Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, Leader of ‘Jerusalem Faction’, Dead at 86

Rav Shmuel Auerbach, prominent Ultra Orthodox Rabbi and leader of the “Peleg Yerushalmi” or the “Jerusalem Faction” died early on Shabbat morning. He was 86.

He was not feeling well on Friday evening and was said to have lost consciousness.on Friday evening. A medical team was summoned to his house and attempted resuscitation efforts and they managed to restore his pulse and he was rushed to  Shaarei Tzedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, but suffered a major heart attack and was pronounced dead an hour late at 3 o’clock in the morning.

In recent years Rabbi Auerbach has ordered his students to demonstrate against the IDF draft, which was contrary to Rabbi Aaron Leib Shteinman’s position, who also recently passed away. In several protests, (Hafganahs) students blocked traffic and had gotten into confrontations with the police.

He was regarded as a leading non-Hasidic posek (halachic authority) for many Haredi Jews in Israel and was a respected authority for Jews worldwide. He was the rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Maalot HaTorahand the Nasi (president) of Yeshivas Midrash Shmuel and Yeshivas Toras Simcha, both in Jerusalem. He was the head of the Bnei Torah party which he founded. He resided in the Sha’arei Hesed neighborhood of Jerusalem.

Auerbach was the eldest son of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach.He was born in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sha’arei Hesed, as was his father. He married Rachel Paksher who died on 11 January 1990).

They had no children. He named his musar sefer Ohel Rachel in her memory.

Auerbach’s funeral procession will leave on Sunday morning at 11 a.m. from his Jerusalem neighborhood of Sha’arei Hesed and he will be buried in the capital’s Har Hamenuhot Cemetery.

Auerbach will be buried at the Har Hamenuhot cemetery in the Givat Shaul neighborhood, next to his wife. His funeral procession is scheduled to leave from his yeshiva in the She’arei Hesed neighborhood at 11 A.M. on Sunday.