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Rabbi Shneur Kotler (1918–1982) was the son of the famed Torah and Talmudic scholar Rabbi Aaron Kotler. Upon the death of his father in 1962, he succeeded the latter as Rosh Yeshiva of Beis Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, New Jersey.
Born in Slutzk, Russia, where his maternal grandfather Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer was the Rosh Yeshiva and Rabbi, Rabbi Kotler escaped to Palestine in 1940. There, he continued to study with the leading scholars of Jerusalem, among them Rabbi Meltzer who had previously moved there.
In 1947, after World War II, he moved to Lakewood to join his father, who had moved his yeshiva there from Europe. Rabbi Shneur Kotler assumed the leadership of the yeshiva with his father's death in 1962.
Whereas his father had actively restricted enrollment to a relatively select group, Rabbi Shneur Kotler opened the gates to a broader range of students and post-graduate fellows. From a group of approximately 200 students, the yeshiva grew to almost a thousand students in 1981. As more students enrolled, the scope of study broadened to the point where a student could join any number of groups studying all the tractates of the Talmud.
Rabbi Kotler was active in communal organisations and issues. He held leadership positions as a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudath Israel of America and was on the rabbinical boards of the Torah Umesorah National Society for Hebrew Day Schools and Chinuch Atzmai. Rabbi Kotler was a speaker at the 60th anniversary dinner of Agudath Israel on May 16, 1982, before 1,500 people. Rabbi Kotler was very active in helping Jewish refugees from Russia and Iran
Death
Rabbi Kotler passed away in 1982 in Massachusetts General Hospital, in Boston. He was 64 years old. He was survived by his wife, Rischel; a sister, Sarah Schwartzman of New York; eight children, and many grandchildren.
With his death, his son Rabbi Malkiel Kotler took over the leadership of the yeshiva, assisted by three other grandchildren of Rabbi Aharon Kotler.
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