Shneur Kotler

Yosef Chaim Shneur Kotler (10 July 1918 – 24 June 1982) was an Ashkenazi Orthodox rabbi from the Lithuanian movement and rosh yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha (also known as the Lakewood Yeshiva) 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.

Early life Yosef Chaim Shneur Kotler was born on 10 July 1918 in Slutsk, Russia, to Rabbi Aharon Kotler and his wife, Chana Perel, the daughter of Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer. Of his parents' children, only he and his sister, Sarah, survived infancy. He was named after his father's father, Shneur Zalman Pines.

Kotler was educated in his youth by his father. He later studied in the Yeshivas Knesses Beis Yitzchak-Kaminetz in Poland and became a student of Rabbi Boruch Ber Leibowitz. During the war he studied in the Eitz Chaim Yeshiva led by his grandfather, Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer, who had also emigrated to Palestine, and attended shiurim given by Rabbi Yechezkel Sarna, rosh yeshiva of the Hevron yeshiva in Jerusalem, and Rabbi Yitzchok Zev Soloveitchik, known as the Brisker Rav.

Rosh Yeshiva After his father died in 1962, Kotler took over his father's yeshiva. Whereas his father had actively restricted enrollment to a select group of students, Kotler accepted a broader range of students and post-graduate fellows. Enrollment grew from less than 200 students in 1962 to over 1,000 by the time of his death in 1982. including Los Angeles, Detroit, Toronto, Montreal, Boston, Long Beach, New York, Scranton, Pennsylvania, Miami Beach, Denver,

He also established community kollels in several countries. Unlike a kollel, which is a full-time learning program, a community kollel is a part-time learning program, part-time outreach program. Chicago, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Los Angeles, Toronto,

Kotler served on the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudath Israel of America and the rabbinical boards of the Torah Umesorah National Society for Hebrew Day Schools and Chinuch Atzmai. with an additional stop in Borough Park, Brooklyn attended by 30,000. He was buried near his father, Rabbi Aharon Kotler, and his grandfather, Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer, on Har HaMenuchot.

Kotler was married to Rischel and had eight children and fifteen grandchildren. His widow, Rischel, died at her home in Lakewood on July 17, 2015.

Kotler served as rosh yeshiva for nineteen years, seven months, and one day, exactly the same amount of time as did his father.

He was succeeded as rosh yeshiva by his son, Rabbi Malkiel Kotler, alongside his son-in-law Rabbi Dovid Schustal, and Rabbis Yerucham Olshin and Yisroel Neuman, who are married to other grandchildren of Rabbi Aharon Kotler.