Yochanan Sofer

Yochanan Sofer was born in 1923 in Eger

Yochanan Sofer was born in 1923 in Eger, Hungary. His father Moshe Sofer and grandfather Shimon Sofer were rabbis of the town, and he descended from Moses Sofer, known as the Chasam Sofer. He studied with his father and grandfather and at yeshivas in Hungary.

In 1944 his father, grandfather, mother and sisters were murdered at Auschwitz. He survived the war in Budapest and returned to Eger to lead the remaining Jews. In 1946 he became co-head of the Chasam Sofer yeshiva with Rabbi Moshe Stern, and in 1947 he reopened the yeshiva in Eger and was appointed the town's rabbi.

Facing Communist oppression, he left Hungary with his students for Jerusalem. There he taught at the Pressburg Yeshiva and grew close to the Belzer rebbe, adopting several Hasidic customs. In 1953 he founded the Erlau yeshiva in the Katamon neighborhood, and in 1961 he built a new building next to it.

He set up a network of synagogues, schools and kollels in Israel and abroad, and an institute that publishes the writings of the Chasam Sofer. He wrote books under the title Imrei Sofer and a lament for Holocaust victims recited on Tisha B'Av. He died in 2016, and his eldest son Moshe succeeded him.