Elazar Menachem Man Shach was a Haredi rabbi who headed Misnagdim 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 are not yet ready for leadership positions", and subsequently founded the Degel HaTorah political party representing the Litvaks in the Israeli Knesset.
Elazar Shach
Shach (late 1980s), seated right, looking down at book. Yosef Shalom Eliashiv and Chaim Kanievsky are to his left.
Shach's grave in Bnei Brak
Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah is the supreme rabbinical policy-making council of the Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah movements in Israel; and of Agudath Israel of America in the United States. Members are usually prestigious Roshei Yeshiva or Hasidic rebbes, who are also usually regarded by many Haredi Jews to be the Gedolim ("great/est") sages of Torah Judaism. Before the Holocaust, it was the supreme authority for the World Agudath Israel in Europe.
Moetzes Agudas Yisroel meeting, February 2013, with 12 of 13 members present; from l-r: Vizhnitz-Merkaz Rebbe; Boyaner Rebbe; Modzitzer Rebbe; Slonimer Rebbe; Sanzer Rebbe; Belzer Rebbe; Erlauer Rebbe; Gerrer Rebbe; Vizhnitzer Rebbe; Sadigura Rebbe; Biala Rebbe; Bostoner Rebbe (not in photo: Serit-Vizhnitzer Rebbe)
The first Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of "Degel HaTorah", March 1989, home of Rabbi Schach. Sitting alongside Rabbi Steinman