Elazar Shach

Elazar Shach
אלעזר שך‎
Personal
Born	Elazar Menachem Man Shach January 1, 1899 Vabalninkas, Lithuania
Died	November 2, 2001(2001-11-02) (aged 102) Tel Aviv, Israel
Religion	Judaism
Spouse	Guttel Gilmovsky
Children	Miriam Raisel, Devorah, Ephraim
Parent(s)	Ezriel and Batsheva Shach
Alma mater	Slabodka Yeshiva
Yeshiva	Ponevezh Yeshiva
Buried	Bnei Brak, Israel
Semikhah	Isser Zalman Meltzer

Elazar Menachem Man Shach (Hebrew: אלעזר מנחם מן שך, Elazar Shach; January 1, 1899 O.S. – November 2, 2001) was a Haredi rabbi who headed Lithuanian Orthodox Jews in Israel and around the world from the early 1970s until his death. He served as chair of the Council of Sages and one of three co-deans of the Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, along with Shmuel Rozovsky and Dovid Povarsky.

Due to his differences with the Hasidic leadership of the Agudat Yisrael political party, he allied with Ovadia Yosef, with whom he founded the Shas party in 1984. Later, in 1988, Shach criticized Ovadia Yosef, saying that Sepharadim were not yet ready for leadership positions,^[1] and subsequently founded the Degel HaTorah political party representing the Litvaks in the Israeli Knesset.