Yaakov Aryeh Alter

Rabbi Yaakov Aryeh Alter
Rabbi Alter as Sandek at a bris milah
Title	Gerrer Rebbe
Personal
Born	Yaakov Aryeh Alter (1939-05-18) 18 May 1939 (age 82) Łódź, Poland
Religion	Judaism
Parents	Rabbi Simcha Bunim Alter (father) Yuta Hena Alter (mother)
Jewish leader
Predecessor	Rabbi Pinchas Menachem Alter
Dynasty	Ger

Yaakov Aryeh Alter (Polish: Jakub Arie Alter, Hebrew: יעקב אריה אלתר‎, born 18 May 1939) is the eighth, and current, Rebbe of the Hasidic dynasty of Ger, a position he has held since 1996. He lives in Israel, and has followers there and in the United States, Europe, and Canada. He is a member of the Presidium of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudath Israel.

Life[]

Yaakov Aryeh Alter was born on 29 Iyar 5699 in Lodz, Poland, in 1939, to Rabbi Simcha Bunim Alter, also known as the Lev Simcha, who later became the sixth Gerrer Rebbe, and Yuta Henya, daughter of Rabbi Nehemiah Alter, his grandfather's brother. He was named after his ancestor Rabbi Yaakov Aryeh Guterman of Radzymin.^[1] In 1940, he immigrated with his father and grandfather (Rebbe Avraham Mordechai Alter) to Eretz Israel. He studied in the Talmud Torah Etz Chaim. For many years, he studied Torah at a synagogue known as Rashi Shtiebel in Bnei Brak. His full proficiency of all volumes of Sefer Mishnah Berura is well-known, and he describes himself as a student of the Chafetz Chaim, even though he never met him. He married Shoshana, daughter of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Weitz, one of the heads of .

Rebbi Alter is one of the wealthiest people in the ultra-Orthodox sector and in Israel in general, and is ranked third on the list of the richest rabbis in Israel, with a net worth of approximately NIS 350 million to NIS 500 million (between approximately $95 million and $135 million) due to real estate investments his father made in north Tel Aviv, Arsuf and Jerusalem before Israel’s establishment.^[2] Despite his wealth, he lived in an apartment in an ordinary residential building in the Chazon Ish neighborhood in Bnei Brak until 2011 when he moved to Jerusalem.

He and his wife have five sons and four daughters.^[3]

Opposition[]

Rabbi Shaul Alter, a first cousin of Rabbi Alter is a fierce opponent of the Rabbi. When the Rabbi enforced the learning of Bekious (learning the Talmud in more of a speedier manner, emphasizing quantity) instead of Iyun (learning the Talmud in a more in-depth manner, emphasizing quality) in the yeshivos of Ger, Rabbi Shaul resisted and still gave shiurim. In 2019 Rabbi Shaul Alter broke off from the Ger Dynasty and opened his own Kehillah where the yeshivos went back to learn Iyun as they did previously.

Rebbes of Ger[]

• Yitzchak Meir Alter (1798–1866)
• Chanokh Heynekh HaKohen Levin (1799–1870)
• 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)

External links[]

• Rabi Yaakov Aryeh Alter, 7th Gerrer Rebbe. Geni.com.

References[]