Shmuel Schecter

Shmuel Halevi Schecter (; February 21, 1915 – September 30, 2000)

At the age of 13 Schecter's uncle sent him to New York City to study at Yeshivas Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan. Together with his new friends and fellow students Nosson Meir Wachtfogel and Avigdor Miller, he attended a secret shiur in Mesillas Yesharim given by Yaakov Yosef Herman in a yeshiva dormitory.

World War II In 1940 Schecter's wife and young daughter returned to the United States on the last ship to leave France. Schecter, however, wanted to keep studying under Movshovitz. Years later, Schecter printed a commentary on Orchot Chaim LeHoRosh, a musar work, and recounted in the preface the final hours of the yeshiva and the speech given by Rabbi Movshovitz at the site of the slaughter, based on historical sources.

Postwar Schecter, Wachtfogel, and Rabbi Hershel Genauer, all alumni of the Kelm Talmud Torah, established the first kollel in the United States in White Plains, New York in spring 1942. Named Beis Medrash Govoha, the kollel opened with 20 members. Upon the arrival of Rabbi Aharon Kotler from Europe in 1943, the kollel members asked him to head the institute, which Kotler moved to Lakewood, New Jersey and expanded with a yeshiva gedola. Wachtfogel served as mashgiach of the Lakewood Yeshiva for over 50 years, until his death in 1998.

Schecter served as Kotler's emissary on a Vaad Hatzalah rescue mission in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1946. He later taught Torah and musar in New York and Boston for more than 50 years. He was the dean of Mesivta Toras Emes in Brooklyn.

Personal life Schecter and his wife, Chava Gordon, had four daughters and two sons. In his later years he and his wife moved to Israel, settling in Jerusalem. He died on Shabbat, September 30, 2000 (1 Tishrei 5761), the first day of Rosh Hashana.