Erlau (Hebrew: ערלוי, also spelled Erloi), is a Haredi dynasty of Hungarian origin, which follows the teachings of the Chasam Sofer and is often considered Hasidic.

(also spelled Erloy and Erloi) is the Yiddish and German name of the Hungarian city Eger, which is situated between Miskolc and Pest, Hungary.

During the early Middle Ages, the town was named Erlau by the German, Avar, and Slavonic tribes living there.

[1] Rabbi Moshe Sofer, (German: Moses Schreiber), (1762–1839) and his teachings are the cornerstone and foundation of the Erlau dynasty, whose leaders were genealogically descended from him.

Moshe Sofer was a descendant of the Yalkut Shimoni and the son-in-law of the famous Talmudist Rabbi Akiva Eger (1761–1837).

A talmudist and posek of his own right, Moshe Sofer became an undisputed halakhic authority and one of the leading Orthodox rabbis in the first half of the nineteenth century.

This Yeshiva was considered the largest since the time of the Babylonian Talmud[2] and produced hundreds of future leaders of Orthodox Jewry.

Together with his younger brother, Rabbi Shimon Sofer, he started editing and publishing their father's Torah commentary.

Another son, Rabbi Shimon Sofer, founded a yeshiva in the Hungarian town of Eger (Erlau) continuing the heritage of his father and grandfather.

This responsa was published by his son, Rabbi Yochanan Sofer, who added his own commentary and notations named Itur Sofrim (Ornament of the Scribes).

Moshe Sofer's wife and four daughters were murdered by the Nazis, but he was survived by his sons, Avraham Shmuel Binyamin and Yochanan.

[15] Due to his humility, he refused an offer to head the renewed Yeshivas Chasam Sofer in Pest or to assume the mantle of leadership of the remaining Erlau community, most of which found refuge there.

Avraham Shmuel Binyamin Sofer took an active role in the re-founding of the community and yeshiva together with his brother Yochanan, supporting this endeavor with personal savings from the business he established.

From him, Sofer acquired extensive knowledge of Hasidut, which eventually led him to adopt and preach numerous Hasidic customs.

In 1953 he founded the Erlau yeshiva and community in the Katamon neighbourhood of south-central Jerusalem,[22] starting with the purchase of a few rooms in the building of the former Syrian Consulate on Yotam Street.

Later this yeshiva expanded to the whole building, where Sofer founded a dormitory and orphanage for Holocaust survivors and students from needy families.

The largest Erlau communities are located in Jerusalem (Ezrat Torah), Bnei Brak, Ashdod, Beitar Illit, Elad, Haifa in Israel and Antwerp and Borough Park, New York in the diaspora.

Besides the main yeshiva campus in Katamon, there are a score of Erlau synagogues, schools and kindergartens, across Israel and in the United States and Europe.

[23] In early 2011, in a private event celebrating his recovery, he expressed his will that his eldest son, Rabbi Moshe Sofer, assist him with spiritual guidance of the Erlau community.

Though the Erlau dynasty is not historically connected to the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidut, it is categorized as Hasidic.

Yochanan Sofer has 7 sons, who all hold rabbinical positions: The Sofer family has married into many distinguished rabbinical families and Hasidic dynasties such as Vizhnitz, Seret Vizhnitz, Dushinsky, Ungvar, Minchas Yitzchok, Strikov, Bobov, Biala, Linsk, Zutchke, Nadvorna and Zvhil.