Gur leaders recommend families sever ties with those who joined splinter group

Documents show depth to which mainstream Gur leadership seeks to ostracize new faction

Internal documents from meetings and correspondence between leaders in the Gur hassidic community have shown the extent to which they are going to ostracize a splinter faction and frighten others away from joining them.

The documents, seen by The Jerusalem Post, discuss the importance of children severing ties with their parents if they joined the new community, and even asks whether a spouse, likely the wife, should seek a divorce if her husband joined the splinter group.

Last year, Rabbi Shaul Alter, the cousin of current Gerrer Grand Rabbi Ya’acov Aryeh Alter, broke away from the mainstream Gur hassidic community, and set up his own faction although he hasn’t styled himself as a grand rabbi.

Gur is the largest, wealthiest, and most powerful hassidic community in the country, and the split in the group damaged its prestige.

Resentment within Gur had been simmering in the community for years due to the feelings of many that their lives were overly and unduly controlled by the Gur leadership.

The split provoked a fierce backlash against those who joined Shaul Alter from the mainstream leadership, and numerous forms of reprisals were taken against those who left to deter others from leaving, including dismissal from employment, ejection of children from schools, and similar actions.

In minutes of a meeting which took place earlier this month, it was reported that two senior rabbis met with school principals within the Gur school system and spoke to them about the need to expel pupils from their schools who are children of families who joined the splinter group.

The minutes noted however that the rabbis could not give “professional answers” to their questions, presumably how exactly to expel their pupils, since this required “legal advice.”

The document details the requests of the school principals, regarding such matters, namely for information as to which pupils to expel, a point-person to contact with questions that arise, and a point person for consultations as to how to talk with pupils about these issues, “how to split up friendships without side affects,” and how to talk with traumatized pupils, presumably those negatively affected by the split.

Another major issue that was raised was about internal family ties among families where some members have joined Shaul Alter’s community.

The coordinator of the committee said that the thorniest problem was parents who have a child who joined the new community but have continued to maintain contact with that child and their family, and have insisted that their other children also maintain contact.

“It was agreed that the severing [of ties] must be total. Any connection with them is forbidden and dangerous. However, from a technical point of view, what is appropriate to do and what is not must be examined, and to act wisely and in accordance with the principles,” those at the meeting summarized.

The minutes also record that “A debate was had if it is correct [for a spouse] to demand a divorce if there are no children and one of the spouses went there [to the splinter community].”

It was agreed that three senior Gerrer rabbis will evaluate this question within the parameters of Jewish law.

Emails received by the committee chair and also seen by the Post illustrate the kind of problems that have arisen due to the complete severance of ties by the mainstream Gur community with the new grouping.

In one email by the committee coordinator, he noted that an individual in the mainstream community who has a security camera business was installing security cameras for the new community at several of their institutions.

The coordinator said he has received complaints by people who had spotted this individual at the institutions of the new community, and that the man had said he should be allowed to continue providing his services to them because it was for the purposes of his livelihood.

The coordinator asked his superiors if this individual should be allowed to continue his work or told to stop and issue sanctions against him.

In another email, the coordinator asks his superiors about a coming wedding within the Gur community in the UK. The father has eight children living in Israel, three of whom are part of the splinter community.

One of the siblings who is part of Shaul Alter’s community invited the rest of his siblings to a celebration in Israel, and the coordinator asked his seniors if those from the mainstream community could participate.

GER HASSIDIM dance during Simhat Torah celebrations in Jerusalem. ‘Any connection with them is forbidden and dangerous,’ the document said of Shaul Alter’s splinter community.