Kotler joined his father-in-law, Isser Zalman Meltzer, in running the yeshiva of Slutsk.[3] After World War I, the yeshiva moved from Slutsk to Kletsk in Belarus. With the outbreak of World War II, Kotler and the yeshiva relocated to Vilna, then the major refuge of most yeshivas from the occupied areas. The smaller yeshivas followed the lead of the larger ones, and either escaped with them to Japan and China, or were arrested by the communists and sent to Siberia or Kazakhstan. Most of his students did not manage to escape and were murdered by the Nazis. He was brought to America on April 10, 1941, by the Vaad Hatzalah rescue organization, and guided it during the Holocaust.[3] At first, he settled in New York City's Upper West Side, and in 1949, he moved to the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn.[4]
In 1943, Kotler founded Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood Township, New Jersey, with 15 students.[3] By the time of his death in 1962, the yeshiva had grown to 250 students.[3] He was succeeded by his son, Shneur Kotler, as rosh yeshiva (dean). As of 2011, Beth Medrash Govoha is run by his grandson, Malkiel Kotler, and three of his grandsons-in-law, Yerucham Olshin, Yisroel Neuman, and Dovid Schustal. By 2019 the yeshiva had grown into the largest institution of its kind in the United States with 6,715 students, 2,748 regular and 3,967 in Kollel status.[5] while the surrounding Lakewood community supports a network of more than 100 other yeshivas[6] and approximately 200 synagogues[7] for an Orthodox population estimated at more than 66,000.[8]
Upon the death of his father-in-law, Kotler inherited the latter's position of rosh yeshiva of Etz Chaim Yeshiva of Jerusalem. In an unusual arrangement, he held this position while continuing to live in the United States, and visiting Jerusalem occasionally. Today, his grandson, Zevulun Schwartzman, heads a kollel located at Etz Chaim Yeshiva.[citation needed]
Activism
Kotler shortly before his death
Following his arrival in the United States, Kotler joined the presidium of the Vaad Hatzalah, working feverishly to save rabbis and yeshiva students who were trapped in Europe.[9] Along with Eliezer Silver, Avraham Kalmanowitz and others, he worked day and night, using both private and government channels to try and save lives.[10] A committed anti-Zionist,[11] 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 chaired the Rabbinical administration board of Torah Umesorah, and was on the presidium of the Agudas HaRabbonim of the U.S. and Canada.[3]
Some of those noted Jewish activists who supported Kotler in his efforts were Irving Bunim, Moses Feuerstein,[12] Stephen Klein and Zev Wolfson.[13]
^Strunsky, Steve. "Lakewood's Orthodox population keeps growing. We talk to a rabbi about why, and what it means.", The New York Times, December 10, 2007. Accessed August 29, 2011. "Many Orthodox Jews have been drawn to Lakewood by the prestige of the town's yeshiva, Beth Medrash Govoha, one of the largest rabbinical colleges in the world. The yeshiva was founded in 1943 by a Polish-born rabbi, Aaron Kotler. In 1962, when Rabbi Kotler died, the school had 250 students. It now has about 5,000. The wider yeshiva community includes more than a hundred temples, and about 50 schools."
^Shaul Magid (2013). American Post-Judaism: Identity and Renewal in a Postethnic Society. Indiana University Press. p. 169. ISBN978-0-253-00802-2. R. Elhanon Wasserman, who is featured prominently in the ArtScroll series, was one of the most vehement anti-Zionists in the wartime period. R. Aaron Kotler, the founder of the Lakewood Yeshiva and architect of Yeshiva Orthodoxy in America, was also a committed anti-Zionist.
