Hershel Schachter
Gadol and posek hador for American Jews
Hershel Schachter (born (1941-07-28)July 28, 1941) is an American Orthodox rabbi, posek, and rosh yeshiva at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), part of Yeshiva University in New York City.
Schachter is a halakhic advisor to the Orthodox Union and has rendered notable decisions in a number of contemporary topic areas.
Early life and education
Hershel Schachter was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania to Melech Schachter, a rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University.
Schachter graduated from Yeshiva University High School for Boys in 1958. He became an assistant to Joseph Ber Soloveitchik at the age of 22. He earned a B.A. from Yeshiva College and an M.A. in Hebrew literature from the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies in 1967. After receiving rabbinic ordination that year at the age of 26, Schachter became the youngest rosh yeshiva at RIETS, and he was appointed rosh kollel (dean of the kollel) when the position became available following the aliyah of the previous rosh kollel, Aharon Lichtenstein, in 1971.
Schachter is a prominent posek. He is also a halakhic advisor to the kashrut division of the Orthodox Union.
Halakhic opinions
Schachter is considered to be amongst the foremost poskim in today's Jewish Modern Orthodox community.
The public source identifies “Hershel Schachter” as gadol and posek hador for American Jews. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Hershel, Schachter and Gadol.
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This entry incorporates text from “Hershel Schachter” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.