Simcha Bunim Alter

Simcha Bunim Alter
Gerrer Rebbe
Term	March 1977 – 7 July 1992
Full name	Simcha Bunem Alter
Main work	Lev Simcha
Born	April 6, 1898 Góra Kalwaria
Buried	Mount of Olives, 7 July 1992
Predecessor	Yisrael Alter
Successor	Pinchas Menachem Alter
Father	Avraham Mordechai Alter
Mother	Chaya Ruda Yehudis Czarna
Wife	Yuta Hena Alter
Children	Chaya Ruda Yehudis Alter Rivka Feyga Alter Yaakov Aryeh Alter

Simcha Bunim Alter (Hebrew: שםחה בונים אלתר, April 6, 1898 – August 6, 1992), also known as the Lev Simcha (Hebrew: לב שמחה) after the works he authored, was the sixth Rebbe of the Hasidic dynasty of Ger, a position he held from 1977 until 1992.

Being a Palestinian citizen, Alter and his family were able to enter Mandate Palestine during 1940 to escape Nazi persecution in Poland.^[1] Prior to becoming Rebbe of Ger, Alter was a businessman dealing in real estate.

During the time of his leadership, the Ger Hasidim grew greatly in the State of Israel. He continued the family tradition of vigorous leadership of the Agudat Israel of Israel party whose representatives in the Israeli Knesset (parliament) represent the interests of Haredi Judaism in the Jewish state. It was during his stewardship of the party that the non-Hasidic Degel HaTorah party (that was within the United Torah Judaism party) split when Rabbi Elazar Shach broke with Agudat Israel and its Hasidic leadership, led mainly by the Rebbe of Ger. Rabbi Shach then aligned with Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and had initially helped to launch the Sephardi Shas political party.

In 1980 he instituted Yerushalmi Yomi, the daily learning of a page of the Jerusalem Talmud, similar to the renowned Daf Yomi for the Babylonian Talmud.^[2]

He died (cause is unknown) on the 7th of Tammuz 5752 (1992) and was interred in the cave of the Gerrer Rebbes in the Mount of Olives cemetery.

Rebbes of Ger

1. Yitzchak Meir Alter (1799–1866)
2. Chanokh Heynekh HaKohen Levin (1798–1870)
3. Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter (1847–1905)
4. Avraham Mordechai Alter (1866–1948)
5. Yisrael Alter (1895–1977)
6. Simcha Bunim Alter (1898–1992)
7. Pinchas Menachem Alter (1926–1996)
8. Yaakov Aryeh Alter (b. 1939)

References

1. Obituary: Rabbi Simha Bunem Alter, The Independent, (July 11, 1992).
2. Holder, Meir (1986). History of the Jewish People: From Yavneh to Pumbedisa. Mesorah Publications Ltd. p. 315. ISBN 9780899064994.