Hershel Schachter

Who is Hershel Schachter?

Rabbi Hershel Schachter is a rabbi and rosh yeshiva at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, Yeshiva University, in New York City, and the son of the late Rabbi Melech Schachter, who was also a rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University. A noted Talmudic scholar and a prominent posek, he is also a halakhic advisor for the kashrut division of the Orthodox Union.

Schachter became an assistant to Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik at the age of 22. Schachter 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 in 1967 at the age of 26, Schachter became the youngest Rosh Yeshiva at RIETS, and was appointed rosh kollel, or dean of the kollel, in 1971.