Pinchas Menachem Alter

Pinchas Menachem Alter
Title	Gerrer Rebbe
Personal
Born	(1926-06-09)June 9, 1926 Falenica near Warsaw, Poland
Died	March 7, 1996(1996-03-07) (aged 69) Jerusalem
Religion	Judaism
Spouse	Tzipora Alter
Children	Esther Lipl Moshe Betzalel Alter Shaul Alter Yehuda Aryeh Leyb Alter Yitzchak Dovid Alter Yaakov Meir Alter Daniel Chaim Alter
Parent(s)	Avraham Mordechai Alter Feyge Mintshe Biderman
Jewish leader
Predecessor	Simcha Bunim Alter
Successor	1. Yaakov Aryeh Alter (as Gerrer Rebbe), 2. Shaul Alter (as Gerrer Rosh Yeshiva)
Began	7 July 1992
Ended	7 March 1996
Buried	7 March 1996 Sfas Emes Yeshiva, Jerusalem
Dynasty	Ger

Pinchas Menachem Alter (Hebrew: פינחס מנחם אלתר, June 9, 1926 – March 7, 1996), also known as the Pnei Menachem (פני מנחם), after the works he authored, was the seventh Rebbe of the Hasidic dynasty of Ger, a position he held from 1992 until his death in 1996. From 1956 until he was appointed Rebbe, he was a Rosh Yeshiva. He also served as a member and the president of the Torah Scholars Council and as the Chairman of the Agudat Yisrael political party.

Early years

Pinchas Menachem was born in Falenica, near Warsaw, Poland. He was the only offspring of the second marriage of his father, Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Alter, the fourth Rebbe of Ger, to Feyge Mintshe Biderman. Pinchas Menachem had four half-brothers and two half-sisters from his father's first marriage—including the fifth Rebbe of Ger, Rabbi Yisrael Alter, and Rabbi Simcha Bunim Alter, the sixth Rebbe of Ger.

Pinchas Menachem's bar mitzva took place near Ludmir in Poland (now western Ukraine) not long before the outbreak of World War II in 1939. After the war, he married his cousin, Tzipora Alter. In 1956, he was appointed rosh yeshiva of Sfas Emes, the flagship yeshiva of Ger in Jerusalem, Israel.

Succession as rebbe

Rabbi Pinchas Menachem succeeded his half-brother, Rabbi Simcha Bunim Alter, to become Rebbe in 1992. His position as rosh yeshiva of Sfas Emes Yeshiva was assumed by his son, Rabbi Shaul Alter, who is widely regarded as an eminent Talmudic scholar.

During his tenure, Rabbi Pinchas Menachem continued the policies of his half-brothers, Rabbi Simcha Bunim and Rabbi Yisrael, by supporting the political work of the Agudat Israel of Israel party, promoting the interests of Haredi Judaism in the Israeli Knesset. He reached a rapprochement with his non-Hasidic Ashkenazi Haredi fellow-rabbis, in particular with Rabbi Elazar Shach, leader of the rival Degel HaTorah party. Together, they created the United Torah Judaism (Yahadut HaTorah) party in order not to lose residual votes in the Israeli proportional representation system, and thereby potentially obtain an extra seat for the newly united party in Knesset elections.

Death and burial

The graves of Grand Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Alter (right) and his son, Grand Rabbi Pinchas Menachem Alter (left) in an ohel adjacent to the Sfas Emes Yeshiva in downtown Jerusalem.

Rabbi Pinchas Menachem died in 1996 after less than four years at the helm of the Ger dynasty. He was buried beside his father, Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Alter, in the courtyard of the Sfas Emes Yeshiva. Unlike his father's grave, which was dug by hand under the cover of darkness during the British curfew in 1948, the Pnei Menachem's grave was dug with machinery; the latter grave is therefore lower than the former. A red-brick ohel was built over the two graves, which are visited frequently by students in the yeshiva.

He was succeeded as Rebbe by his nephew, Rabbi Yaakov Aryeh Alter, son of Rabbi Simcha Bunim Alter.

In 2019 his son Rabbi Shaul Alter formed his own followership of Ger Chasidim called Kehilas Pnei Menachem which is independent of the greater Ger sect.

Gerrer dynastic leadership

• Grand Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Alter (1798–1866), (the Chiddushei HaRim), first Gerrer Rebbe from 1859 to 1866
  • Grand Rabbi Chanokh Heynekh HaKohen Levin (1798–1870), second Gerrer Rebbe from 1866 to 1870
  • Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Alter (1815–1855)
    • Grand Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter (1847–1905), (the Sfas Emes), third Gerrer Rebbe from 1870 to 1905
      • Grand Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Alter (1866–1948), (the Imrei Emes), fourth Gerrer Rebbe from 1905 to 1948
        • Grand Rabbi Yisrael Alter (1895–1977), (the Beis Yisroel), fifth Gerrer Rebbe from 1948 to 1977
        • Grand Rabbi Simchah Bunim Alter (1898–1992), (the Lev Simcha), sixth Gerrer Rebbe from 1977 to 1992
          • Grand Rabbi Yaakov Aryeh Alter (born 1939), Gerrer Rebbe from 1996 to present
        • Grand Rabbi Pinchas Menachem Alter (1926–1996), (the Pnei Menachem), seventh Gerrer Rebbe from 1992 to 1996
          • Rabbi Shaul Alter (born 1957), leader of Kehilas Pnei Menachem (an offshoot from the Ger Hasidic Dynasty) from 2019 to present

Links

• Rare Footage Of The Gerrer Rebbe The Pnei Menachem Zt"l Dancing At A Wedding
• The Pnei Menachem Of Gur Visiting A Yeshiva In America