Mayer Alter Horowitz

Last updated
Mayer Alter Horowitz
Bostoner Rebbe Hachnasas Sefer Torah 5773.jpg
Horowitz in 2013
TitleBostoner Rebbe of Jerusalem
Personal
Born
Mayer Alter Horowitz

Boston, Massachusetts
Religion Judaism
Parents
  • Levi Yitzchak Horowitz (father)
  • Raichel Ungar (mother)
Jewish leader
Predecessor Levi Yitzchak Horowitz
BeganDecember 2009
DynastyBoston

Mayer Alter Horowitz is an American Hasidic rabbi. Since 2009, he has been the Bostoner rebbe of Jerusalem. [1]

Contents

Early life and education

Horowitz was born in Boston, the son of Levi Yitzchak Horowitz, the second Bostoner rebbe, and Raichel Unger Leifer. [2] He is a ninth-generation descendant in the male line of Shmuel Shmelke Horowitz, the Nikolsburger rebbe. His older brother, Pinchos Dovid Horowitz, is the Bostoner-Chuster rabbi of Borough Park, Brooklyn, and his younger brother, Naftali Yehuda Horowitz, is the Bostoner rebbe of Brookline, Massachusetts.

Horowitz received his rabbinic ordination at the Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak and Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, New Jersey. [3]

From 1969 to 1989 he was the Senior Rabbi of Congregation Beth Pinchas in Brookline, Massachusetts. [4]

Move to Israel

The Israel Boston Chassidic Center complex on Ruzhin Street, Har Nof, Jerusalem BostonShulFront.JPG
The Israel Boston Chassidic Center complex on Ruzhin Street, Har Nof, Jerusalem

In 1984 he and a group of Bostoner Hasidim immigrated to Israel and helped found Mosdos Boston of Israel, which established the Bostoner community of Har Nof. He became the Senior Rabbi of the Givat Pinchas synagogue, continuing in that capacity as Bostoner Rebbe of Jerusalem. In 1980, Horowitz helped establish Kollel Boston in the Bukharim quarter of Jerusalem. The Kollel moved to Har Nof with the establishment of the Bostoner community there.

From 1984 to 1989, Horowitz traveled back and forth between Boston and Har Nof, and beginning in 1989 settled permanently in Har Nof. In the late 1980s, he established a second synagogue in Har Nof, called Beis Shlomo, and continued as Senior Rabbi until 1995.

In 1998, he helped his father establish the Bostoner Community in Beitar Illit.

In 2007, he founded Machon HaNesher HaGadol, a publication company.

As Grand Rabbi

In 2009, after the death of his father, he was designated to succeed his father in Har Nof. [5] He also took his father's position as a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudath Israel of Israel.

Horowitz frequently travels to Jewish communities in Israel, Europe, and North America to proselytize for Bostoner Hasidism. Since becoming Bostoner Rebbe of Jerusalem in 2009, he has visited Waterbury, Connecticut, [6] Chicago, [7] Atlanta, [8] Dallas, [9] Denver, [10] and Budapest, [1] among others.

In the summer of 2012, Horowitz helped launch a weekly magazine publication in conjunction with The Jerusalem Post called Kosher English, designed to help Israeli Haredi readers learn and improve their English-language skills, and supervises its publication. [11]

In the Bostoner tradition, Horowitz has composed dozens of original songs and melodies [12] including "Borey Niv" [13] "Re'ay Nah" [14] and "Yivorechicho" [15]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yitzchak Hutner</span> American rabbi (1906–1980)

Yitzchak Hutner, also known as Isaac Hutner, was an American Orthodox rabbi and rosh yeshiva (dean).

