Honorific-Prefix: | Rabbi |
Aaron Moshe Schechter | |
Yeshiva: | Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin |
Yeshivaposition: | Rosh yeshiva |
Predecessor: | Yitzchak Hutner |
Successor: | Shlomo Halioua |
Birth Date: | 16 July 1928 |
Birth Place: | Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
Denomination: | Haredi |
Spouse: | Shoshana Roisa Leichtung |
Children: | Mordechai Zelig Zt"l, Nosson, Esther, Nechama, Yehudis |
Aaron Moshe Schechter (or Aharon Moshe Schechter, July 16, 1928 – August 24, 2023) was an American Haredi rabbi. He was the rosh yeshiva (dean) of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin and its post-graduate Talmudical division, Kollel Gur Aryeh. He also served on the presidium of Agudath Israel of America and was a member of that organization's Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah (Council of Torah Sages).[1] [2]
Aaron Moshe Schechter was born to Yosef and Fruma Rochel[3] in East New York, Brooklyn.[4] After studying at Yeshiva Toras Chaim elementary school, he went to high school at Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin, where he became a disciple of Yitzchak Hutner. He went on to study in Lakewood Yeshiva.[5]
Hutner chose Schechter for leadership positions in the yeshiva prior to Schechter's marriage. He encouraged Schechter to write a rabbinic commentary on a section of Mishneh Torah, which Schechter called Avodas Aharon.[6]
After Hutner's death in 1980, Schechter joined the Nesius (presidium) of Agudath Israel of America.
Schechter worked closely with two other early disciples of Hutner on the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah: Aharon Feldman of Yeshiva Ner Yisrael, and Yaakov Perlow, the Rebbe of Novominsk, who was appointed Rosh Agudas Yisroel (head of Agudath Israel of America).
On January 13, 2015, Schechter resigned from the Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah over a dispute regarding internal dissent in the World Agudath Israel-affiliated Degel Hatorah. After the dispute was settled, he returned.
Schechter married Shoshana Roisa Leichtung in 1954. She served as the Principal of General Studies at Yeshiva of Brooklyn's girls' elementary school for over 20 years. She died on August 4, 2016.[7] Their two sons and three daughters are all connected to Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin. Mordechai Zelig Schechter serves as the mashgiach ruchani (spiritual supervisor). Their eldest daughter Esther Yormark, a teacher at Beis Yaakov Academy in Brooklyn, is married to Eliyahu, a teacher in Chaim Berlin. Nechama is married to Shlomo Halioua, the current rosh yeshiva (dean). Yehudis Senderovitz is married to Yitzchak Meir, who is also a teacher there. Nosson Schechter is a mohel.
Schechter died in Brooklyn on August 24, 2023, at the age of 95.[4] [8]