beit Yisrael'', after the works he authored, was the fifth Rebbe of the Hasidic Judaism, Hasidic dynasty of Ger (Hasidic dynasty), Ger, a position ...

, known as the "Beis Yisrael", the ''

Ichud Mosdos Gur Ihud ( he, איחוד, 'Unity') was a small binationalist Zionist political party founded by Judah Leon Magnes, Martin Buber, Ernst Simon and Henrietta Szold, former supporters of Brit Shalom, in 1942 Imrei_Emes

Distribution of Gerrer Hasidim

Almost all Ger Hasidim living in pre-war Europe (approximately 100,000 Hasidim) were murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust. Avraham Mordechai Alter, who managed to escape, set about the task of rebuilding the movement in the British Mandate of Palestine. It is generally accepted that he was released by the Nazis, and was then able to move to Palestine, because of a very large ransom paid by his followers to the Nazis. Under its post-war leaders, the movement began to flourish again. With approximately 12,000 families, Ger is the third-largest Hasidic dynasty in the world today, comprising 9.2% of the world population of Hasidim. Large communities of Gerrer Hasidim exist in Israel, in

Bnei Brak Bnei Brak or Bene Beraq ( he, בְּנֵי בְּרַק ) is a city located on the central Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean Israeli coastal plain, coastal plain in Israel, just east of Tel Aviv. A center of Haredi Judaism, Bnei Brak covers an are ...

(2294 families / 19% of the Hasidic population),

Ashdod Ashdod ( he, ''ʾašdōḏ''; ar, أسدود or إسدود ''ʾisdūd'' or '' ʾasdūd'' ; Philistine: 𐤀𐤔𐤃𐤃 *''ʾašdūd'') is the sixth-largest city in Israel. Located in the country's Southern District, it lies on the Mediterran ...

(2218 families / 45%), and Jerusalem (1921 families / 12%), and a slightly smaller community of 1,027 families (6% of the Hasidic population) exists in the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Smaller communities with hundreds of families have also been established in Israel, such as Arad,

Beit Shemesh Beit Shemesh ( he, בֵּית שֶׁמֶשׁ ) is a city located approximately west of Jerusalem in Israel's Jerusalem District, with a population of in . History Tel Beit Shemesh The small archaeological tell northeast of the modern city wa ...

, Kiryat Gat,

Hatzor HaGlilit Hatzor HaGlilit ( he, חָצוֹר הַגְּלִילִית lit. "Hatzor of Galilee") is a town in the Korazim Plateau in northern Israel near Rosh Pinna and Safed. It is named for the nearby biblical site of Tel Hazor. In it had a population o ...

, Haifa,

Dimona Dimona ( he, דִּימוֹנָה, ar, ديمونا) is an Israeli city in the Negev desert, to the south-east of Beersheba and west of the Dead Sea above the Arava valley in the Southern District of Israel. In its population was . The Shi ...

, Tel Aviv, and

Petah Tikva Petah Tikva ( he, פֶּתַח תִּקְוָה, , ), also known as ''Em HaMoshavot'' (), is a city in the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel, east of Tel Aviv. It was founded in 1878, mainly by Haredi Judaism, Haredi Jews of ...

. Internationally, hundreds of families reside in London,

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

, Zürich (where they are the largest Hasidic group), Manchester, Monsey, and

Lakewood Lakewood may refer to: Places Australia * Lakewood, Western Australia, an abandoned town in Western Australia Canada * Lakewood, Edmonton, Alberta * Lakewood Suburban Centre, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Philippines * Lakewood, Zamboanga del S ...

, with tens more living in Los Angeles, Queens, Montreal, Melbourne, and Chicago. Ger maintains a well-developed educational network of Talmud Torahs, yeshivas, and kollels, as well as

Beis Yaakov Bais Yaakov ( he, בית יעקב also Beis Yaakov, Beit Yaakov, Beth Jacob or Beys Yankev; lit., House fJacob) is a genericized name for full-time Haredi Jewish elementary and secondary schools for Jewish girls throughout the world. Bais Yaak ...

schools for girls. The dynasty is the wealthiest in Israel, and its leaders dominate the Agudat Israel political party.

