This obituary is part of a series about people who have died in the coronavirus pandemic.

Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, who inherited the leadership of the Novominsker Hasidic dynasty that was founded in Poland by his grandfather and transplanted to Brooklyn a century ago, died on Tuesday at his home in the Borough Park section. He was 89.

The cause was the new coronavirus, according to Agudath Israel of America, the umbrella ultra-Orthodox organization.

The rabbi, known as a persuasive orator and respected scholar, had been president of the organization since 1998 and was chairman of its rabbinical Council of Torah Sages.

He straddled two worlds, defending Haredi, or strict Orthodox, tradition, but at times going outside the insular Hasidic community to opine on public policy. Most recently, he urged his followers to heed the advice of medical experts in the coronavirus pandemic and avoid the gatherings that are integral to religious rituals.