Yosef Chaim Shneur Kotler (1918 – 24 June 1982) was an Ashkenazi Orthodoxrabbi 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.[1] During his tenure, he developed the Lithuanian-style, Haredi but non-Hasidicyeshiva into the largest post-graduate Torah institution in the world.[2][3] He also established Lakewood-style kollels in 30 cities, and pioneered the establishment of community kollels in which Torah scholars study during the morning and afternoon hours and engage in community outreach during the evenings. Upon his death, he had served as the Lakewood rosh yeshiva for exactly the same amount of time as had his father, Rabbi Aharon Kotler, the founding rosh yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha: nineteen years, seven months, and one day.[4]
Early life
Yosef Chaim Shneur Kotler was born in Slutsk, Russia, to Rabbi Aharon Kotler and his wife, Chana Perel,[5] the daughter of Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer. Of his parents' children, only he and his sister, Sarah, survived infancy.[6] He was named after his father's father, Shneur Zalman Pines.[7]
In 1940, when most yeshivas in Lithuania fled to Vilna, including the yeshiva in Kletzk (where Rabbi Aharon Kotler had moved the Slutsk yeshiva), Kotler went to Vilna where he became engaged to Rischel Friedman. He escaped Europe and went to Mandatory Palestine in 1940 while his fiancée was a refugee in Shanghai. They married in America after the war. His father escaped to Japan and from there to America in 1941.[3] 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.[4]
In 1946 Kotler rejoined his father in America, where he enrolled in the kollel division of the Lakewood Yeshiva which his father had founded.[4] His father sent him to attend the lectures of Rav Joseph B. Soloveichik at RIETS for several months.[8]
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.[2][4]
Kotler died on 24 June 1982 (3 Tammuz 5742)[4] in Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, at the age of 64. He was survived by his wife, Rischel, eight children, fifteen grandchildren, and his sister, Sarah Schwartzman.[14] His funeral processions in Lakewood and Jerusalem were attended by tens of thousands,[13] with an additional stop in Borough Park, Brooklyn attended by 30,000.[15] He was buried near his father, Rabbi Aharon Kotler, and his grandfather, Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer, on Har HaMenuchot.
His widow, Rischel, died at her home in Lakewood on July 17, 2015. Her funeral took place on July 19 in Lakewood. Estimated attendance was about 15,000.
Kotler served as rosh yeshiva for nineteen years, seven months, and one day, exactly the same amount of time as did his father.[4] This extraordinary coincidence was noted throughout the Torah world and seen as a sign that he had been a worthy son and successor who carried on his father's mission.[16]
