Slonim (Hasidic dynasty)


Slonim is a Hasidic Hasidic dynasties|dynasty] originating in the town of Slonim, which is now in Belarus.
Today, there are two Slonimer factions. Slonim, based in Jerusalem, and the Slonim community in Bnei Brak. They are two distinct groups today, and have many differences between them.
The first Rebbe of Slonim, Rabbi Avraham Weinberg, was the author of Yesod HaAvodah. In 1873, he sent a group of his grandchildren and other Hasidim to settle in Ottoman Palestine; they set up their community in Tiberias. Almost all of the Slonimer Hasidim in Europe perished at the hands of the Nazis in the Holocaust. The present-day Slonimer community was rebuilt from the Slonimer Hasidim who had settled in Israel.

Outline of Slonimer dynasty

Spiritual legacy

Lineage of Slonimer Rebbes

  • Rabbi Avraham of Slonim, author of Yesod HaAvodah, first Slonmer Rebbe.

Main Hasidic works of Slonim

In addition to those works revered by all Hasidim, the Slonimer Hasidim particularly revere the following books: Yesod HaAvodah, "Toras Avos", Divrei Shmuel, Beis Avraham, Birkas Avraham.
The Slonimer rebbes of Jerusalem have also authored two tremendously popular Hasidic works, Nesivos Shalom, by the previous Slonimer Rebbe of Jerusalem, and Darchei Noam, by the present Slonimer Rebbe of Jerusalem.
Nesivos Shalom is extremely popular even outside of Hasidic circles.

Controversy in Slonim school in Immanuel

Currently, in Israel, there reside approximately 1,900 families that follow the Slonimer Rebbe from Jerusalem. In 2010, a dispute arose in Immanuel, a Jewish settlement in the northern West Bank, over the integration of Ashkenazi Slonim girls in a school with Sephardi girls from non-religious families. Over 120,000 Torah-observant Jews, including Haredi and Dati Leumi Jews, rallied in Israel to keep the groups separate, with the fathers of 40 girls being jailed for their refusal to comply. The families insisted it was not a "racial" issue, as 30% of those in the Hasidic track are Sephardic, and three fathers jailed were Sephardic, but, rather, that the "desire to remove their daughters from the influence of those less strict in their religious observance, watching TV at home, having access to the internet, and a more lax dress code among the other track in the school have been cited".