Horowitz is a Levitical Ashkenazi surname deriving from the Horowitz family, though it can also be a non-Jewish surname as well. The name is derived from the town of Hořovice, Bohemia. Other variants of the name include Harowitz, Harrwitz, Harwitz, Horovitz, Horvitz, Horwicz, Horwitz, Hourwitz, Hurewicz, Hurwicz, Hurwitz, Gerovich, Gurovich, Gurevich, Gurvich, Gourevitch, Orowitz and Urwitz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yaakov Aryeh Alter</span>

Yaakov Aryeh Alter is the eighth, and current, Rebbe of the Hasidic dynasty of Ger, a position he has held since 1996. He lives in Israel, and has followers there and in the United States, Europe, and Canada. He is a member of the Presidium of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudath Israel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aleksander (Hasidic dynasty)</span> Polish Hasidic dynasty

Aleksander is a Polish Hasidic dynasty originating from the city of Aleksandrow Lodzki, Poland, where it was founded by Grand Rabbi Yechiel Denciger (1828–1894). Aleksander is a branch of Vurka, as Shraga Fayvel Danciger was a leading disciple of Rabbi Israel Yitzhak Kalish of Vurka. Prior to the Holocaust, Aleksander was the second to largest Hasidic group in Poland. They attracted artisans, merchants and water carriers rather than elite Talmudic scholars and richer people who were attracted to Ger. Like the rest of Polish Jewry, almost all of Aleksander hasidim were murdered in the Holocaust. Between the world wars, Hasidic Jews from all over flocked to the small village of Aleksander to spend the holiest days of the Jewish year in the presence of their spiritual leader, their rebbe, Rabbi Yitzchak Menachem Danciger (1879–1942). The Rebbe of Aleksander attempted to remain neutral in political issues while emphasizing communal prayer and the study of Torah. He was murdered by the Germans on September 5, 1942, eight days before Rosh Hashana, at Treblinka extermination camp. Today, Aleksander has emerged from the ashes of the Holocaust and continues growing in numbers in small communities in America, Europe and Israel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boston (Hasidic dynasty)</span> American Hasidic dynasty

Boston is a Hasidic dynasty, originally established in 1915 by Rabbi Pinchas David Horowitz, a scion of the Nikolsburg Hasidic dynasty. Following the custom of European Chassidic Courts, where the Rebbe was called after the name of his city, the Bostoner branch of Hasidic Judaism was named after Boston, Massachusetts. The most senior and well-known of the Bostoner Rebbes in contemporary times was Grand Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Horowitz, who died in December 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Har Nof</span> Neighborhood in Jerusalem, Israel

Har Nof is a neighborhood on a hillside on the western boundary of Jerusalem with a population of 20,000 residents, primarily Orthodox Jews.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naftali Yehuda Horowitz</span> Hassidic Rebbe

Naftali Yehuda Halevi Horowitz is the Bostoner Rebbe, having succeeded his father, Grand Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Horowitz, the second Bostoner Rebbe, upon the latter's death in December 2009. He is the rebbe of the Boston Hasidic community from the New England Chassidic Center in Brookline, Massachusetts, built by his father, and also directs ROFEH International, the community-based medical referral and hospitality liaison support agency established by his father.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Levi Yitzchak Horowitz</span>

Levi Yitzchak HaLevi Horowitz was a rabbi and the second rebbe of the Boston Hasidic Dynasty founded by his father, Pinchos Dovid Horowitz. He was the first American-born Hasidic rebbe and the founder of ROFEH International, a community-based medical referral and hospitality liaison support agency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah</span> Supreme rabbinical policy-making council of the Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah

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.

Hanoch Teller is an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, author, lecturer, and producer who popularized the Jewish literary genre of true, contemporary stories to convey inspirational and ethical themes. Author of 28 books, Teller is also a tour guide in Jerusalem, Israel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yeshiva Pachad Yitzchok</span>

Yeshiva Pachad Yitzchok is a yeshiva in Jerusalem, Israel, established in the late 1970s by Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner in the Har Nof neighborhood. Hutner had served as the long-standing Rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin and Kollel Gur Aryeh in Brooklyn, New York City. Upon the passing of Hutner in 1980, leadership of the yeshiva passed to his son-in-law, Rabbi Yonasan David who is the present Rosh Yeshiva. Rabbi Chaim Yitzchok Kaplan serves as the deputy Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Pachad Yitzchok.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haim Amsalem</span> Israeli politician

Rabbi Haim (Emile) Amsalem is an Israeli politician and a former member of the Knesset. Following a rift between him and his former party Shas, he established the Am Shalem party to run for the 2013 Knesset elections, but failed to win any seats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yochanan Sofer</span>

Yochanan Sofer was the rebbe of the Erlau dynasty. He was born in Eger, Hungary, where his father and grandfather were also rebbes. After surviving the Holocaust, he founded a yeshiva, first in Hungary and then a few years later in Jerusalem.

