Malkiel Kotler

Last updated
Rabbi

Malkiel Kotler
Personal
Born
Aryeh Malkiel Kotler

April 1951 (age 70)
Religion Judaism
ParentsShneur Kotler
Rischel Friedman
Denomination Haredi
Jewish leader
Predecessor Shneur Kotler
Position Rosh yeshiva
Yeshiva Beth Medrash Govoha
Began1982
Residence Lakewood, New Jersey

Aryeh Malkiel Kotler (born April 1951) is a Haredi rabbi and rosh yeshiva (dean) of Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, New Jersey, one of the largest yeshivas in the world. [1] He is a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah (Council of Torah Sages) of Agudath Israel of America.

Contents

Biography

Aryeh Malkiel Kotler was born to Shneur Kotler and his wife, Rischel (née Friedman). He is the second of 9 children. [2] The elder Kotler was the rosh yeshiva (dean) of Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, New Jersey and son of the yeshiva's founder, Aharon Kotler. On his father's side, Kotler is the great-grandson of Isser Zalman Meltzer.

Upon the death of his father in 1982, Kotler was named co-rosh yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha along with Dovid Schustal, Yeruchem Olshin, and Yisroel Neuman, [3] who are all married to grandchildren of Aharon Kotler. At that time, the yeshiva had an enrollment of approximately 800 students, which has since grown to approximately 6,300. [4]

Kotler is a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah (Council of Torah Sages) of Agudath Israel of America. [5] [6]

Family

Kotler's first wife Hinda was the daughter of Yechiel Michel Feinstein and Lifsha, the granddaughter of Yitzchok Zev Soloveitchik. When Kotler traveled from their home in Israel to the US to visit his ailing father, his wife refused to join him. While Kotler was in the US his father died, and Kotler succeeded him as rosh yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha. Hinda Kotler refused to join her husband in Lakewood or accept a get (Jewish divorce document) without a rabbinical court in Israel hearing the case; she refused to submit to an American rabbinical court. [7] [8] [9] Kotler was issued a rarely used exemption known as a heter meah rabbanim (permission of 100 rabbis). This allowed him to take a second wife upon the depositing of the divorce document for the first wife with the rabbinical court. [10] Several months later he married his second wife, Chana Leah Tikotzky.

Related Research Articles

Aharon Kotler

Rabbi Aharon Kotler (1891–1962) was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi and a prominent leader of Orthodox Judaism in Lithuania, and later the United States, where he founded Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood Township, New Jersey.

Yeshivas Ner Yisroel

Ner Israel Rabbinical College, also known as NIRC and Ner Yisroel, is a Haredi yeshiva in Pikesville, Maryland. It was founded in 1933 by Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman, a disciple of Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, dean of the Slabodka yeshiva in Lithuania. It is currently headed by Rabbi Aharon Feldman, a disciple of Rabbi Ruderman and a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of America.

Yeshiva Torah Vodaas American Haredi yeshiva in Brooklyn, New York

Yeshiva Torah Vodaath is a yeshiva in the Kensington neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.

Isser Zalman Meltzer Belarusian rabbi, rosh yeshiva, and posek

Isser Zalman Meltzer, was a famous Lithuanian Jewish and Belarusian Orthodox rabbi, rosh yeshiva and posek. He is also known as the "Even HaEzel"—the title of his commentary on Rambam's Mishneh Torah.

Rabbi Yaakov Luban is the rabbi of Congregation Ohr Torah in Edison, New Jersey, United States. He is also the Executive Rabbinic Coordinator at the Orthodox Union and is a member of the Va'ad HaRabbonim of Raritan Valley. He learned under Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevitz in the Mir yeshiva in Jerusalem, Israel. He also learned in Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia and in Beth Medrash Govoha. He received his rabbinic ordination in 1979 from Rabbi Shneur Kotler.

Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah supreme rabbinical policy-making council of the Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah

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.

Shneur Kotler

Yosef Chaim Shneur Kotler was an Orthodox rabbi and rosh yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, New Jersey from 1962 to 1982. During his tenure, he developed the Lithuanian-style, Haredi but non-Hasidic yeshiva into the largest post-graduate Torah institution in the world. He also established Lakewood-style kollels in 30 cities, and pioneered the establishment of community kollels in which Torah scholars study during the morning and afternoon hours and engage in community outreach during the evenings. Upon his death, he had served as the Lakewood rosh yeshiva for exactly the same amount of time as had his father, Rabbi Aharon Kotler, the founding rosh yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha: nineteen years, seven months, and one day.

Shlomo Miller

Shlomo Eliyahu Miller is a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah. He is a Rosh Kollel (dean) and co-founder of the Kollel Avreichim Institute for Advanced Talmud Study, a haredi post-yeshiva educational institution in Toronto and head of its Beis Din. He is the foremost Litvish Haredi Posek in Toronto.

Aaron Schechter American Haredi rabbi

Aaron Moshe Schechter is an American Haredi rabbi. He is the rosh yeshiva (dean) of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin and its post-graduate Talmudical division, Kollel Gur Aryeh. He also serves on the presidium of Agudath Israel of America and is a member of that organization's Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah.

