Iconic Williamsburg: The Imrei Chaim of Viznitz in Williamsburg

YS Gold

Rebbe Chaim Meir Hager, zt”l, known as the Imrei Chaim, was the fourth Viznitzer Rebbe who served as a bridge between the glorious Viznitzer court which was led by his father and ancestors in Viznitz and later Grosswardein to the soil of America and Eretz Yisroel, where the chassidus has continued to thrive and expand beyond what that group of Holocaust survivors could ever have imagined. 

In 1936, with the passing of his father, Rebbe Yisroel Hager, known as the Ahavas Yisroel, he assumed his place as the Viznitzer Rebbe in Grosswardein. Following the Churban Europa, he returned to Grosswardein, and finally made his way to Eretz Yisroel in 1947. He was the first chassidishe Rebbe to establish a shtetl when he built Shikun Viznitz in Bnei Brak, where he settled in 1950. 

It was during the 1950’s that the Rebbe came to America for a visit, and where would he choose to spend his time but in the community of Williamsburg, the Yerushalayim of America which bustled with Jewish life and survivors who were rebuilding from the ashes. 

Khal Toras Chaim Viznitz had been established by chassidim in Williamsburg at 162 Ross Street even before the arrival of Rebbe Mordechai Hager, known as the Toras Mordechai and later known as the Viznitz-Monsey Rebbe. When he arrived, he became the rov of the shul, and he resided on the third floor. 

In 1954 and in 1958, the Imrei Chaim came to Williamsburg, and he took up residence on the second floor of 162 Ross Street. A group of Viznitzer chassidim—both from prewar Europe, as well as the legendary Neiman family who had transplanted to America much earlier—gathered around him here in Williamsburg. 

He would conduct his avodah in that little shul on Ross Street, and lead long tischen for the chassidim. For Yamim Nora’im of 1954, the chassidim took were set to daven at the Minyan Torah Vodaas on Wilson Street.  However, when the Rebbe arrived, there was such a large crowd that the floors shook, and they were unable to daven there. 

During the Rebbe’s years in Williamsburg, many of the Admorim and Rabbonim of Williamsburg would come to visit the Rebbe.  

It was for the Yamim Nora’im of 1958 when the Viznitzer Shul on 6 Lee Avenue was inaugurated in the presence of the Rebbe, the Imrei Chaim. To this day, the wooden table at which the Rebbe conducted the tischen remains in the Viznitzer shul on 6 Lee Avenue which is today led by the Viznitzer Rebbe of Williamsburg. 

The Rebbe returned to his holy abode in Bnei Brak, leaving behind scores of chassidim and admirers who retained the warm and holy memories from the times that the holy tzaddik spent within their midst in the community of old Williamsburg.