fb-pixelRabbi Mordechai Hager, 95, leader of large Hasidic sect - The Boston Globe Skip to main content

Rabbi Mordechai Hager, 95, leader of large Hasidic sect

Rabbi Hager led the US branch of the Viznitz, with about 30,000 members.MOSHE WIESBER

NEW YORK — Rabbi Mordechai Hager, the reserved but strong-willed leader of one of the nation’s largest Hasidic sects, who settled many of his followers in a relatively bucolic upstate enclave to escape New York City’s temptations and decadence, died Friday in Manhattan. He was 95.

He died at Mount Sinai Hospital of liver failure resulting from an undetermined infection, said Yosef Rapaport, a media consultant for Agudath Israel of America, an umbrella organization for Hasidic and other ultra-Orthodox groups. Rabbi Hager lived in the Hasidic village he founded, Kaser, in Rockland County.

Rabbi Hager, a lushly bearded figure who was known affectionately by his followers as Reb Mottele, was the leader of the US branch of the Viznitz, which is believed to number roughly 5,000 families, or 30,000 people. There is also a second branch based in Israel, though Viznitz Hasidim are scattered in many countries.

Advertisement



Raised in Hasidic communities in Europe, Rabbi Hager was so intent on avoiding carnal and materialistic lures that he deliberately took off his glasses while walking down the street. He shunned publicity for himself; photographs of him are rare.

Like most Hasidim, he believed Israel should have never been created as a state until the arrival of the Messiah. Nevertheless, he recognized that the state was a practical reality, and honored those ultra-Orthodox legislators who took part in the Israeli government.

That stance often put him at odds with the Satmar Hasidim, America’s largest and arguably most austere sect and the dominant one in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, where the Viznitz also have a significant presence.

Rabbi Hager did not let himself be bullied by Satmar’s power. When a Satmar grand rabbi wanted to stretch the length of the Sabbath day as a mark of extra piety, he refused to go along, indicating he wanted to be faithful to the traditions of his ancestors.

Advertisement



And he opposed the public school district that was created for disabled students in the upstate Satmar village of Kiryas Joel; he said he was not pleased that the school, because it was public, would not be able to teach its students to say Jewish blessings or explain the concept of a Jewish god.

More than anything, Rabbi Hager’s Hasidim venerated him for his deep knowledge of the Talmud. He was said to study its volumes and commentaries 18 hours a day, and when diabetes left him blind about 10 years ago, he had teams of volunteers read the rabbinical legal debates to him.