Gur

(Yid. Ger). Ḥasidic sect. founded in Gora Kalwaria, Poland, in 1859 by Isaac Meir Rothenburg Alter (1789-1866), a disciple of Menahem Mendel of Kotsk, his brother-in-law. Attracting most of the Kotsk Ḥasidim, the new dynasty flourished under Alter's grandson Judah Aryeh Leib (1847-1905), whose Sefat Emet on the Torah and Talmud became widely accepted in the Ḥasidic world, and Judah Aryeh's son Abraham Mordecai (1866-1948), with the sect becoming one of the largest and most influential in Europe. From the outset Gur ḥasidism was characterized by close contact with the masses as tens of thousands flocked to the Rebbe's court. Under Judah Aryeh it became staunchly anti-Zionist. Abraham Mordecai was among the leaders of Agudat Israel. In 1940 he escaped from German-occupied Poland and reestablished his court in Erets Israel, which became the new world center of Gur. In the United States, Gur Ḥasidim are concentrated in the Boro Park section of Brooklyn, New York, together with Bobov and Belz Ḥasidim. Avraham Mordecai was succeeded as the "Gerer Rebbe" by his charismatic and scholarly son Israel (1892-1977), who was president of Agudat Israel's Mo'etset Gedolé ha-Torah (Council of Torah Sages). Two younger sons then assumed the mantle of dynastic leadership: Simḥah Bunem (1898-1992) and Pinehas Menahem.

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