Penkower writes (p. 152):
Selmanovitz quickly became the head of the Gerer community there [in Williamsburg]. His ties to the rebbe at that time, Abraham Mordechai Alter (the "Imrei Emes"), had begun when he had been a boy studying in the Gur yeshivah in Warsaw. Abraham's bed in the dormitory was next to that of the young Alter, eldest son of Judah Leib... Once the latter [the Imrei Emes] became rebbe, he gave Gur Hasidim a dynamic, organized framework of schools and organizations, even while exploring the possibility of moving with his followers to Palestine. Like Torah chieftains Jacob Willowski (Ridbaz) and Israel Meir ha-Kohen (Hafetz Hayyim), Alter saw little hope forOrthodoxy in the United States. He requested Selmanovitz to care for the small contingent, perhaps 10, of Gerer Hasidim there; family members recall Selmanovitz refusing the role of Gerer Rebbe in America, saying that one must be born to the position rather than be appointed.