Elazar Mordechai Koenig

Elazar Mordechai Koenig was born in 1945 in Jerusalem

Koenig was born in Jerusalem in 1945 to Rabbi Gedaliah Aharon Koenig and Esther Yehudit Koenig. His father was a disciple of the Breslov elder Rabbi Abraham Sternhartz.

He studied at the Etz Chaim Talmud Torah, the Breslov yeshiva in Bnei Brak and the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem. He married Chaya Berger in 1966 and studied kabbalah with Rabbi Shlomo Katzin and Rabbi Mordechai Sharabi. His father taught him Hasidic thought.

His father founded the Breslov community in Safed in 1967. After his father died suddenly in 1980, Koenig settled in Safed and led the project with his brothers. The community grew to include a synagogue, schools, a kollel and housing, and in 2014 it had 250 families.

In 1997 he founded the Breslov Center for Spirituality and Inner Growth in the New York area. He also sponsored the Rosh Hashana gathering in Meron for those unable to reach Uman.

He suffered from pulmonary fibrosis from 1988 and had a lung transplant in Manhattan in 2005. He died on December 31, 2018, and was buried in the new cemetery in Safed. He had 7 sons and 6 daughters.