Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Moshe Hager, Vizhnitzer Rebbe, Dead at 95

Crossposted from Haaretz

Image by Behadrey Haredim

One of the Haredi community’s most veteran leaders passed away overnight Tuesday in Bnei Brak. Rabbi Moshe Yehoshua Hager, the head of the Vizhnitz Hasidic dynasty and president of Agudath Israel’s Council of Torah Sages, died aged 95. His funeral will be held on Wednesday afternoon, and is expected to draw mass crowds.

With the rabbi’s passing, a day of mourning was declared for tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel and abroad.

Rabbi Moshe Yehoshua Hager was the fifth Admor of Vizhnitz, the Hasidic community that started in Romania and was revived in Israel following the state’s establishment. The rabbi was appointed Admor in 1972. During his time as a religious leader he expanded and strengthened Hasidic Judaism. Today there are some 5,000 Vizhnitz Hasidic families, and it is the second largest Hasidic community in Israel.

Read more at Haaretz.com

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.