Rav Boruch Hager zt"l
הרב ברוך בן ישראל הגר זצ"ל
Cheshvan 2 , 5724
Known As: Mekor Boruch, Seret-Vizhnitz Rebbe
Father's Name: Yisroel Hager
Relatives: Rav Yisroel Hager of Vizhnitz
Rav Boruch Hager zt"l
Rav Boruch Hager, the Seret-Vizhnitz Rebbe, the Mekor Boruch, was born to Rav Yisrael of Vizhnitz and Rebbetzin Hinda, a daughter of Rav Meir Horowitz of Dzikov. Rav Boruch was named after his grandfather, the Imrei Boruch of Vizhnitz, who had passed away two years earlier. In 1912, Rav Boruch married Henia, a daughter of Rav Yissochor Dov of Belz. He married a second time, to Tzyril, a daughter of Rav Eliezer Nisan of Dzikov/Tzefas, in 1923. He then became Rav of Polein-Riskova, following which he served as the Rav of Kotzman, Romania, for nine years. He established a Talmud Torah and a Bais Yaakov school and worked extensively for Agudas Yisrael. In 1935, Rav Boruch moved to Seret, a Romanian town of about two thousand Jews. The Ahavas Yisrael passed away soon afterward and Rav Boruch became the Admor of Seret-Vizhnitz. It is estimated that of about 150,000 Romanian Jews exiled to Transnistria (including all those from Seret), some ninety thousand perished of hunger, cold and persecution. Rav Boruch was ransomed for a huge sum in Adar of 1944 and made his way back to Romania. He finally moved to Antwerp, Belgium, in 1946, together with his brother, the Imrei Chaim, and they stayed there for close to a year. He arrived in Eretz Yisrael in Sivan 1947, and left for Chaifa, where he set up his court. There Rav Boruch established a Yeshiva, a Talmud Torah and other Torah institutions. This laid the groundwork for the establishment of the famous community of Ramat Vizhnitz, built on the side of Chaifa’s Har Carmel, laying its foundation stone on the 3rd of Tammuz, 1954. Sadly, Rav Boruch passed away at the age of sixty-eight before the culmination of his building project.