Chaskel Besser

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Chaskel Besser (February 12, 1923 - present) is a well known Orthodox rabbi living in Manhattan. He was born in Katowice, Poland and lived there until the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939. He is affiliated with Congregation B'nei Israel in New York. He is the most prominent member of Radomsk Chassidic movement.

His original family name, Koszycki, was changed by his father while the family still lived in Poland. His father, a successful businessman, and close associate of the Radomsker Rebbe, moved to pre-war Palestine. After Rabbi Besser escaped Poland and Europe in 1939, he was reunited with his family in Tel Aviv.

He is the subject of a book written by Warren Kozak called The Rabbi of 84th Street. He appeared in the television program The Jews of New York talking about the experience of Jews in pre-World War II Germany.

He has achieved renown as a leader of the American Agudath Israel movement, where he helped reestablish American Jewish Orthodoxy in the aftermath of World War Two. He is close to several chassidic groups including Lubavitch, Bluzhev and Ger. He was the International Chairman of Day Yomi for many years, helping to promote the daily study of Talmud.

Rabbi Besser is the principle spiritual leader of the renewal of Polish Jewish life, and until recently traveled their frequently to teach. He helped to find Jews and rebuild Jewish life in Poland towards the end of the communist era, partnering with Ronald S. Lauder. This partnership established Rabbi Besser as the Director of the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation for Poland.

He found Rabbi Michael Schudrich, currently Chief Rabbi of Poland, to move Poland to establish Jewish communal life, on behalf of the Lauder Foundation. In addition to his work to restore Jewish communal life, he also helped restore many Jewish holy sites in Poland, negotiating with the Polish government on preserving the legacy of Polish Jewry before the war. One of those Jewish cemeteries is in Oswiecim, where his maternal grandparents are buried.

Among his children are Rabbi Shlomo Besser, a Rabbi and teacher active for the cemeteries of Eastern Europe; Aliza Grund, President of the women's division of the Agudah; The writer Yisroel Besser and others.

Rabbi Yonah Bookstein, former Director of The Ronald S. Lauder Foundation in Poland, and currently a Campus Rabbi for Beach Hillel & UC Irvine, is one of his students. In 1992, Besser sent Bookstein to Poland to work at the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation Summer Camp with Rabbi Schudrich.