18 Facts About Yisrael Alter

Yisrael Alter was born in Poland on the holiday of Isru Chag Sukkot, the third son of Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Alter.

Until the age of ten, he studied with his grandfather, Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh Leib Yisrael Alter, and was already known as a prodigy.

Yisrael Alter was particularly known for his strict adherence to time.

Yisrael Alter gathered the remaining Gerrer Hasidim who had settled in Israel before the war, along with Holocaust survivors, and sought to bring back those who, or whose families, had distanced themselves from the Hasidic movement.

Yisrael Alter is considered one of the major figures in the rebuilding of the Haredi community after the Holocaust, particularly in establishing public norms regarding modesty, gender segregation, and separation from secular culture.

Yisrael Alter's influence extended far beyond Gerrer Hasidim, attracting followers from other segments of society.

Yisrael Alter placed great emphasis on education, working with other Haredi leaders to establish the Independent Education System, an autonomous religious education framework.

The importance Yisrael Alter placed on education and religious journalism can be seen in the fact that during his leadership, he avoided fundraising campaigns for any cause, except for a single fundraiser for the newspaper Hamodia and another for Independent Education.

Yisrael Alter supported and encouraged the re-establishment of Hasidic courts from various communities destroyed during the war.

Yisrael Alter placed significant importance on the Tish, and for nearly three decades of his leadership, only rarely did he miss conducting one, except when he was ill or resting in places like Haifa.

Yisrael Alter usually held two Tishes each Shabbat: one on Friday nights and another during the Seudah Shlishit, a time considered especially conducive to spiritual elevation in Hasidism.

Yisrael Alter placed a strong emphasis on Jewish values, particularly modesty, education on safeguarding the covenant, and separating from permissive, secular society.

Yisrael Alter viewed these values as foundational to the survival of the Jewish people and believed that strict observance could avert severe decrees upon Israel.

Yisrael Alter believed that one could not escape sin without distancing oneself from physical pleasures, even those that were not prohibited by Torah.

Yisrael Alter instituted a stringent code of conduct for his followers, designed to distance them from sin and elevate them spiritually.

Five years before his death, Yisrael Alter underwent a successful surgery to remove a tumor from his intestines.

Yisrael Alter died in the Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital on the 2nd of Adar 1977, of intestinal gangrene due to arterial blockage, after refusing to be taken to the hospital on the preceding day, Shabbat.

Yisrael Alter was buried in the "Gerrer Cave" on Mount of Olives.