Mordechai Rokeach

These scraps were discovered in the home of his widow in late 2009, causing his son and current Rebbe, Rabbi Yissachar Dov, to change his levush (wardrobe) in the middle of Hanukkah. The Rebbe appeared in the Belzer shul wearing a spodik instead of the usual kolpik, as his father's papers had revealed that Belzer Rebbes wore the kolpik for traveling and the spodik at home, not the other way around (as had been done in the Rebbe's court until then).

His only son, Yissachar Dov, was raised by Rebbe Aharon. After Rebbe Aharon's death in 1957, the boy was educated by a small circle of trusted advisors. He became the fifth Belzer Rebbe in 1966. Rebbe Yissachar Dov named his only son, Aharon Mordechai Rokeach, born in 1975, after his uncle and his father.

Mordechai Rokeach (1902 – 17 November 1949), also known as Mordechai of Bilgoray, was a scion of the Belzer Hasidic dynasty and the right-hand man to his half-brother, Rebbe Aharon of Belz, the fourth Belzer Rebbe. He was the son (by the second marriage) of the third Belzer Rebbe, Rebbe Yissachar Dov Rokeach. His only son, Yissachar Dov Rokeach, is the fifth and current Belzer Rebbe.

In the summer of 1949, Rebbe Aharon sent his brother on a mission to strengthen and encourage survivors and the nascent Belzer communities in Europe. Rabbi Mordechai traveled to Paris, Zurich and Antwerp to convey the Rebbe's personal message. He impressed many with his Torah knowledge and powers of oration. He would often share divrei Torah that he had heard from his father, the previous Belzer Rebbe, and kept a notebook of all the divrei Torah he remembered. After his death, his rebbetzin wanted to keep the notebook for herself. One of his relatives sat in her house for an entire day to copy the whole notebook so that his brother, Rebbe Aharon, could also benefit from his father's divrei Torah.

At the end of the summer, Rabbi Mordechai told his companions that his father had appeared to him in a dream and instructed him to return home immediately. He returned to Israel before Yom Kippur and fell ill during the Sukkot holiday. He underwent major surgery on 17 November but did not survive. He died on 17 November 1949 (25 Cheshvan 5710), and was buried in Tiberias in a funeral attended by thousands.

Having lost their entire families in the Holocaust, both Rebbe Aharon and Rabbi Mordechai remarried in Israel. Rabbi Mordechai remarried in 1947 to Miriam, the daughter of Rabbi Tzvi (Hershel) Glick of Satmar. Their only child, Yissachar Dov, was born on 19 January 1948. Rebbe Aharon also remarried in 1947, but his second marriage did not produce children.

In January 1944 the two boarded the Orient Express to Istanbul. After crossing the Bosphorus straits by ferry, they were subject to a vigorous search and debriefing by the British secret service as "aliens" from Nazi-occupied territory. The Rebbe, who generally weighed each question before answering it, exasperated the interrogator, who ordered the Rebbe and his brother arrested and held in the basement of the Syrian police house, together with another fifteen Jewish fugitives from Nazi Europe. Israel Chief Rabbi Chaim Herzog, who had planned to be in Turkey with a mission of rescue activists so he could greet the Rebbe upon his arrival, interceded with the British general, who agreed to release the weak and fragile Rebbe. Rabbi Mordechai was released later that evening, and the pair took the first train to Tripoli the next morning. On the outskirts of Beirut, they were greeted by a crowd of 200 Sephardim and 20 Israeli businessmen and hosted to a reception by local rabbis and dignitaries. They arrived at the old border station near Naqoura, Lebanon, on 3 February 1944 (9 Shevat 5704 – a date celebrated by Belzer Hasidim). Upon crossing the border into Israel, the Rebbe tore kriah. Thousands came out to greet them at each of their stops in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. They were also given positive newspaper coverage by religious and secular papers alike.

As Israeli public opinion warmed to the horrors in Europe, the Belzer Rebbe called on the Gerrer Rebbe, Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Alter, to join him in proclaiming a World Fast and Day of Prayer on 23 March 1944 (28 Adar). The event, coming on the heels of the German invasion of Hungary, was attended by thousands. Rabbi Mordechai spoke for a full 90 minutes. He was also heavily involved in helping war survivors obtain government benefits, housing and employment, and arranging weddings on their behalf.

With the outbreak of World War II and the German invasion of Poland, town of Biłgoraj was bombed from the air and most of its residents fled. Rabbi Mordechai and his family followed the refugees to Poritsc, several kilometers north of Sokal, and then to Berezhany. Meanwhile, Belzer Hasidim in Israel, England and the United States arranged to spirit the Rebbe out of Belz to Sokal and then to Przemyslany, where he remained for nearly a year. With the onset of Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941, Sokal, on the front lines, fell to the Germans on the first day; Prezemyslany was conquered by July 1. The Rebbe went into hiding and narrowly avoided capture by German patrols, but he would not escape further without his brother at his side. Rabbi Mordechai sent his wife and daughter to her father's house in Kobrin, while Rebbe Aharon's wife and five unmarried children stayed in Przemyslany under the care of one of his Hasidim. They were all subsequently murdered by the Nazis.

He married Sheva, the daughter of Rabbi Moshe Aharon Rabinowitz, the Kobriner Rav. His eldest daughter, Alte Bas Zion, died in 1931 at the age of 3; his second daughter, Rivka Miriam, was murdered by the Nazis together with his wife in Kobrin after he had fled with the Rebbe.

From 1927 until the outbreak of World War II, Rabbi Mordechai served as Rav of the town of Biłgoraj, becoming known as the Bilgorayer Rav. During World War II, he famously accompanied his brother, Rebbe Aharon, on a daring escape out of Nazi-occupied Europe. The two reached Israel in February 1944, the only surviving members of their families, and threw themselves into rebuilding the ranks of Belzer Hasidut which had been decimated by the Holocaust.

In 1920, he accepted the position of Rav of Biłgoraj. Though his father gave his blessing, Rabbi Mordechai did not assume this post until after his father's death in 1926; at that time, his brother Aharon, the newly appointed Rebbe, gave his blessing to the move.