[edit] Early life

Rav Kotler was born in Śvisłač, Russian Empire (now Belarus) in 1891. He studied in the Slabodka yeshiva in Lithuania under the "Alter (elder) of Slabodka", Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel, and Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein. After learning there, he joined his father-in-law, Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer, to run the yeshiva of Slutsk.

[edit] World war II and move to the USA

When the communists took over, the yeshivah moved from Slutsk to Kletsk in Poland. With the outbreak of World War II, Rav Kotler and the yeshivah relocated to Vilna, then the major refuge of most yeshivoth from the occupied areas. Rav Kotler went to the United States via Siberia, but many of his students did not survive the war. He was brought to America in 1941 by the Vaad Hatzalah rescue organization and guided it during the Holocaust.

In 1943, Rav Kotler founded Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, New Jersey. After his death in 1962, he was succeeded by his son, Rabbi Shneur Kotler, as rosh yeshiva. Today, Beth Medrash Govoha is run by his grandson, Rabbi Aryeh Malkiel Kotler, and three of his grandsons-in-law, Rabbis Yerucham Olshin, Yisrael Neuman, and Dovid Tzvi Schustal. Over the years it has grown into the largest institution of its kind in America with over five thousand college and advanced-level students.

Rav Kotler also helped establish Chinuch Atzmai, the independent religious school system in Israel and was the chairman of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudath Israel. He also chaired the Rabbinical administration board of Torah Umesorah and was on the presidium of the Agudas HaRabbonim of the U.S. and Canada.

Upon the death of his father-in-law, Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer, he inherited his father-in-law's position of rosh yeshiva of Etz Chaim Yeshiva of Jerusalem. In an unusual arrangement, he held this position while continuing to live in America, and visiting Jerusalem occasionally. Today, his grandson, Rabbi Zevulun Schwartzman, heads a Kollel located at Etz Chaim Yeshiva.

[edit] Death

Rav Kotler died in New York City on November 29, 1962.

Recently a biographical study of Rav Kotler's life and teachings was written by his student Rabbi Yitzchok Dershowitz. The book is titled The Legacy of Maran Rav Aharon Kotler.^[1]

The book, Making of a Godol, contains many biographical stories and information related to Rav Kotler. According to the author it was Rav Kotler's loyalists who launched the ban on the book, out of fear that the book paints Rav Kotler differently than they wish.^[2]

[edit] Influence

Rav Kotler was a proponent of full-time commitment to Torah study. In his view, Torah study and the culture built around it had suffered from the persecutions of World War II and the decline of character of the generations. This led him to encourage young men to devote themselves to full-time Torah study with financial support from the community. After marriage, yeshiva students could move on to a post-graduate kollel program.

Rav Kotler was considered one of the primary leaders of the Orthodox community in the U.S. during the post-war years.

In the summer of 1937, at the third convention of the rabbinical leaders of Agudath Israel held in Marienbad,Rav Kotler (together with Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman, Rabbi Rottenberg from Antwerp, and rabbis from Czechoslovakia and Hungary) was adamant in rejecting any proposal for a "Jewish State" on either side of the Jordan River, even if it were established as a religious state. Nevertheless, on a vote, the majority decided in favor of a Jewish state.

[edit] External links

Orthodox Union article about Aharon Kotler (1895-1963)

[edit] References