Center

The group's headquarters is located in Jerusalem. During and after the British Mandate, the group's

beth midrash A ''beth midrash'' ( he, בית מדרש, or ''beis medrash'', ''beit midrash'', pl. ''batei midrash'' "House of Learning") is a hall dedicated for Torah study, often translated as a "study hall." It is distinct from a synagogue (''beth kness ...

was at the Sfas Emes Yeshiva, near Mahane Yehuda. Later on, the

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

moved to Ralbach Street in the

Geula Geula ( he, גאולה lit. ''Redemption'') is a neighborhood in the center of Jerusalem, populated mainly by Haredi Jews. Geula is bordered by Zikhron Moshe and Mekor Baruch on the west, the Bukharim neighborhood on the north, Mea Shearim on th ...

neighborhood, and in the late 1990s, the Great Beth Midrash Gur was inaugurated on Yirmeyahu Street, near the

Schneller Orphanage , image = SchnellerOrphanage2.jpg , image_alt = Stone building with an onion-dome tower , image_size = , caption = Schneller Orphanage main building , former_names = , alternate_names ...

complex. In 2015, an extension to the building was begun, and on

Rosh Hashanah Rosh HaShanah ( he, רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה, , literally "head of the year") is the Jewish New Year. The biblical name for this holiday is Yom Teruah (, , lit. "day of shouting/blasting") It is the first of the Jewish High Holy Days (, , " ...

2018 (5779), the second wing of the Beth Medrash was inaugurated. In 2022, the building was finished when the two wings were joined, making it the largest synagogue in the world, with the main sanctuary seating up to 20,000, and having an area of approximately . Beginning with the emigration of Avraham Mordechai Alter to Israel, the rebbes of Ger lived in Jerusalem, with the exception of the current Rebbe Yaakov Aryeh Alter, who moved to Jerusalem only in 2012. The group has " shtibelekh" in most ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods in the city. As other Hasidic courts, Ger also expanded in Jerusalem following the immigration of young couples from Europe and the United States.

Identifying features of Ger

The men are distinguished by their dark Hasidic garb, and by their pants tucked into their socks, called ''hoyzn-zokn'' (not to be confused with the breeches, called ''halber-hoyzn'', worn by men in some other Hasidic groups). They wear a round felt hat, and a high, almost-pointed kapel. They raise their sidelocks from the temples, and tuck them under the yarmulke, nearly hiding them. On Shabbos and Jewish holidays, married men wear the high circular fur hat of the Polish Hasidim, called a ''

spodik A spodik (or spodek; yi, ספּאָדיק , from Polish ''spodek'' "saucer") is a tall, black fur hat worn by some Hasidic Judaism, Hasidic Jews, particularly by members of sects in 19th-century Congress Poland. The origins of the spodik and the s ...

'' by Galicianers (not to be confused with the much flatter

shtreimel A shtreimel ( yi, שטרײַמל , plural: or ) is a fur hat worn by some Ashkenazi Jewish men, mainly members of Hasidic Judaism, on Shabbat and Jewish holidays and other festive occasions. In Jerusalem, the shtreimel is also worn by Litvak ...

worn by married men in Hasidic groups which do not hail from

Congress Poland Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It w ...

). Ger has produced some of the most prolific composers of

Jewish liturgical music This article describes the principal types of religious Jewish music from the days of the Temple to modern times. History of religious Jewish music The history of religious Jewish music is about the cantorial, synagogal, and the Temple music f ...

of all time such as Yankel Talmud (1885-1965), who was known as "the Beethoven of the Gerrer Rebbes".Bleich, Chanania. "Remembering Reb Yankel Talmud". ''

Ami AMI or Ami may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media *AMI-tv, a Canadian TV channel **AMI-télé, the French-language version * AMI-audio, a Canadian audio broadcast TV service *''Ami Magazine'', an Orthodox Jewish news magazine Businesses ...

'', 1 September 2013, pp. 128–132.

Kehilas Pnei Menachem

In October 2019, some Gerrer Hasidim under the leadership of

, formed a new kehilla called "''Kehilas Pnei Menachem''" which is independent of the mainstream Gerrer hassidic court. On November 8, 2021, the ''

Jerusalem Post ''The Jerusalem Post'' is a broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''The Palestine Post''. In 1950, it changed its name to ''The Jerusalem Post''. In 2004, the paper w ...

'' reported that Kehilas Pnei Menachem numbers some 500 families in Israel, with another 300 in the USA, while the mainstream Gur community in Israel is thought to number as many as 100,000 people (the equivalent of 11,494 families, according to a November 2021 report by Israel's National Economic Council which averages 6.7 children per Haredi family).

