Simcha Bunim Alter

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Simcha Bunim Alter
Gerrer Rebbe
Simcha Bunim Alter.jpg
Term March 1977 – 7 July 1992
Full name Simcha Bunem Alter
Main work Lev Simcha
Born April 6, 1898
Góra Kalwaria
Buried Mount of Olives, 7 July 1992
Predecessor Yisrael Alter
Successor Pinchas Menachem Alter
Father Avraham Mordechai Alter
Mother Chaya Ruda Yehudis Czarna
Wife Yuta Hena Alter
Children Chaya Ruda Yehudis Alter
Rivka Feyga Alter
Yaakov Aryeh Alter

Simcha Bunim Alter (6 April 1898 – 6 August 1992), also known as the Lev Simcha after the works he authored, was the fifth Rebbe of the Hasidic dynasty of Ger, a position he held from 1977 until 1992.

Being a Palestinian citizen, Alter and his family were able to enter Mandate Palestine during 1940 to escape Nazi persecution in Poland.[1] Prior to becoming Rebbe of Ger, Alter was a businessman dealing in real estate.

During the time of his leadership, the Ger Hasidism grew greatly in the State of Israel. He continued the family tradition of vigorous leadership of the Agudat Israel of Israel party whose representatives in the Israeli Knesset (parliament) represent the interests of Haredi Judaism in the Jewish state. It was during his stewardship of the party that the non-Hasidic Degel HaTorah party (that was within the United Torah Judaism party) split when Rabbi Elazar Shach broke with Agudat Israel and its Hasidic leadership, led mainly by the rebbe of Ger. Rabbi Shach then aligned with Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and had initially helped to launch the Sephardi Shas political party.

In 1980 he instituted Yerushalmi Yomi, the daily learning of a page of the Jerusalem Talmud, similar to the renowned Daf Yomi for the Babylonian Talmud.[2]

He died (cause is unknown) on the 7th of Tammuz 5752 (1992) and was interred in the cave of the Gerrer Rebbes in the Mount of Olives cemetery.

Rebbes of Ger[edit]

  1. Yitzchak Meir Alter (1798)-1866)
  2. Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter (1847–1905)
  3. Avraham Mordechai Alter (1866–1948)
  4. Yisrael Alter (1895–1977)
  5. Simcha Bunim Alter (1898–1992)
  6. Pinchas Menachem Alter (1926–1996)
  7. Yaakov Aryeh Alter (b. 1939)


  1. ^ Obituary: Rabbi Simha Bunem Alter, The Independent, (July 11, 1992).
  2. ^ Holder, Meir (1986). History of the Jewish People: From Yavneh to Pumbedisa. Mesorah Publications Ltd. p. 315. ISBN 9780899064994.