Boyan () is a Hasidic dynasty named after the town of Boiany in the historic region of Bukovina, now in Ukraine. The Hasidut is headquartered in Jerusalem, with communities in Beitar Ilit, Bnei Brak, Manchester, Australia, Beit Shemesh, London, Antwerp, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Los Angeles, Monsey, Lakewood, and Atlanta . Boyan is one of the branches of the Ruzhiner dynasty, together with Bohush, Chortkov, Husiatyn, Sadigura, Kapishnitz, Vaslui and Shtefanesht.
History
First Boyaner Rebbe
The founder of the dynasty was Rabbi Yitzchok Friedman (1850–1917), known as the Pachad Yitzchok. He was the eldest son of Rabbi Avrohom Yaakov Friedman (1820–1883), the first Sadigura Rebbe, and the grandson of Rabbi Yisroel Friedman of Ruzhyn (1797–1851), founder of the Ruzhiner dynasty.
Upon the death of his father in 1883, Rabbi Yitzchok and his younger brother Rabbi Yisrael (1852–1907) assumed joint leadership of their father's Hasidim. Although they were content with this arrangement, many of the Sadigura Hasidim preferred to have one Rebbe, and in 1887, the brothers agreed to draw lots to determine who would stay in Sadigura and who would move out. The lots fell to Rabbi Yisrael to remain as the second Sadigura Rebbe, while Rabbi Yitzchok moved to the neighboring town of Boiany (Boyan) and established his court there, becoming the first Boyaner Rebbe. Under this arrangement, Rabbi Yitzchak assumed the mantle of Nasi of kollel Vohlyn in Eretz Israel, and with it the Zechut of lighting the fire in Meron on Lag Baomer – a tradition still upheld by his grandson the present Boyaner Rebbe - as well as the Tiferet Yisrael synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem. Under the leadership of the Pachad Yitzchok, Boyaner Hasidut flourished. Boyaner communities were established throughout Eastern Europe – even one as far as Berlin – as well as in Tiberias, Safed, and Jerusalem.
Boyaner Rebbes after World War I
At the beginning of World War I, the town of Boyan was completely destroyed by invading armies. The Rebbe and his family escaped to Vienna, where the Rebbe died in 1917. After the war ended, three of his four sons each moved to a different country to establish their court. His eldest son, Rabbi Menachem Nachum (1869–1936), became the Boyaner Rebbe in Czernowitz, Bukovina. Rabbi Menachem Nachum's two sons, Rabbi Aharon and Rabbi Mordechai Shraga, succeeded him; they and their families were murdered by the Nazis during World War II. Rabbi Menachem Nachum's son-in-law, Rabbi Moshenu (1841–1943), became the Boyaner Rebbe in Kraków; he was murdered in Auschwitz.
The Pachad Yitzchok's second son, Rabbi Yisroel (1878–1951), became the Boyaner Rebbe in Leipzig, Germany; in 1939 he moved to Tel Aviv. He had two daughters, whose husbands did not succeed him. The Pachad Yitzchok's third son, Rabbi Avrohom Yaakov (1884–1941), became the Boyaner Rebbe in Lemberg; he was murdered by the Nazis in 1941.
The Pachad Yitzchok's youngest son, Rabbi Mordechai Shlomo, remained in Vienna with his mother until the latter's death in 1922. At that point he considered an offer to head the Hasidic community of Drohobych in Western Ukraine, and another offer to lead an organized chaburah (group) of Boyaner Hasidim on the Lower East Side of New York City. He embarked on an 11-month pilot trip to America in December 1925, and then spent another year weighing the pros and cons of moving to America before acceding to the request of the Boyaner Hasidim of New York to establish his court with them. He and his family arrived in New York in November 1927.
Over the next 40 years, the Boyaner Rebbe of New York succeeded in uniting the Ruzhin-Boyan survivors of the Holocaust and proved that Hasidut could be a viable lifestyle in America. The Rebbe exuded the sense of nobility and spiritual loftiness characteristic of rebbes of the Boyaner dynasty, but he also expressed a warmth and paternal concern for his disciples which attracted many American youth who had never seen a Hasidic rebbe. Yeshiva students and secular Jewish boys alike were drawn to him in large numbers, and he made many ba'alei teshuvah (returnees to the faith). The Rebbe also took an active role in American Jewish leadership, being a founder and president of the Agudath HaAdmorim (Union of Grand Rabbis) of the United States (in which capacity he participated in the Rabbi's March on Washington in 1943); first vice president of Agudath Israel of America and a member of that body's Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah; and president of Vaad HaEzra, in which capacity he raised funds to help Holocaust survivors in post-war Europe.