Aharon Feldman

Rabbi Aharon Feldman is an Orthodox Jewish rabbi and rosh yeshiva (dean) of Yeshivas Ner Yisroel in Baltimore, Maryland. He has held this position since 2001. He is also a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah.

Elya Svei

Elya Svei was the Rosh Yeshiva of the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia together with Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky, and was internationally known for his incisive, brilliant and clear shiurim (lectures), and his ability to offer sage advice to thousands of Jews worldwide. Rav Svei was born in Slabodka, died in Philadelphia, and was buried in Jerusalem.

Shmuel Kamenetsky American Haredi rabbi (born 1924)

Shmuel Kamenetsky is an American Haredi rabbi. He is the co-founder and rosh yeshiva (dean) of the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia. He is also a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah.

Beth Medrash Govoha Beis medrash and kollel school in the United States

Beth Medrash Govoha is a Haredi Jewish Lithuanian yeshiva in Lakewood Township, New Jersey. It was founded by Rabbi Aaron Kotler in 1943 and is the second-largest yeshiva in the world, after Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem. As of 2019, it had 6,715 students, 2,748 regular and 3,967 in Kollel status. The principal Rosh yeshiva since 1982 is Rabbi Malkiel Kotler. Talmud and halakha studies in the institution are carried in the form of over 200 small groups, Chaburos, which consist of several students mentored by a veteran, each pursuing its own specific curriculum with an emphasis on individual learning.

Dov Schwartzman

Dov Schwartzman, also called Berel Schwartzman, was a Haredi Jewish rabbi and rosh yeshiva (dean) of Bais Hatalmud (Jerusalem), which he founded in the Sanhedria Murhevet neighborhood of Jerusalem and led for over 40 years. He also founded and led the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia together with Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetzky, and co-founded the first yeshiva in Israel for baalei teshuva. He taught tens of thousands of students, many of whom received semicha from him.

Yaakov Eliezer Schwartzman is an Orthodox Jewish rabbi and rosh yeshiva of the Lakewood East yeshiva in Ramot, Jerusalem, Israel.

Yerucham Olshin

Yerucham Olshin is an Orthodox rabbi and a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah. He is one of the four roshei yeshiva (deans) of Beth Medrash Govoha, an Orthodox yeshiva located in Lakewood, New Jersey. The other rosh yeshivas are Rabbis Malkiel Kotler, Yisroel Neuman, and Dovid Schustal; they divide up the times they present shiurim to students on the Lakewood campus.

Nosson Meir Wachtfogel

Nosson Meir Wachtfogel, known as the Lakewood Mashgiach, was an Orthodox rabbi and long-time mashgiach ruchani of Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, New Jersey. He was one of the primary builders of that yeshiva into a world-class institution, enacting the goals and direction set forth by its founding rosh yeshiva, Rabbi Aharon Kotler. He also helped establish "branches" of the Lakewood Yeshiva in dozens of cities, and pioneered the community kollel concept with the opening of combination Torah learning/outreach centers in the United States and other countries. A revered mentor and guide to thousands of students over a career that spanned more than 50 years, he was a strong advocate and prime example of musar study and working on one's spiritual self-development.

Dovid Tzvi Schustal is an Orthodox rabbi and one of the four roshei yeshiva (deans) of Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, New Jersey. He shares this post with Rabbi Malkiel Kotler, Rabbi Yerucham Olshin, and Rabbi Yisroel Neuman.

Yisroel Tzvi Neuman is an Orthodox rabbi and one of the four roshei yeshiva (deans) of Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, New Jersey. He shares this post with Rabbi Malkiel Kotler, Rabbi Yerucham Olshin, and Rabbi Dovid Schustal. He is married to the daughter of Rav Dov Schwartzman, who is a granddaughter of the founder of the yeshiva, Rabbi Aharon Kotler.

Eliyahu Brudny is an American Haredi rabbi and rosh yeshiva. He serves as maggid shiur in the Mir Yeshiva in Brooklyn and is a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudath Israel of America.

References

  1. "NJ Higher Education Statistics". nj.gov. 2011. Retrieved 2 April 2012.
  2. "Rabbi Shneur Kotler, 64, Head Of Rabbinical School in Jersey". The New York Times . 27 June 1982. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
  3. Bunim, Amos (1989). A Fire in His Soul: Irving M. Bunim, 1901-1980, the Man and His Impact on American Orthodox Jewry. Feldheim Publishers. p. 244. ISBN   0873064739.
  4. Goldberg, Rabbi Hillel. "The Traffic is Edgy, Rav Olshin Is Not". Yated Ne'eman , 12 October 2011, pp. 7071.
  5. "Six Gedolim Added To Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah Of Agudas Yisroel". TheYeshivaWorld.com. Retrieved 9 November 2020.
  6. "Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah Call on Community to Achieve Improvements; New Chavrei HaMoetzes Welcomed". Hamodia. September 14, 2020. Retrieved 9 November 2020.
  7. "נושאים לעיון ולדיון: פרשת בריסק והרב מלכיאל קוטלר".
  8. "האם הרב שהגן על עגונות גם הטריד אותן". הארץ.
  9. "פורום: בחדרי חרדים - הינדלה פיינשטיין וקוטלר – בחדרי חרדים".
  10. Odenheimer, Micha (28 January 2005). "'Harvard' of the Haredim". Haaretz . Retrieved 26 July 2012.