Pinchas Menachem Alter

Infobox Rebbe
title = Gerrer Rebbe


caption = Rabbi Pinchas Menachem Alter in middle age
term =July 7, 1992—March 7, 1996
full name =Pinchos Menachem Alter
main work = Pnei Menachem
predecessor =Simcha Binem Alter
successor =Yaakov Arye Alter
spouse1 = Tsipora Alter
issue1 =Esther Lipl
Moshe Betsalel Alter
Shoul Alter
Yehuda Arye Leyb Alter
Yitzchok Dovid Alter
Yaakov Myer Alter
Doniel Chayim Alter
spouse2 =
issue2 =
spouse3 =
issue3 =
dynasty = Ger
father =Avrohom Mordechai Alter
mother = Feyge Mintshe Biderman
date of birth =birth date|1926|06|09
place of birth =Falenica
date of death =death date and age|1996|03|07|1926|06|09
place of death =Jerusalem
date of burial =March 7, 1996
place of burial =Sfath Emeth Yeshiva, Jerusalem|

Pinchas Menachem Alter, (June 9, 1926—March 7, 1996), also known as the "Pnei Menachem" after the works he authored, was the sixth spiritual leader of the hasidic dynasty of Ger, a position he held from 1992 till 1996.

Early years

Pinchos Menachem was born in Falenits, near Warsaw, Poland in 1926. His barmitzva took place near Ludmir (now Ukraine) not long before the outbreak of World War II. After the War he married his cousin, Tsipora Alter. In the 1950s Rabbi Pinchos Menachem was appointed rosh yeshiva of "Sfath Emeth", the flagship yeshiva of Ger.

Succession as rebbe

Rabbi Pinchas Menachem Alter succeeded his half-brother Rabbi Simchah Bunim Alter to become rebbe in 1992. 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 "rapprochement" with his non-Hasidic Ashkenazi Haredi fellow-rabbis, in particular with Rabbi Elazar 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 potentially obtain an extra seat for the newly united party in Knesset elections.

Rabbi Pinchos Menachem was succeeded as rosh yeshiva of "Sfath Emeth" by his son Rabbi Shaul Alter, widely regarded as an eminent Talmudic scholar, but not currently lecturing in the yeshiva due to curricular changes.Fact|date=September 2007

Rabbi Pinchas Menachem Alter died in 1996 after less than four years at the helm of the Ger Hasidim and was succeeded by his nephew Rabbi Yaakov Aryeh Alter, son of Rabbi Simchah Bunim Alter.

See also

* Hasidic Judaism
* Ger (Hasidic dynasty)
* Rebbe

Rebbes of Ger

# Yitzchak Meir Alter (1798-1866)
# Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter (1847-1905)
# Avraham Mordechai Alter (1866-1948)
# Yisrael Alter (1895-1977)
# Simchah Bunim Alter (1898-1992)
# Pinchas Menachem Alter (1926-1996)
# Yaakov Aryeh Alter (b. 1939)