Introduction
Aaron Moshe Schechter (also Aharon Moshe Schechter) is an American Haredi rabbi.
Rabbi Schechter is the rosh yeshiva (dean) of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin and its post-graduate Talmudical division, Kollel Gur Aryeh. He also serves on the presidium of Agudath Israel of America and is a member of that organization's Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah (Council of Torah Sages).
Early life
Aaron Moshe Schechter was born in Brooklyn in the 1920s. He became a disciple of Rabbi Yitzchok Hutner after being enrolled in the Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin as a young child. He also studied in the Lakewood Yeshiva.
Disciple of Rav Yitzchok Hutner
Rabbi Hutner chose Rabbi Schechter for leadership positions in the yeshiva even prior to Schechter's marriage. Hutner encouraged him to write a rabbinic commentary on Maimonides, which he called Avodas Aharon.
Rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin
A number of years prior to his death in 1980, Hutner announced that Schechter and Yonasan David would serve as co-equal roshei yeshiva of Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin.
Agudath Israel and Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah
After the death of Hutner in 1980, Schechter joined the nesius (presidium) of Agudath Israel of America.
Schechter has worked closely with two other early disciples of Hutner on the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah, Aharon Feldman of Yeshiva Ner Yisrael and Yaakov Perlow, the Rebbe of Novominsk, whowas appointedRosh Agudas Yisroel (head of Agudath Israel of America).
On January 13, 2015, Schechter resigned from the Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah over a dispute regarding internal dissent in the World Agudath Israel affiliated Degel Hatorah. After the dispute was settled, he returned.
Personal life
Schechter married Shoshana Roisa Leichtung in 1954. She served as the Principal of General Studies at Yeshiva of Brooklyn's girls' elementary school for over 20 years. She died on August 4, 2016. They had two sons. One, Mordechai Zelig Schecter, serves as the mashgiach ruchani (spiritual supervisor) at Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin. The other, Nosson Schecter, is a mohel. Their eldest daughter is Esther Yormark, teacher at Beis Yaakov Academy in Brooklyn.