R. Joshua of Belz (1825-94) was the fifth and youngest son of R. Shalom of Belz. He was known for his phenomenal knowledge and worldly wisdom. On the death of his father in 1855, R. Joshua became rebbe. He was one of the first hassidic rebbes to become involved in politics, forming the Mahzikei Hadat in 1878, opening branches in several cities. The movement received, through the intervention of Ignaz Deutsch, government recognition. It published two journals on alternative weeks, Mahzikei Hadat and Kol Mahzikei. R. Joshua was primarily responsible for the election of R. Simon Sofer to the Austrian parliament in 1879. In 1882, Mahzikei Hadat convened a conference attended by 200 rabbis from different communities, passing a resolution that only Jews meticulous in observing the precepts of the Shulhan Arukh be granted full voting rights in Jewish communal elections. He enlisted the help of leading contemporary rabbis inhis fight to preserve traditional Judaism. R. Joshua was also concerned with developments in Hungary, sympathizing with a convention held in 1865 in Michalovice in northeast Slovakia in which it was decided that the Orthodox communities should secede and establish communities known as the status quo ante. He was recognized as the unofficial spokesman of Galician Jewry and almost every appointment required his approval. R. Joshua’s discourse were published in Ohel Yehoshua as part of his father’s work Dover Sholem. (Przemysl, 1910).