All credit goes to Aaron Rabinowitz and haaretz.com
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In This Israeli Rabbi's Cult, Separating Children From Parents Is Just One Means of Control
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Hager forbids his followers from forming ties outside his Hasidic community, dictates whom they may marry, coerces them to hand over their money and stokes violence against his opponents. In the rebbe's 'holy method,' God takes a back seat
Racheli (not her real name) was looking forward to returning home and spending an afternoon with her son. She searched every room of the apartment but he wasn't there. Her son had been seized by people in the Vizhnitz Hasidic community and sent to a family abroad.
This wasn't the result of a court order; it was done illegally, simply because Racheli had dared to defy an admor, one of the community's spiritual leaders.
This happened about two years ago, when Racheli was feuding with her husband, a member of the segment of the Vizhnitz community led by Rabbi Menachem Mendel Hager. The issue: their 12-year-old son's education.
The husband, a devout follower of Hager, wanted to send their son to one of Hager's schools. Racheli, well aware of the admor's strict control over his followers, preferred a different Hasidic school. After the child was abducted on Hager's orders, Racheli didn't see him for many months, until the rabbi finally allowed them to be reunited.
A source in the community says this wasn't an isolated incident. He describes cases in which children of Hager's followers have been taken from their parents without warning and for no clear reason.
"Everyone in the community knows about this phenomenon. It's not hidden," he says. "In our community there are these 'foster families,' or something like that, in Israel and abroad in Bnei Brak, Ashdod, London and Monsey, New York, where the children are sent." Bnei Brak is a largely ultra-Orthodox suburb of Tel Aviv.
"In most cases, the children are returned to their parents after about six months to a year," the source adds. "The rebbe says the parents and the children need a break from each other, and the parents have to accept this with joy. One mother who experienced this said, 'It's a decree that's impossible to bear, but you have to accept it with love.'"
Sources say Hager's absolute control over all aspects of life, amid an extreme personality cult, has led to followers committing violence in his name. They also have had to hand over money and property to him.
Recordings, Vizhnitz documents and interviews with people who have left Hager's segment of the community paint a picture of a charismatic leader who rules over about 700 families. He douses any sign of independence among the group's members and leaves only one thing in their lives – himself.
Bonfire of the smartphones
The turning point came in May 2017 at a Vizhnitz hall for Torah study in the predominantly ultra-Orthodox city of Elad east of Tel Aviv. Just over a hundred of Hager's followers had been ordered to go there, and they waited anxiously for their leader to arrive. Adding to the tension was the precise instruction given: You must come immediately; no one may be absent.
Hager, 68, entered the hall and sat alone on a small stage, chain-smoking and blowing smoke rings. He demanded that everyone turn off their phones and warned: "No one is to utter a word of what you are about to hear, not to anyone outside and not even to your families. Anyone who doesn't obey me will suffer heaven's harsh and bitter punishments."
Then Hager explained that his followers had to give up everything in their lives – their family, their money, their independence. They would have to serve his wishes, and do so "with joy and pride." "You are called upon to become my tails," he told them.
"I made a list of all the yeshiva students and denoted those loyal to me," Hager said at the gathering, pulling the list from his pocket and waving it. "Out of a hundred, I have only 15 yeshiva students; not even 15."
He went on at length about practices in other segments of the Hasidic community that he admired, those that stress total submission to the rebbe, the spiritual leader, and encourage violence against anyone disloyal.
Hager also demanded that his followers perform "forbidden acts" to demonstrate their loyalty, but he didn't give details. "I want people to see you and say you're crazy, stupid, abominations," he said.
Words turned to action fast. The principal of the local school was called to stand up. "Starting tomorrow, you'll teach new values," Hager told him. "The main thing is to be a tail of the rebbe, the second thing is Hasidism and then a bit of Torah, but quietly so that it's clear that it's not the main thing."
He added: "I want you to make a song out of this for the children to sing. If anybody doesn't fit in, toss him out." The next day, Hager ordered a bonfire to be built in the city; followers would burn their smartphones as a sign of their loyalty.
Until that meeting, Hager's segment of the community functioned much like other Hasidic groups: Members had relative freedom in their personal lives; they consulted with Hager without him imposing his decisions on them. The cult of personality was far more moderate.
But now, Hager's segment of the community has become hermetically sealed. Followers are forbidden from forming meaningful relationships outside the group, and anyone who leaves suffers threats or violence, and is cut off from their family. Every significant decision in their lives goes through Hager.
The message is clear: The rebbe is above the family, above Jewish law and above God.
Since that meeting in 2017, Hager's demand for absolute loyalty has evolved into what he calls "the holy method" and the method "of the tails," as devotees become a tail of the rebbe and totally subjugate themselves to him.
His followers thus must think about him every moment of the day, especially when performing religious commandments or having sex. During prayer they must look at him instead of closing their eyes.
Referring to an important daily prayer, the group's official pamphlet reads: "This sublime merit of gazing upon the holy one during the Amidah prayer has become so ingrained in our camp that not a single person dares to close his eyes during prayer, for we stand before the king."
Hager even composed a song, "The Holy Method," which has become his followers' anthem; they must sing it daily and before important occasions such as Rosh Hashanah and the Friday night Kiddush, as well as at every wedding chuppah.
"Everyone accepts the holy method of the holy rebbe," under which "we will be privileged to see the Redemption," the followers must sing.
They're even told that on Rosh Hashanah, instead of "crowning God" in prayer, they are to crown Hager. When reciting any blessing, they are to address not God but him.
According to a paper written for younger followers, when Hager is near them, there is no need to perform the commandments, since the connection to God is made directly through the leader, and one must obey the rebbe even when Jewish law dictates otherwise.
