Yissachar Dov Rokeach (fifth Belzer rebbe)

Yissachar Dov Rokeach
Fifth Belzer Rebbe
Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach of Belz
Term	1966–present
Full name	Yissachar Dov Rokeach
Born	(1948-01-19) January 19, 1948 (age 69) Tel Aviv
Predecessor	Aharon Rokeach
Father	Mordechai of Bilgoray
Mother	Miriam Glick
Wife	Sarah Hager
Children	Aharon Mordechai 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.

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; Rabbi Mordechai's second wife was Miriam, the daughter of Rabbi Hershel Glick of Satmar. Only Rabbi Mordechai had a child, Yissachar Dov. In November 1949 Rabbi Mordechai died suddenly and his son was raised by his uncle, Rebbe Aharon, who groomed him to be the next Rebbe in the dynasty.

For most of the year, Yissachar Dov lived near his uncle in Tel Aviv and studied in the Belzer Talmud Torah there; he spent the summer months in Jerusalem, studying in the Satmar Talmud Torah.

When Rebbe Aharon died in 1957, Yissachar Dov was only nine years old. For the next nine years, Belz was effectively without an active rebbe, as Yissachor Dov, then called the "Yanuka" (Child) by his followers, was educated by a small circle of trusted advisors. A few years after Rebbe Aharon’s death, Yissachar Dov entered the Belzer yeshiva in Jerusalem, where he was given two dormitory rooms – one which he shared with other students as a sleeping room and a private room where he could study alone and with others. Every decision regarding the young boy was brought before Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchak Neiman, Rav of the Belzer community in Montreal and a relative of Yissachar Dov on his mother’s side.