הרב ישראל אלתר

Rav Yisrael Alter (24 Tishrei 5655/1894–2 Adar 5737/1977), the Gerrer Rebbe known by his writings as the Beit Yisrael, rebuilt the chassidut of Ger in Eretz Yisrael after the Shoah and was among the foremost Admorim of the decades that followed. He was born in Poland, the third son of Rav Avraham Mordechai Alter, the Imrei Emet. His grandfather Rav Yehuda Aryeh Leib Alter, the Sfat Emet, learned with him regularly until his passing, when Rav Yisrael was about ten, and already then he was known as an illui, and for his exactness with zmanim.

In the Shoah he fled Poland together with his father and reached Eretz Yisrael on 8 Nisan 5700/1940. His wife, Chaya Sarah, daughter of his cousin Rav Yaakov Meir Biderman, and their two children were murdered by the Nazis, as were nearly all the chassidim of Ger in Poland. After his father was niftar in 5708/1948 he was appointed in his place, and he married again, to Perel, daughter of David Weinfeld. As Rebbe he gathered in the chassidim of Ger who had been in Eretz Yisrael from before the war together with the survivors. Over twenty-nine years of leadership he renewed the Polish practice of traveling to the Rebbe for Shabbat and yom tov, and held a tish twice each Shabbat, broken only when he was ill. Under him the Ichud Mosdos Gur was founded to fund the roughly hundred educational institutions of Ger in Eretz Yisrael.

He gave weight to chinuch above all, and worked with the other leaders of the chareidi tzibbur to found Chinuch Atzmai; he founded the chareidi daily HaModia. Through all the years of his leadership he made no appeals for funds even for the mosdot of the chassidut — save one for HaModia and one for Chinuch Atzmai. He served as president of the Moetzet Gedolei HaTorah. His demands were turned inward: he held that provoking those far from Torah is a chillul Hashem, and forbade his chassidim the demonstrations in Yerushalayim over Shabbat traffic.

In his early years in Eretz Yisrael he learned Kabbalah with Rav Yaakov Moshe Charlap and with Rav David Cohen, the Nazir. He was much occupied with the Ramban on the Torah, and said in the name of his father the Imrei Emet that every word in that sefer is a gold dinar. Among those who drew close to him were Rav Shalom Noach Berezovsky, the Slonimer Rebbe, and Rav Moshe Sternbuch. The divrei Torah he said at the tish he would write down afterward in short, and from his own handwriting the sefer Beit Yisrael on the Torah was published after his passing. He was niftar at Hadassah Ein Kerem on 2 Adar 5737, having refused to be taken to the hospital the day before out of kedushat Shabbat, and was buried in the Me’arat Gur on Har HaZeitim; at the end of the shivah his brother Rav Simcha Bunim Alter, the Lev Simcha, was appointed in his place.