Baruch Hager

Baruch Hager was born in 1895 in Vyzhnytsia

Baruch Hager was born in 1895 in Vyzhnytsia. His father was Rabbi Yisrael Hager of Vizhnitz. He received rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Meir Arik and Rabbi Avraham Menachem Mendel Steinberg.

In 1923 he became rabbi of the Vizhnitz Hasidim in Poienile de sub Munte, and in 1928 he moved to Kitsman. From 1936 he served as rabbi of Seret in Bukovina, where he set up a soup kitchen and a yeshiva. He was active in Agudat Yisrael in Romania.

During the Holocaust he was deported to Transnistria and spent time in the Dzhuryn ghetto, where he set up a kitchen for the Jews there. His brothers arranged his release, and he was moved to Chernivtsi and then Brașov. After the war he rebuilt Jewish institutions among refugees.

In 1947 he immigrated to the Land of Israel and settled in Haifa, where he opened a study hall and founded the Yachel Yisrael yeshiva. He initiated the Ramat Vizhnitz neighborhood in Haifa, with preparations starting in 1952. He was a member of the Council of Torah Sages.

He died in 1963 and was buried in Bnei Brak. Some of his teachings were printed in the book Mekor Baruch, and a street in Haifa bears that name. His son Eliezer succeeded him as rebbe.