MAYER ALTER

MAYER ALTER (1904-November 5, 1943)

Born in Zhichlin (Żychlin), Poland.  He was the son of Rabbi Avraham-Mordechai.  He was from the line of Yitzchak Meir Rotenberg (known as Chidushei Harim, the first of the Hassidic dynasty of Ger).  He studied religious subjects with his father.  He also received a worldly education.  Until his wedding in 1932 he was living in Zhichlin, and later in Warsaw where he worked as a bookkeeper and at the same time was an active leader and member of the central committee of Tseire Agudat Yisrael (Agudat Yisrael youth movement).  Until the war in 1939, he was the director of Palestine Central Council for Agudat Yisrael in Poland.  For a time, he worked as a lecturer in the Orthodox Educators Seminary in Warsaw.  He began writing in Ortodoksishe yugnt-bleter (Orthodox youth leaves) (Warsaw, 1929-1930), in which he published tracts concerning issues of Jewish education and religious life of settlers; and in Yidishe togblat (Jewish daily) (Warsaw, 1932-1939).  He served on the editorial board of the Hebrew-language Orthodox weekly, Darkenu (Our way) (Warsaw, 1934-1935).  He was in the Warsaw Ghetto and was deported to Ponyatov where he perished.