Pinchas Menachem Alter - Definition

Pinchas Menachem Alter (June 9 1926 - March 7 1996), was also known as the Pnei Menachem (for the name/s of his Torah works). He was an Orthodox Judaism rabbi and the sixth rebbe (spiritual leader) of the Hasidic Judaism Ger (Hasidic dynasty) in Israel from 1992 to 1996. Ger originated in Poland (Góra Kalwaria) and is probably the single largest Hasidic group in Israel. Rabbi Pinchas Menachem Alter succeeded his half-brother Rabbi Simchah Bunim Alter to become rebbe.

Rabbi Pinchas Menachem Alter was also a half-brother of the fourth rebbe of Ger Yisrael Alter and a son of the third rebbe of Ger Avraham Mordechai Alter. He continued the policies of his brothers by supporting the political work of the Agudat Israel of Israel party promoting the interests of Haredi Judaism in the Israeli Knesset (parliament). He reached a rappprochement with his non-Hasidic Ashkenazi Haredi fellow-rabbis, in particular with Rabbi Elazar Man Shach, leader of the rival Degel HaTorah party and creating the United Torah Judaism (Yahadut HaTorah) party in order not to lose residual votes in the Israeli proportional representation system and thereby obtain an extra seat or two for the newly united party in Knesset elections.

Rabbi Pinchas Menachem Alter passed away in 1996 after only four years at the helm of the Ger Hasidim and was succeeded by his nephew Rabbi Yakov Aryeh Alter, son of Rabbi Simchah Bunim Alter, the fifth rebbe of Ger.

See also

• Hasidic Judaism
• Ger (Hasidic dynasty)
• Rebbe

Rebbes of Ger

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. Simchah Bunim Alter (1898-1992)
6. Pinchas Menachem Alter (1926-1996)
7. Yakov Aryeh Alter (b. 1936)

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