Herschel Schacter (October 10, 1917 – March 21, 2013) was an American 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 ...

and chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

Early life

Schacter was born in Brownsville, Brooklyn, the youngest of 10 siblings. His parents immigrated to the US from Poland. His father, Pincus, was a seventh-generation '' shochet'', or ritual slaughterer; his mother, the former Miriam Schimmelman, was a real estate manager. His education included Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin, Mesivta Torah Vodaath, and Yeshiva College. Schacter was protege of Chabad rabbi

Yisroel Jacobson Yisroel Jacobson (or Israel Jacobson) (1895-1975) was a Chabad Hasidic rabbi and the representative of the sixth Chabad rebbe, Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, to the United States during the 1920s and 1930s. He was one of the first Lubavitcher ac ...

, and a student of Rabbi

Joseph B. Soloveitchik Joseph Ber Soloveitchik ( he, יוסף דב הלוי סולובייצ׳יק ''Yosef Dov ha-Levi Soloveychik''; February 27, 1903 – April 9, 1993) was a major American Orthodox rabbi, Talmudist, and modern Jewish philosopher. He was a scion o ...

. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Yeshiva University in New York City in 1938 and '' semikhah'' (rabbinic ordination) from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary in 1941.

Career

He spent about a year as a pulpit rabbi in

Stamford, Connecticut Stamford () is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut, outside of Manhattan. It is Connecticut's second-most populous city, behind Bridgeport. With a population of 135,470, Stamford passed Hartford and New Haven in population as of the 2020 ...

before enlisting in the Army in 1942. During World War II, he was a

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a Minister (Christianity), minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a laity, lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secularity, secular institution (such as a hosp ...

in the Third Army's VIII Corps and was the first US Army Chaplain to enter and participate in the liberation of the

Buchenwald concentration camp Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or su ...

on April 11, 1945, barely an hour after it had been liberated by

George Patton George Smith Patton Jr. (November 11, 1885 – December 21, 1945) was a general in the United States Army who commanded the Seventh United States Army in the Mediterranean Theater of World War II, and the Third United States Army in France ...

's troops. Schacter remained at Buchenwald for months, tending to survivors and leading religious services. One of the children whom he personally rescued from the camp was then 7-year old Yisrael Meir Lau, who grew up to become the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel. Later he aided in the resettlement of displaced persons, one of whom was teenaged

Elie Wiesel Elie Wiesel (, born Eliezer Wiesel ''Eliezer Vizel''; September 30, 1928 – July 2, 2016) was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Peace Prize, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He authored Elie Wiesel b ...

, one of some thousand Jewish orphans liberated that day. He was discharged from the Army with the rank of captain. Schacter was the rabbi of the

Mosholu Jewish Center The Mosholu Jewish Center was an Orthodox Jewish community center and synagogue located at 3044 Hull Avenue, in the Norwood, Bronx neighborhood in New York City. The building is now used as a pre-school. History The synagogue was founded in ...

in the Bronx from 1947 till it closed in 1999. In 1956 he went to the Soviet Union with an American rabbinic delegation as advocate for the rights of Soviet Jews. He also served as an adviser on the subject to President Richard Nixon. In 1971 Rabbi Schacter headed up the an intra-denominational effort to maintain the Divinity exemption in the Vietnam draft. In this he was aided by Rabbi Moshe Sherer, president of Agudath Israel of America, Rabbi Herman Neuberger, Rav Moshe Feinstein, Rav Shneur Kotler, Rav Boruch Sorotzkin, Rav Gedalia Schorr, Rav Aaron Schechter, and Rabbi Yaakov Perlow.

Death

Schacter lived in the Riverdale, Bronx and died March 21, 2013. He was 95. His wife, the former Pnina Gewirtz, whom he married in 1948, died October 31, 2018. They were survived by a son, Jacob J. Schacter, the former director of the

Soloveitchik Institute Soloveitchik ( he, סולובייצ'יק yi, סאָלאָווייטשיק) (also Soloveichik) is a surname. The name is a diminutive form of the Russian word соловей, "nightingale", since the Soloveitchiks are a family of Levites, who are ...

; a daughter, Miriam Schacter; four grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schacter, Herschel Orthodox rabbis from New York City World War II chaplains Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary semikhah recipients Yeshiva University alumni Jewish American military personnel Rabbis in the military United States Army chaplains People from Brownsville, Brooklyn People from Riverdale, Bronx 1917 births 2013 deaths 20th-century American rabbis 21st-century American Jews