The Beis Yisroel—Rabbi Yisrael Alter רבי ישראל אלתר — בית ישראל
the fourth rebbe of Ger; he rebuilt the court in Israel out of the survivors
The eldest son of the Imrei Emes. His wife and children perished in the Shoah; he himself came out of Poland with his father in 1940.
The rebuilding. He took the court in 1948, when only a handful of Polish Ger remained, and ran the matter the way a building is run: yeshivot, minyanim, places to settle—Jerusalem, then Bnei Brak, then Hatzor and Ashdod. In thirty years Ger became in Israel what it had been in Poland.
Fewness of words. He did not deliver long discourses and did not like being spoken of. The chasidim remember short sentences and a great deal of order: a timetable, exactness, responsibility for one's place. Out of this grew what distinguishes a Gerrer chasid from others to this day.
His words were gathered after his death in Beis Yisroel, and by the book he is named.
He died on 2 Adar 1977.
On the timeline
Places
Related
Sources
Acharonim and later rabbinic literature
- Beis Yisroel—his words, gathered after his death — the book he is named by
Documents of the period
- Accounts of the rebuilding of Ger's institutions in Israel, 1948–1977 — how the court was gathered anew
Basis: documents and evidence.