Gedalia Dov Schwartz (January 24, 1925 — December 9, 2020) was an eminent Orthodox

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as '' semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form o ...

, scholar, and

posek In Jewish law, a ''Posek'' ( he, פוסק , pl. ''poskim'', ) is a legal scholar who determines the position of ''halakha'', the Jewish religious laws derived from the written and Oral Torah in cases of Jewish law where previous authorities a ...

(

halakhic ''Halakha'' (; he, הֲלָכָה, ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws which is derived from the written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical comman ...

authority) who lived in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...

. From 1991 to 2013, when he gave his position as Av Beth Din to Rabbi Yona Reiss, he was the ''

av beis din The ''av beit din'' ( ''ʾabh bêth dîn'', "chief of the court" or "chief justice"), also spelled ''av beis din'' or ''abh beth din'' and abbreviated ABD (), was the second-highest-ranking member of the Sanhedrin during the Second Temple period, ...

'' (head of the rabbinical court) of both the

Beth Din of America The Beth Din of America is a Beth Din (Court of Jewish Law) which serves Jews throughout the United States of America as a forum for arbitrating disputes through the din torah process, obtaining Jewish divorces, and confirming Jewish personal status ...

and the

Chicago Rabbinical Council The Chicago Rabbinical Council (or cRc) is the largest regional Orthodox rabbinical organization in America, located in Chicago, Illinois. The cRc is a non-profit offering a wide variety of Jewish services, including kosher product supervision an ...

(cRc) as well as the ''rosh beth din'' (chief presiding judge) of the National Beth Din of the

Rabbinical Council of America The Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) is one of the world's largest organizations of Orthodox rabbis; it is affiliated with The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, more commonly known as the Orthodox Union (OU). It is the main p ...

(RCA). He was also editor of ''HaDarom'', the RCA Torah journal.

Biography

Schwartz was born and raised in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, most populous City (New Jersey), city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat, seat of Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County and the second largest city within the New Yo ...

, where he first studied Torah in his teenage years with Rabbi Yaakov Benzion Mendelson. He was a graduate of Yeshiva College and the

Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS ) is the rabbinical seminary of Yeshiva University (YU). It is located along Amsterdam Avenue in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Named after Yitzchak Elchanan ...

Yeshiva University Yeshiva University is a private Orthodox Jewish university with four campuses in New York City."About YU
on the Yeshiva Universi ...

, where he received his

rabbinic ordination Semikhah ( he, סמיכה) is the traditional Jewish name for rabbinic ordination. The original ''semikhah'' was the formal "transmission of authority" from Moses through the generations. This form of ''semikhah'' ceased between 360 and 425 C ...

. Following this ordination, he received a fellowship in the Institute of Advanced Rabbinic Research of Yeshiva University. Later he was awarded an honorary

Doctor of Divinity A Doctor of Divinity (D.D. or DDiv; la, Doctor Divinitatis) is the holder of an advanced academic degree in divinity. In the United Kingdom, it is considered an advanced doctoral degree. At the University of Oxford, doctors of divinity are ran ...

degree. Rabbi Schwartz was honored with the Harav Yosef Dov Halevi Soloveitchik Aluf Torah Award,

RIETS Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS ) is the rabbinical seminary of Yeshiva University (YU). It is located along Amsterdam Avenue in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Named after Yitzchak Elchanan ...

highest honor, at Yeshiva University's Chag Haseemicha convocation on March 23, 2014. Before coming to Chicago in 1987, Schwartz was the rabbi of the

Young Israel The National Council of Young Israel (NCYI) or Young Israel (in Hebrew: , ''Yisrael Hatza'ir''), is a synagogue-based Orthodox Judaism organization in the United States with a network of affiliated "Young Israel" synagogues. Young Israel was found ...

Boro Park Borough Park (also spelled Boro Park) is a neighborhood in the southwestern part of the borough of Brooklyn, in New York City. The neighborhood is bordered by Bensonhurst to the south, Dyker Heights to the southwest, Sunset Park to the west, ...

for 18 years, having earlier held pulpits in

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...

and

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. He was a past president of the Mizrachi of Rhode Island and the RCA

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

Region.

Family

His father's name was Avraham. He married Shoshana Poupko (d. 2009), with whom he had two sons and a daughter. Their daughter, Rivka Leah, was married to the late Rabbi Yehoshua Goldman, who directed the Vaad HoIr of

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line w ...

. In 2010, Schwartz married his surviving wife, Chana Sarah.

Positions

Rabbi Schwartz's opinion was frequently sought by both Jewish and secular sources on issues such as

conversion to Judaism Conversion to Judaism ( he, גיור, ''giyur'') is the process by which non-Jews adopt the Jewish religion and become members of the Jewish ethnoreligious community. It thus resembles both conversion to other religions and naturalization. ...

, halakhic prenuptial agreements, kashering items for

Passover Passover, also called Pesach (; ), is a major Jewish holiday that celebrates the Biblical story of the Israelites escape from slavery in Egypt, which occurs on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, the first month of Aviv, or spring. ...

child abuse Child abuse (also called child endangerment or child maltreatment) is physical, sexual, and/or psychological maltreatment or neglect of a child or children, especially by a parent or a caregiver. Child abuse may include any act or failure to a ...

, and

tattoo A tattoo is a form of body modification made by inserting tattoo ink, dyes, and/or pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to form a design. Tattoo artists create these designs using several tattooing ...

s. In 2002 he was appointed as the head of a three-judge panel which examined cases of

agunah An ''agunah'' ( he, עגונה, plural: agunot (); literally "anchored" or "chained") is a Jewish woman who is stuck in her religious marriage as determined by ''halakha'' (Jewish law). The classic case of this is a man who has left on a journey ...

s from the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

, using DNA testing of post-mortem remains to verify the death of their husbands and allow them to remarry.

Halakhic works

"Rabbi Schwartz was the first second-generation American rabbi to publish an original halachic ewish legalwork": *
Divrei Regesh
' * ''Migdanos Eliezer'' * ''Shaarei Gedulah''

Articles

* ''Comments on the New York State "Get Law"'' * ''Halakhah and Minhag in Nusach Hatefillah'' (1990). ''Journal of Jewish Music and Liturgy'' 13, 7-10.

References

External links

YU photo, Rabbi Gedalia Dov Schwartz
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schwartz, Gedalia Dov 1925 births 2020 deaths American Orthodox rabbis Clergy from Newark, New Jersey Modern Orthodox rabbis Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary semikhah recipients Rabbis from Chicago Rabbis from New York (state) 20th-century American rabbis 21st-century American rabbis