Avraham Mordechai Alter

Infobox Rebbe
title = Gerrer Rebbe


caption ="The Gerrer Rebbe at a prayer gathering in the Hurva Synagogue, November 1942"
term = 1905 – 3 June, 1948
full name =Avrohom Mordka Alter
main work = Imrei Emeth
predecessor =Yehuda Aryeh Leib Alter
successor =Yisrael Alter
spouse1 =Chaya Ruda Czarna
issue1 =Myer Alter
Yitschok Alter
Feyge Alter
Esther Alter
Yisrael Alter
Simchah Bunim Alter
spouse2 =Feyge Muntshe Biderman
issue2 =Pinchas Menachem Alter.
spouse3 =
issue3 =
dynastyname = Ger
father = Yehuda Arye Leib Alter
mother =Yocheved Rivka Kaminer
date of birth =25 December, 1866
place of birth =Ger
date of death =3 June, 1948
place of death =Jerusalem
date of burial =June, 1948
place of burial =Sfath Emeth Yeshiva, Jerusalem|

Avraham Mordechai Alter, (December 25 1866 – June 3 1948), also known as the "Imrei Emes" after the works he authored, was the third spiritual leader of the hasidic dynasty of Ger, a position he held from 1905 till 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.

Family

He had eight children by his first wife, Chaya Ruda Czarna, daughter of Noach Czarny, a prominent Gerrer chosid in Biala. His eldest son, Rabbi Myer Alter, who was a Torah scholar and businessman, perished in Treblinka during the Holocaust with his children and grandchildren. His second son, Rabbi Yitzchak Alter, died in 5695 (1934) in Poland.

In 1922 his wife Chaya Ruda died. Some time later he married his niece Feyge Muntshe Biderman, who bore him his youngest child, Pinchos Menachem, in 1926.

In 1924 Rabbi Avrohom Mordechai visited the Land of Israel together with his brother in-law, Rabbi Hirsh Heynekh Lewin, his son-in-law Rabbi Yitschok Myer Alter and the Sokolover Rebbe, Rabbi Yitschok Zelig Morgensztern. Over a six-week period they visited Jerusalem, Tsfat, Chevron, Tverya and Tel Aviv. [Yitschak Alfasi, בית גור "The House of Ger", vol 2, p 55]

World War II

During World War II Rabbi Avrohom Mordechai was a prime target of the Nazi authorities in Poland.

He managed to escape to the Palestine in 1940 with several of his sons and began to slowly rebuild his Hasidic dynasty. With the outbreak of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War he was trapped in Jerusalem and died of natural causes during the siege of the city by the Jordanian Arab Legion. He was buried there, in the grounds of the "Sfath Emeth" yeshiva.

After his death the dynasty continued with his three remaining sons, who became the consecutive next three heads of the Gerrer chasidim worldwide: Rabbi Yisrael Alter (fourth rebbe of Ger); Rabbi Simchah Bunim Alter (fifth rebbe of Ger); and Rabbi Pinchas Menachem Alter (sixth rebbe of Ger).

ee also

*Hasidic Judaism
*Ger (Hasidic dynasty)
*Rebbe

Rebbes of Ger

#Yitzchak Meir Alter (1798–1866)
#Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter (1847–1905)
#Avraham Mordechai Alter (1866–1948)
#Yisrael Alter (1895–1977)
#Simchah Bunim Alter (1898–1992)
#Pinchas Menachem Alter (1926–1996)
#Yaakov Aryeh Alter (b. 1939)

References