Yissachar Dov Rokeach

Yissachar Dov Rokeach (born 19 January 1948) is the fifth, and present, Rebbe of the Hasidic dynasty of Belz. He is the son of Rabbi Mordechai of Bilgoray (1902 – 1949), the grandson of the third Belzer Rebbe, Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach, and the nephew of the fourth Belzer Rebbe, Rabbi Aharon Rokeach, who raised him. He has led Belz since 1966.

Family background

Rabbi Mordechai of Bilgoray and his half-brother (through his father), Rebbe Aharon, escaped Europe in a daring escape attempt and arrived in Palestine in 1944. Both lost their wives and families to the Nazis. Both remarried in Israel; Mordechai's second wife was Miriam, the daughter of Rabbi Hershel Glick of Satmar. Only Mordechai had a child, Yissachar Dov. In November 1949, Mordechai died suddenly, and his son was raised by his uncle, Aharon, who groomed him to be the next Rebbe in the dynasty. Back in yeshiva, he studied for many hours with private chavrusas (study partners), and prepared to receive rabbinic ordination. At the age of 15, he moved to an apartment which a group of Belzer Hasidim rented for him near the yeshiva, and began inviting other students to join him for Shabbat meals at which he delivered words of Torah and Hasidut. The wedding was held in February 1965 in Kiryat Vizhnitz, where the couple settled after their marriage. On 21 May 2013, their eldest son, Sholom Rokeach, married Hanna Batya Penet, in a ceremony at the Belz Great Synagogue that was attended by tens of thousands of guests and well-wishers. With the birth of the young couple's daughter on 4 May 2014, the Rebbe became an elter zaida (great-grandfather).

The re-invention of Belz The majority of Belzer Hasidim were killed in the Holocaust. Although some managed to immigrate to the United States and Israel, the post-war years saw the court of Belz's membership undergo a radical change, consisting largely of former members of other communities, or Haredim who had previously not belonged officially to any Hasidic group.

One of the new Rebbe's most important tasks was to take this diverse collection of followers and mold them into a unified community. He focused on building up Belz institutions, which were largely non-existent at the death of the previous Rebbe. As Belz slowly established an economic base, it began expanding its network of schools in Western Europe, North America, and Israel, as well as its yeshivas and its own Jerusalem enclave, Kiryat Belz. It also created its own newspaper, HaMachaneh HaCharedi, of which MK Yisrael Eichler is a former editor.

Under Yissachar Dov's leadership, the Belz Hasidut has grown from a few hundred families in 1966 to over 8,000 families, as of 2025. Yissachar Dov also oversees a global network of study halls, educational institutions, and chesed institutions.

Everyone knows that the Arabs residing in Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel) — descendants of Ishmael — have only one aim: to drive the Jewish people out of Eretz Yisrael and to annihilate them. Now, when the Jewish people conduct themselves in the proper manner, the Arabs most certainly will have no power to harm them. To the contrary, the Arabs themselves will vanish from the scene. But even when Jews do not behave quite as they should, then the Holy One, Blessed be He, compares His nation with the nations of the world. And when viewed together, He finds that the Jewish people are the acme of perfection. ... For the Jewish people, when measured against the nations of the world, are absolutely flawless. In this merit, the Jewish people will defeat their enemies and crush them. (1990)

Rebbes of Belz Rabbi Sholom Rokeach (1779–1855) Rabbi Yehoshua Rokeach (1825–1894) Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach (1854–1926) Rabbi Aharon Rokeach (1877–1957) Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach (b. 1948)