Moshe Hager, Vizhnitzer Rebbe, Dead at 95
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Crossposted from Haaretz
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.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
