Yaakov Aryeh Alter was born on 18 May 1939, 29
Iyar 5699 in
Łódź, Poland, to Rabbi
Simcha Bunim Alter, also known as the
Lev Simcha, who later became the sixth Gerrer Rebbe, and Yuta Henya, daughter of Rabbi Nehemiah Alter, his grandfather's brother. He was named after his ancestor Rabbi
Yaakov Aryeh Guterman of
Radzymin. In 1940, he immigrated, with his father and grandfather (Rebbe
Avraham Mordechai Alter), to
Eretz Israel. He studied in the
Talmud Torah Etz Chaim. For many years, he
studied Torah at a synagogue known as
Rashi Shtiebel in
Bnei Brak. He married Shoshana, daughter of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Weitz, one of the heads of
Yeshivat Chiddushei HaRim. Alter is one of the wealthiest people in the Haredi sector and in
Israel in general, and in 2012, he was ranked third on the list of the richest rabbis in Israel, with a net worth of approximately NIS 350 million to NIS 500 million (between approximately $95 million and $135 million) due to real estate investments his father made in north Tel Aviv, Arsuf, and Jerusalem before Israel's establishment. Despite his wealth, he lived in an apartment in an ordinary residential building in the Chazon Ish neighborhood in Bnei Brak until 2011, when he moved to
Jerusalem. He and his wife have five sons and four daughters. In 2019, it was reported that one of Alter's sons was accused of sexually molesting two young male students from amongst Alter's followers. In 1996, after the passing of
Pinchas Menachem Alter, his nephew Yaakov Aryeh Alter became the Rebbe of Ger. In 2007, approximately 50,000 people attended the wedding of Alter's oldest grandson in Jerusalem. In 2016, Alter's followers were estimated at 11,859 families. In 2019, Alter's cousin
Shaul Alter and his followers split off, forming Kehilas Pnei Menachem. As of 2021, membership of Shaul Alter's breakaway faction consisted of some 300 families. In 2022, an estimated 60,000 people, including Rabbis
Yisrael Meir Lau,
Yitzhak Yosef,
Yitzchok Zilberstein, and
Nachum Dov Brayer, attended the wedding of Alter's granddaughter. ==References==