History of Kehilas Pnei Menachem

On October 22, 2019, the Ger Hasidic dynasty split for the first time in its history, following a public Sukkot event held by

, the cousin of the Gerrer Rebbe, Yaakov Aryeh Alter, at which donation and school enrollment forms for the new group were passed out for children of the attendees. Tensions between the two rabbis had appeared repeatedly over the preceding two decades, in particular after Yaakov Aryeh in 2016 closed the prestigious

Sfas Emes Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter ( he, יהודה אריה ליב אלתר, 15 April 1847 – 11 January 1905), also known by the title of his main work, the ''Sfas Emes'' (Ashkenazic Pronunciation) or ''Sefat Emet'' (Modern Hebrew), was a Hasidic rabbi ...

yeshiva in Jerusalem, at which Shaul Alter was the

Rosh Yeshiva Rosh yeshiva ( he, ראש ישיבה, pl. he, ראשי ישיבה, '; Anglicized pl. ''rosh yeshivas'') is the title given to the dean of a yeshiva, a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primar ...

, and failed to invite Shaul Alter in 2019 to the wedding of his grandson.

Gerrer dynastic leadership

* Grand Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Alter (1798–1866), (the ''Chiddushei HaRim''), first Gerrer Rebbe from 1859 to 1866 ** Grand Rabbi Chanokh Heynekh HaKohen Levin (1798–1870), second Gerrer Rebbe from 1866 to 1870 ** Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Alter (1815–1855) *** Grand Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter (1847–1905), (the ''Sfas Emes''), third Gerrer Rebbe from 1870 to 1905 **** Grand Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Alter (1866–1948), (the ''Imrei Emes''), fourth Gerrer Rebbe from 1905 to 1948 ***** Grand Rabbi

(1895–1977), (the ''Beis Yisroel''), fifth Gerrer Rebbe from 1948 to 1977 ***** Grand Rabbi

Simchah Bunim Alter Simcha Bunim Alter ( he, שמחה בונים אלתר; April 6, 1898 – August 6, 1992), also known as the ''Lev Simcha'' (), after the works he authored, was the sixth Rebbe of the Hasidic dynasty of Ger, a position he held from 1977 until his ...

(1898–1992), (the ''Lev Simcha''), sixth Gerrer Rebbe from 1977 to 1992 ****** Grand Rabbi Yaakov Aryeh Alter (born 1939), eighth Gerrer Rebbe from 1996 to present ***** Grand Rabbi Pinchas Menachem Alter (1926–1996), (the ''Pnei Menachem''), seventh Gerrer Rebbe from 1992 to 1996 ******Rabbi

(born 1957), leader of Kehilas Pnei Menachem (an offshoot from the Ger Hasidic Dynasty) from 2019 to present

''Takanot''

Ger is known as having the strictest views among Orthodox Jews regarding sexual relations. In 1948, Rabbi Yisrael Alter established the "Ordinances on Holiness", known as the ''takanot'' (called ''takunes'' in the vernacular of Yiddish used by Ger Hasidim), which regulate daily living. The rules were passed on verbally, and were never written down until 2016, when a former member of the Ger Hasidic sect published them on Facebook. The ''takanot'' prescribe, for example, that a couple should not have sex more than twice a month, should do so silently and quickly, and the man should always be on top. In addition to rules about sexual relations, they include prohibitions for men on everyday activities such as combing one's hair, using soap on days other than Friday (in preparation for Shabbos), smoking, and reading the newspaper. The ordinances are reputed to have had a detrimental effect on the demand for Gerrer bachelors in the Hasidic match-making market. In 2009, a Gerrer woman, Sarah Einfeld, appeared in a short documentary film, titled in English ''Shrew'' (in Hebrew, ''Soreret''). During the filming, she decided to desert Ger, and to adopt a secular way of life. In her blog, she reported on the "repression" of women in Ger, highlighting the suppression of sexuality under the regime of these rules.

References

* *

External links

Alter family tree

Biographie, Orthodox Union * * Gerszon Góra

* Arthur Green
Ger Hasidic Dynasty
The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe * Tamar Rotem
Gur Hasidim and sexual separation
first part ''Haaretz'' 3 February 201
For members of Israel's ultra-Orthodox Gur sect, sex is a sin
second part ''Haaretz'' 10 February 2012. * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ger