Eliezer Shlomo Schik

Eliezer Shlomo Schik was born in 1940 in Jerusalem

Schick was born in Jerusalem in 1940 to Malka and Rabbi Menachem Zev, head of the rabbinical court of Tokaj in Hungary. As a boy he studied at the Etz Chaim cheder. His family later moved to New York City, where he studied at yeshivas including Mesivtha Tifereth Jerusalem under Rabbi Moshe Feinstein.

As a teenager he read the Breslov booklet Meshivat Nefesh and was drawn to the teachings of Rebbe Nachman. In 1962 he married Shifra Rotenberg, daughter of the Kossoner Rav. He then taught Hasidic thought to young men in Boro Park and answered letters from people seeking his advice.

From the 1970s he wrote short pamphlets on Rebbe Nachman's teachings, about 1,000 titles in all, and printed Breslov books in large numbers at cost price. Leaders of the Breslov community, including Levi Yitzchok Bender, criticized his writings and said they misrepresented the teachings.

In 1985 he founded the Heichal Hakodesh Breslov community in Yavne'el, with its own schools and institutions, and he also set up synagogues in New York. The group has been described as a cult, and critics accused the community of violence and alleged that he knew of sexual abuse within it.

He had a heart attack in 2012 and recovered after surgery. He died of leukemia in New York City in 2015 and was buried in Yavne'el.