Yochanan Sofer (January 1, 1923 – February 22, 2016) was the rebbe of the Erlau dynasty. He was born in Eger, Hungary, where his father and grandfather were also rebbes. After surviving the Holocaust, he founded a yeshiva, first in Hungary and then a few years later in Jerusalem. Family history Sofer's father Moshe Sofer, grandfather Shimon Sofer, great-grandfather Samuel Benjamin Sofer and great-great-grandfather Moses Sofer (known as the Chasam Sofer) were all rabbis. Shimon Sofer led the Jewish community in Eger for some 64 years. He and his community were deported to Auschwitz by the Nazis in 1944 where at the age of 94 he was murdered by the Nazis, as was his son, Moshe Sofer, and many others from the city of Eger. Early life Yochanan Sofer was born in Eger in 1923. He received his rabbinical education from his father, and at yeshivas. His father and grandfather were murdered at Auschwitz, but he survived the war in the "Glass House" in Budapest and returned to Eger to lead the few Jewish survivors. In 1946 he and Moshe Stern, the rabbi of Debrecen became co-roshei yeshiva of the year-old Yeshivas Chasam Sofer, the only yeshiva in Hungary at that time, with Sofer serving as rosh yeshiva Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday and Stern for the second half of the week, while serving their respective communities the rest of the time. Sofer slept in the dormitory with the students and refused to accept a salary. After a year and a half he opened a yeshiva in Eger. After the Budapest yeshiva closed, the rest of the students moved to Eger. In 1947, he re-established the yeshiva in Eger with a small group of boys and adolescents (mostly orphans). He married and was appointed rabbi of the Orthodox Jewish community there. Move to Israel Due to Communist Hungary's oppression of Judaism, Sofer and members of his community escaped Hungary. For a short period of time, the yeshiva merged with the Pressburg Yeshiva in Jerusalem, which was headed by Akiva Sofer (known as the Daas Sofer), a great-grandson of the Chasam Sofer. Yochanan Suffer served there as a maggid shiur. During this time he became a close disciple of Aharon Rokeach, the Belzer rebbe. Although Sofer's ancestors were not hasidic, he was influenced by Rokeach and the Skverer rebbe to adopt numerous hasidic customs. Sofer named his youngest son Aharon after Rokeach.<name=obit/>