A Proud Son Following in his Father’s Footsteps RABBI DR. JACOB J. SCHACTER University Professor of Jewish History and Jewish Thought
W hen people think of Rabbi J.J. Schacter, they think of the highly respected scholar, world-renowned speaker and prolific writer who has held many distinguished professional positions, including one of the most prestigious rabbinical pulpits in the world. They also think down-to-earth, approachable and highly engaging. It is all the above that have made Rabbi Schacter a beloved teacher, adviser and mentor to his students at YU and one of the institution’s treasures. As University Professor of Jewish History and Jewish Thought, Rabbi Schacter provides deep insight and thoughtful intellectual perspectives to help his students navigate a future for themselves as successful, knowledgeable and contribut- ing members of the Jewish and secular worlds. While he did not attend any YU schools, he infuses all of his lessons with Yeshiva University’s values. “My role is to help students at the University connect Torah and Madda [secular knowledge] and their religious commitments with their appreciation of the best of the culture around them,” he said. His students know his door is always open and that he is always available to guide them on how to negotiate their personal and professional ways as Jews in a complex world. The admiration and respect go both ways, as he greatly appreciates their intellectual sophistication and curiosity. “I feel blessed to teach them,” he said. The Bronx-bred Rabbi Schacter is the product of a broad and diverse education that includes an impressive array of distin- guished Jewish and secular institutions: Yeshiva of Philadelphia, Yeshivat Mir in Jerusalem and Mesivta Torah Vodaath, the latter from which he received rabbinic ordination. He earned his bache- lor’s from Brooklyn College and a master’s and Ph.D. from the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University. It is an educational background that has enabled him to cultivate unique insights into, and perspectives on, many of today’s intellectual and practical challenges. Rabbi Schacter’s first rabbinical position was at the Young Israel of Sharon in Massachusetts. He was then named, at the age of 30, as rabbi of one of the most distinguished pulpits in the world, The Jewish Center in Manhattan, a position previously held by Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm zt’’l, who later went on to assume the presiden- cy of Yeshiva University. Rabbi Lamm modeled the possibility of being a pulpit rabbi and an engaged communal leader as well as a serious academic scholar. In 2000, Rabbi Schacter became dean of the Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik Institute in Brookline, Massachusetts, and in 2005, he joined YU in his current position.
It is clear that Rabbi Schacter’s professional journey has been one filled with impressive accomplishment. And yet, with his prominent positions, education, scholarly research and the many fascinating and learned people he has met along the way, he readily admits he could not have accomplished what he did alone. He cred- its his wife, Yocheved, a noted psychotherapist, for the great impact she has had on him in their over five decades of working together for the Jewish community. He was also greatly influenced by his beloved father, Rabbi Herschel Schacter zt’’l, who passed away in 2013. The senior Rabbi Schacter graduated from Yeshiva College in 1938, had the distinction of being the first person to receive rabbin- ic ordination from the revered Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (who had recently become head of YU’s rabbinical school) in 1941, and later served as an American Army chaplain in World War II. “My father was the first chaplain to enter Buchenwald, the Nazi concen- tration camp, in April 1945, and was a very proud American patriot who devoted much of his life to helping soldiers,” said Rabbi Schacter. His father’s value system and commitment to faith guide Rabbi Schacter’s life to this day. The vivid stories his father told him of his military experience and the horrors he saw firsthand continue to inspire the younger Rabbi Schacter to speak out against the scourge of Holocaust denial and the troubling increase in antisemitism. His father’s sense of duty was also evident during a visit to the Norman- dy American Cemetery and Memorial in 2014. Rabbi Schacter no- ticed the occasional Jewish star in a sea of Latin crosses on the graves, which led to his learning that hundreds of Jewish soldiers were mistakenly identified as Christians and buried under crosses. As a result, Rabbi Schacter co-founded Operation Benjamin, an in- novative organization that conducts exhaustive searches to find Jewish soldiers improperly buried and works with the army and the soldiers’ families to change the Christian markers to Jewish stars. So far, the organization, the only one of its kind, has been able to correct about 20 of these errors, although statistically, he ex- plained, there are many more. “Through my work at Operation Benjamin, I feel like I am in some small way following in my father’s footsteps.” Rabbi Schacter has successfully and seamlessly blended serious scholarship with a highly approachable personal style for his stu- dents and admirers all over the world. In innumerable ways, the heroic army chaplain and his son, the renowned scholar, have had enormous impact on the world around them, and YU is proud to have both as part of its legacy.
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