Elazar Mordechai Koenig

Elazar Mordechai Koenig (Hebrew: אלעזר מרדכי קניג) (October 15, 1945 – December 31, 2018) was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi and the spiritual leader of the Breslov Hasidic community in Safed, Israel.

His father was a leading disciple of Breslov elder Rabbi Abraham Sternhartz, who immigrated to Jerusalem from Uman, Ukraine in 1936.

[2] In 1967, his father, with the encouragement of Rabbi Sternhartz, founded the Breslov community in Safed and dedicated himself to fundraising for the expansion of this Torah center.

[1] Upon his father's unexpected death in 1980, Koenig and his two brothers built up the Breslov Safed complex to include a synagogue, preschool, Talmud Torah, yeshiva ketana, and kollel.

After suffering for many years from pulmonary fibrosis of unknown origin, Koenig underwent lung transplant surgery on January 15, 2005, at Manhattan's Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital.