Shaul Alter (born July 6, 1957) is the founder and current leader of Kehilas Pnei Menachem (an offshoot from the Ger

Hasidic dynasty A Hasidic dynasty is a dynasty led by Hasidic Jewish spiritual leaders known as rebbes, and usually has some or all of the following characteristics: * Each leader of the dynasty is often known as an ''ADMOR'' (abbreviation for '' ADoneinu MOreinu ...

). He served as

Rosh Yeshivah Rosh yeshiva ( he, ראש ישיבה, plural, 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, ...

Sfas Emes Yeshiva Sfas Emes Yeshiva ( he, ישיבת שפת אמת) was an Orthodox Jewish yeshiva in Jerusalem, serving the Gerrer Hasidic community until 2016. Founded in 1925 in the Mahane Yehuda neighborhood of Jerusalem, it was one of the few Hasidic yeshiva ...

h from 1993 until its closing in 2016.

Early life

Born in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

to Tziporah, a daughter of Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Alter (son of Rabbi Moshe Betzalel Alter brother of

Rebbe A Rebbe ( yi, רבי, translit=rebe) or Admor ( he, אדמו״ר) is the spiritual leader in the Hasidic movement, and the personalities of its dynasties.Heilman, Samuel"The Rebbe and the Resurgence of Orthodox Judaism."''Religion and Spiritua ...

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 po ...

of Ger) and to Rabbi

Pinchas Menachem Alter Pinchas Menachem Alter ( he, פינחס מנחם אלתר, June 9, 1926 – March 7, 1996), also known as the ''Pnei Menachem'' (), after the works he authored, was the seventh Rebbe of the Hasidic dynasty of Ger, a position he held from 1992 un ...

(Rosh Yeshivah of Sfas Emes Yeshivah and later to date

of the Ger Hasidic Dynasty.) He is named after the grandfather of his mother Rabbi Shaul Moshe Zilberman. He studied in Imrei Emes Yeshivah 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 ...

, and afterward continued to learn under his father's guidance in Sfas Emes Yeshivah where he was known as an outstanding student who finished the entire

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...

. In 1977 Alter married Naomi, daughter of Chaim Dov Rubinstein from the city of

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

. After his marriage, he lived in Haifa, where he was appointed as Maggid Shiur of Ohr Simcha Yeshivah in Haifa. He was also given the opportunity to give in-depth Shiur (Torah), shiurim in the Beis Yisroel Yeshivah of Ashdod. After the death of his uncle, Rebbe Simcha Bunim Alter of Ger, in 1992, his father, who was then appointed as Rebbe of the Ger Dynasty, requested he should move back to his birthplace, Jerusalem. In July 1993 he was given the prestigious position of Rosh Yeshivah of Sfas Emes Yeshivah, per his father's request. He gave in-depth shiurim daily and weekly in the Yeshivah. When the change in the way of learning in the Yeshivas of Ger was switched from in-depth (Iyun) to broad knowledge (Bekious), the shiurim were halted. In 2016 the Yeshiva was closed through orders from the Yaakov Aryeh Alter, Gerer Rebbe. Alter's disciples published a series of books based on his in-depth Shiurim, known as Yaalkut Shiurim (in Hebrew ילקוט שיעורים).

Split from the Ger dynasty

After the passing of his father Rabbi

(the "Pnei Menachem"), in March 1996, his father's nephew, Rabbi Yaakov Aryeh Alter, was crowned as Rebbe of the dynasty. Following an "ostracism" signed by the leaders of the dynasty in Israel in June 2019 against Mr. Dovid Berliner the former Administrator of Camp Ger in the United States(in a case known as the Camp Ger dispute), in which the majority (including some of the leaders) of the community in the United States didn't partake and even disobeyed it, he wrote a letter of criticism against the establishment in support of Berliner, beginning his formal separation from the established leadership of the Ger Hassidim led by the Gerrer Rebbe. In the middle of the Holiday of Sukkot, Sukkos (October 2019), following a failed attempt at reconciliation between him and the Rebbe, his followers announced the existence of a separate congregation of prayers on Simchat Torah, Simchas Torah. In response, the Ger leadership announced that they would ban students from their institutions whose fathers had attended the separate prayers. During the holiday, hundreds of followers participated in separate prayers and gatherings. Students whose fathers participated in the separate prayers were removed from the Hasidic establishment's institutions. Immediately afterward, Alter's men announced a split and the establishment of a separate community and institutions, including Yeshivas Pnei Menachem. Until November 2021, the community in the United States, the source of the conflict, was spared from being removed from the institutions; and initially, the two factions of the dynasty remained united as one community, studying in the same yeshivas and praying in the same synagogues. In 2021, Alter made a crowdfunding campaign to build his institutions and raised over $16 Million in 48 hours. In November 2021, Alter visited America, where he was greeted at the airport by an ecstatic crowd of his followers. A welcoming reception on the night of his arrival in Borough Park, Brooklyn, Borough Park was attended by well over 1,000 people. Over 10,000 people joined him for Sabbath services. Throughout his visit he met with leaders of other Hasidic groups and delivered numerous shiurim across the NY/NJ metro area which were attended by thousands of participants.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alter, Shaul 1957 births Living people Hasidic rosh yeshivas Ger (Hasidic dynasty) Israeli Orthodox rabbis 21st-century rabbis in Jerusalem Israeli Hasidic rabbis 20th-century rabbis in Jerusalem