In fact, the teaching of self-abnegation to Hager begins at a young age. Pictures of the rebbe appear in the prayer book for children, who begin their day singing "Good Morning, holy rebbe." The children's Passover Haggadah says they should think about Hager when they eat matza.
The parents must sign a document and commit to singing "The Holy Method" at home if they want their child accepted to Hager's schools. "The children are questioned on whether they really sing the song at home," a former member of the community says.
Hager asks young followers not to listen to their parents and makes them swear not to tell their families what he says in conversations with them. "We must learn from the Ger Hasidim that Hasidism comes before family," he said in one of these talks.
Hager also demands that the young Hasidim sing "The Holy Method" even if it's against their parents' wishes. Likewise, a husband must sing the song even if his wife objects.
Family feud
The previous rebbe of the Vizhnitz Hasidic dynasty was Hager's father, Moshe Yehoshua Hager, whose eldest son, Yisrael, was the presumed successor. But for reasons that remain unclear, he was exiled from the community, and Menachem Mendel eventually took over.
The father decided to bring Yisrael back to the community in 2002, which caused a rift between the brothers and divided the Hasidim. A large majority went over to Yisrael and only a few stayed under Mendel. But over the years, Menachem Mendel Hager built up his group and established his own synagogue and schools.
Since he instituted the "holy method," about 200 families have left his segment of the community, and his struggle against them has continued unabated. This includes having his followers spit at defectors in the street, and worse.
For example, about two weeks ago in Bnei Brak, dozens of Hager's followers assaulted wedding guests of a man who had left the rebbe's community. Some people needed medical care, and even though the incident was filmed and the assailants are known to the police, no arrests have been made.
In an incident in Bnei Brak a year and a half ago, dozens of Hager's followers were filmed smashing the windshield of a car carrying a former associate who left. The man had to be rescued by the police.
At a Bnei Brak yeshiva in 2019, young Hasidic men went through the rooms destroying everything in their path and beating the students, while also hurling water and eggs at them. The entire incident was filmed but no charges were filed.
Hager backs the violence against the people who left. For example, after an assault during the pandemic, he told followers, "You all meant well, but it didn't look good. But sometimes you have to educate somebody every now and then. It's a tough place here. I know you know your job really well. I've discovered that if I need people for tasks like this, I don't have to borrow from others, I have my own."
People who left the community say that at Hasidic events, Hager honors his core activists who use violence. Not only does he not condemn these hardliners, but he encourages them, sometimes with a wink and sometimes explicitly. A Hasidic children's newsletter featured a story about how followers of Hager torched a fuse box in an apartment building after its residents turned off the synagogue's lights.
Money machine
The thing the Hasidim must provide Hager is cash. His followers regularly go out to raise donations, mostly in secular cities, in what they call "business."
"We took a course where we were taught sales and fundraising methods," says someone who left the community. "There's no limit; you can say anything you want – your mother is sick with a serious illness, tales of miracles and wonder. We'd even show charitable events by the other Vizhnitz as if it were us."
For reasons of modesty, many of the Hasidim felt uncomfortable about Hager's demands, but he made clear that his orders had to be followed.
About five years ago, Hager decided to build a synagogue; he put the price tag at 250 million shekels (currently $78 million) and said that everyone had to contribute. People who left the community say he told his people: "I need this for my well-being."
So Hager's followers compete at fundraising evenings almost every month. In a recording, people are heard pledging hundreds of thousands of shekels.
"This includes my relatives," says a man who left the community. "I know that they barely have money to feed their children, but they donated a quarter million shekels."
Another man says he sold an apartment to cover his commitment, while a woman donated the money she had in a special savings account. A yeshiva student pledged to transfer a million shekels.
In one conversation, Hager said that a housing shortage was likely because of fundraising for the synagogue. He said: "Children, you will ask your mother, 'Why is there meat only once a week? Why are there no goodies, why don't you buy shoes like before?' Mom will tell you with great pain, and it pains me even more, that we're building a study hall, so that's why we have to do without many things."
Then there's the meddling in his followers' personal lives, where he is reportedly the sole decider. This includes matchmaking, even when one of the sides disagrees.
The sources say that Hager does the matchmaking based on his album containing photos of all the women in the community. In one case, he canceled a match at the last moment because the groom wasn't sufficiently loyal to him.
"The bride was in the rabbi's room for two hours, where he screamed at her," a witness says. "She came out crying after realizing that she had to cancel the match."
Hager also reportedly demands that every bride meet with him the night before the wedding. Her parents remain outside the room.
"The conversation lasts from one to three hours on average," says a man familiar with the details. "A Hasid told me he sat outside while his daughter was with the admor, and he heard shouting about her daring to be in contact with her grandfather, who opposed [Hager]."
Prof. Benjamin Brown of Hebrew University's Department of Jewish Thought, who studies Orthodoxy, the Hasidim and Jewish law, discussed Hager in his 2025 Hebrew-language book "Hasidic Leadership in Israel."
"Hager doesn't just demand blind obedience from his followers," Brown says. "He also demands an abnegation of their personalities and the admor's assimilation into all aspects of their lives, in the same way that early Hasidism asked the Hasid to cancel himself before God.
"The Hasid must think about Hager at every moment and believe that the rebbe knows all his secrets. Children memorize verses about the rebbe, and wherever he goes, his majesty must be demonstrated by all means."
Brown says that while other radical communities support total abnegation to the rebbe, they do it implicitly. Hager talks about it directly.
"The difference is ostensibly rhetorical, but in practice there's a difference in content and, in effect, an ideological difference in magnitude," Brown says. "Hager has managed to create a new kind of perception of the righteous man."
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