A report on Pittsburgh (Hasidic dynasty), Yosef Leifer, Avraham Abba Leifer and Mordechai Yissachar Ber Leifer

Pittsburgh is a Hasidic dynasty founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1924 by Rabbi Yosef Leifer, a Hungarian rabbi and descendant of Rabbi Mordechai of Nadvorna.

Yosef Leifer (1891 – 7 March 1966) was the founder and first Rebbe of the Pittsburg Hasidic dynasty in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which he led for 42 years.

Avraham Abba Leifer (1918 – 7 January 1990) was the second Rebbe of the Pittsburg Hasidic dynasty and the instigator for the relocation of the Hasidut from its original location in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to the Israeli coastal city of Ashdod.

Mordechai Yissachar Ber Leifer (מרדכי יששכר בער לייפער; 19554 October 2020) was the third Rebbe of the Pittsburgh Hasidic dynasty.

Born in the United States, he joined his father, Grand Rabbi Avraham Abba Leifer, in Ashdod, Israel, to serve as rosh yeshiva of a new Pittsburgher yeshiva in that city in 1981.

After flourishing in America for 46 years, the Hasidut was relocated to the Israeli coastal city of Ashdod under the leadership of Rabbi Yosef Leifer's son and successor, Rabbi Avraham Abba Leifer.

Avraham Abba Leifer was born in Nagykároly, Hungary (today Carei, Romania) to Rabbi Yosef Leifer, the grandson of Rabbi Mordechai of Nadvorna and a direct descendant of Grand Rabbi Meir the Great of Premishlan, a disciple of the Baal Shem Tov.

The Hasidut was led by Rabbi Avraham Abba's son, Rabbi Mordechai Yissachar Ber Leifer, who died Chol Hamoed Succos 2020, presided over a nucleus of about 100 Pittsburgher families in Ashdod as well as families in Jerusalem, Bnei Brak, Beit Hilkia, New York City and California.

He was the son of Grand Rabbi Avraham Abba Leifer and the grandson of Grand Rabbi Yosef Leifer, a scion of the Nadvorna Hasidic dynasty who founded the Hasidut in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1924.

The eldest, Avraham Abba, was the only one who survived him and acceded to the position of Pittsburger Rebbe after his death.

After Rabbi Avraham Abba's death in 1990, his son, Rabbi Mordechai Yissachar Ber Leifer, succeeded him as Rebbe and further built up the Hasidic presence in Ashdod with a cheder, yeshivas, and kollels.

His son, Rabbi Mordechai Yissachar Ber, testified that his father detached himself from worldly pleasures and did everything for the sake of fulfilling the mitzvos of the Torah.