Gedalia Dov Schwartz - Biography

Gedalia Dov Schwartz (born 24 January 1925 is an eminent Modern Orthodox rabbi, scholar, and posek (halakhic authority) living in Chicago, Illinois. Since 1991 he has been the av beis din (head of the rabbinical court) of both the Beth Din of America and the Chicago Rabbinical Council as well as the rosh beth din (chief presiding judge) of the National Beth Din of the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA). He is also rosh yeshiva of the Hebrew Theological College of Skokie, Illinois and editor of HaDarom, the RCA Torah journal.

Biography

Schwartz was born and raised in Newark, New Jersey. He is a graduate of Yeshiva College and the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University, where he received his rabbinic ordination. Following this ordination, he received a fellowship in the Institute of Advanced Rabbinic Research of Yeshiva University. Later he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree.

Before coming to Chicago in 1987, Schwartz was the rabbi of the Young Israel of Boro Park for 18 years, and afterwards held pulpits in Rhode Island, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He is a past president of the Mizrachi of Rhode Island and the RCA Philadelphia Region.

Family

He married Shoshana Poupko (d. 2009), with whom he had two sons and a daughter. Their daughter, Rivka Leah, married Rabbi Yehoshua Goldman, who directed the Vaad of Cincinnati for seven years before developing a brain tumor and succumbing to it three years later. The Goldmans' son, Eliezer Mordechai, also succumbed to a brain tumor at the age of 23.

Positions

Rabbi Schwartz's opinion is frequently sought by both Jewish and secular sources on issues such as conversion to Judaism, halachic prenuptial agreements, kashering items for Passover, child abuse, and tattoos. In 2002 he was appointed as the head of a three-judge panel which examined cases of agunahs from the September 11 attacks, using DNA testing of post-mortem remains to verify the death of their husbands and allow them to remarry.

Halachic works

• Divrei Regesh
• Migdanos Eliezer
• Shaarei Gedulah

Articles

• Comments on the New York State "Get Law"
• Halakhah and Minhag in Nusach Hatefillah (1990). Journal of Jewish Music and Liturgy 13, 7-10.