Yosef Leifer was the founder and first Rebbe of the Pittsburg Hasidic dynasty in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which he led for 42 years. Known as the Tzidkas Yosef after the name of his posthumously-published sefer, he was a scion of the Nadvorna dynasty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mordechai Yissachar Ber Leifer</span> American rabbi

Mordechai Yissachar Ber Leifer was the third Rebbe of the Pittsburgh Hasidic dynasty. Born in the United States, he joined his father, Grand Rabbi Avraham Abba Leifer, in Ashdod, Israel, to serve as rosh yeshiva of a new Pittsburgher yeshiva in that city in 1981. After succeeding his father as Rebbe, he expanded the Hasidic presence in Ashdod with new schools and institutions, and increased the number of Pittsburgher families to nearly 200 in Ashdod. He also shepherded Pittsburgher Hasidim in Jerusalem, Bnei Brak, Beit Hilkia, New York City, and California. An accomplished Torah scholar and musical composer, he led the Hasidut for three decades until his death in 2020.

Keser Torah Radomsk, also transliterated Keter Torah Radomsk, is the name of yeshivas and kollels in Israel and the United States affiliated with the Radomsk Hasidic dynasty. The name was originally coined for a network of 36 yeshivas in pre-war Poland founded by the fourth Radomsker rebbe, Shlomo Chanoch Rabinowicz, and led by his son-in-law David Moshe Rabinowicz.

Rabbi Pinchas David Horowitz, was a Hasidic rebbe and the founder of the Boston Hasidic dynasty, one of the first Hasidic courts in America.

Chaim Avrohom Horowitz was a Polish-born American rabbi. In 1985, he became Bostoner Rebbe, Grand Rabbi of the Boston Jewish Hasidic sect, established in 1915 by his grandfather Pinchas Duvid Horowitz, and named after his city, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

References

  1. 1 2 Rettig, Haviv (2010-04-21). "In Budapest, Jewish history... JPost - Jewish World - Jewish News". Jpost.com. Retrieved 2012-11-22.
  2. Ahren, Raphael (2009-12-11). "The Bostoner Rebbe, the first American-born Hasidic leader Israel News - Haaretz Israeli News source". Haaretz.com. Retrieved 2012-11-22.
  3. "Biography - Rabbi Mayer A. Horowitz" . Retrieved 2012-11-22.
  4. Mandel, Patricia (10 February 1978). "Hassidic Judaism Permeates Daily Life". The Day .
  5. "Three Sons to Succeed Bostoner Rebbe as Admorim of Bostoner Chassidus » Matzav.com - The Online Voice of Torah Jewry". Matzav.com. 2009-12-13. Retrieved 2012-11-22.
  6. Hamodia (20 Jan 2010), pg. C21, "Bostoner Rebbe of Har Nof Spend Shabbos in Waterbury"
  7. Hamodia (2 Mar 2011), pg. C14, "Bostoner Rebbe of Yerushalayim in Chicago"
  8. Hamodia (3 Mar 2011), pg. C18, "Bostoner Rebbe Visits Atlanta"
  9. "The Daily Newspaper of Torah Jewry". Hamodia. Archived from the original on 2012-04-18. Retrieved 2012-11-22.
  10. "Bostoner Rebbe to visit the Denver Jewish community". Intermountain Jewish News. 10 January 2013. Archived from the original on 13 April 2013.
  11. "Print Article". Jpost. 2012-07-13. Retrieved 2012-11-22.
  12. "Freedman Catalogue lookup: Album B-021(b)". Digital.library.upenn.edu. Retrieved 2012-11-22.
  13. "View Song". Djsa.dartmouth.edu. Retrieved 2012-11-22.[ permanent dead link ]
  14. "View Song". Djsa.dartmouth.edu. Retrieved 2012-11-22.[ permanent dead link ]
  15. "View Song". Djsa.dartmouth.edu. Retrieved 2012-11-22.[ permanent dead link ]