Petah Tikva, also known as Em HaMoshavot, is a city in the Central District of Israel, 10.6 km (6.6 mi) east of Tel Aviv. It was founded in 1878, mainly by Haredi Jews of the Old Yishuv, and became a permanent settlement in 1883 with the financial help of Baron Edmond de Rothschild.
Bnei Brak or Bene Beraq is a city located on the central Mediterranean coastal plain in Israel, just east of Tel Aviv. A center of Haredi Judaism, Bnei Brak covers an area of 709 hectares, and had a population of 218,357 in 2022. It is one of the poorest and most densely populated cities in Israel, and the fourth-most densely populated city in the world.
Ponevezh Yeshiva, often pronounced as Ponevitch Yeshiva, is a yeshiva founded in 1908 in Panevėžys (Ponevezh), Lithuania, and located today in Bnei Brak, Israel since 1944. The yeshiva has over three thousand students, including those of affiliated institutions, and is considered one of the leading Litvish yeshivas in Israel.
Degel HaTorah is an Ashkenazi Haredi political party in Israel. For much of its existence, it has been allied with Agudat Yisrael, under the name United Torah Judaism.
Yated Ne'eman is a semi-major Israeli daily Hebrew language newspaper based in Bnei Brak. The Hebrew edition is published daily except on the Jewish Sabbath. A weekly English language edition was published in Israel and distributed in Israel, South Africa and Britain until December 2006.
Shemaryahu Yosef Chaim Kanievsky was an Israeli Haredi rabbi and posek. He was a leading authority in Haredi Jewish society on legal and ethical practice. Known as the Gadol HaDor and the "Prince of Torah", much of his prominence came through Torah education and advice about Jewish law.
Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky, known as The Steipler or The Steipler Gaon, was a Haredi rabbi, Talmudic scholar, and posek ("decisor" of Jewish law), and the author of Kehilos Yaakov, "a multi-volume Talmudic commentary".
Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman, also Shtainman or Steinman, was a Haredi rabbi in Bnei Brak, Israel. Following the death of Yosef Shalom Elyashiv in 2012, he was widely regarded as the Gadol HaDor, the leader of the non-Hasidic Lithuanian Haredi Jewish world. Along with several other rabbis, Shteinman is credited with reviving and expanding the appeal of European-style yeshivas in Israel.
Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah is the supreme rabbinical policy-making council of the Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah movements in Israel; and of Agudath Israel of America in the United States. Members are usually prestigious Roshei Yeshiva or Hasidic rebbes, who are also usually regarded by many Haredi Jews to be the Gedolim ("great/est") sages of Torah Judaism. Before the Holocaust, it was the supreme authority for the World Agudath Israel in Europe.
Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz was an Israeli Haredi Torah leader and rosh yeshiva in Bnei Brak for over 70 years. He was a maggid shiur at Yeshivas Tiferes Tzion from 1940 to 2011 and rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Ponovezh L’Tzeirim from 1954 to 2009, raising thousands of students. He was a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Degel HaTorah, a member of Mifal HaShas, and nasi (president) of the Acheinu kiruv organization, and played a leading role in the fight for Torah-true education in yeshivas and Talmud Torahs in Israel. In addition to his own Torah works, he published the teachings of his rebbi, Rabbi Shlomo Heiman, in the two-volume Chiddushei Shlomo.
Shmuel HaLevi Wosner was a prominent Ashkenazi rabbi and posek living in Bnei Brak, Israel. He was known as the Shevet HaLevi after his major work.
Hardal usually refers to the portion of the Religious Zionist Jewish community in Israel which inclines significantly toward Haredi ideology. In their approach to the State of Israel, though, they are very much Zionist, and believe that Israel is Atchalta De'Geula.
Gadol or godol is used by religious Jews to refer to the most revered rabbis of the generation.
A Badatz is a major Jewish beth din. The term is a modern one, and is an acronym for beit din tzedek.
Yitzchok Zilberstein is a prominent Orthodox rabbi, posek and expert in medical ethics. He is the av beis din of the Ramat Elchanan neighborhood of Bnei Brak, the Rosh Kollel of Kollel Bais David in Holon, and the Rav of Mayanei Hayeshua Medical Center in Bnei Brak. His opinion is frequently sought and quoted on all matters of halakha for the Israeli Lithuanian yeshiva community.
In Jewish law, a posek is a legal scholar who determines the application of halakha, the Jewish religious laws derived from the written and Oral Torah, in cases of Jewish law where previous authorities are inconclusive, or in those situations where no clear halakhic precedent exists.
The Jerusalem Faction is an Israeli Haredi political organization based in Jerusalem. It was founded in 2012 by Shmuel Auerbach as a reaction to the Bnei Brak-based Degel HaTorah's perceived moderate approach to the question of conscription of Haredim into the Israel Defence Forces by the Israeli government that came up following the expiration of the Tal Law.
Yerachmiel Gershon Edelstein was a Soviet-born Israeli rabbi who was rosh yeshiva of the Ponevezh Yeshiva, president of the Vaad Hayeshivos, and the spiritual leader of the Degel HaTorah party in Israel. He was widely considered to be a Gadol Hador by the Litvish community.
Yosef Shenberger was an Israeli architect. He designed many public buildings in the newly independent State of Israel including yeshivas, synagogues, hospitals and nursing homes, many of them in Jerusalem. Among his more notable projects are Mayanei Hayeshua Medical Center in Bnei Brak and, along with David Anatol Brutzkus, the new campus of Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. He was involved in the restoration of many ancient ruins and religious sites, including the Kfar Bar'am synagogue, Western Wall Plaza and the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron.
