On Shabbat, April 14, at 6:05 p.m., Rabbi J.J. Schacter will speak in honor of Israel's 70th anniversary. His topic will be "The Contemporary Significance of the State of Israel: Reishit Tzemichat Ge'ulatanu?" Mincha at 7:10 p.m., will be followed by a shiur by Rabbi J.J. Schacter, “The Hazon Ish and  The Holocaust: In Commemoration of Yom Hashoah.”

Rabbi Dr. Jacob J. Schacter is University Professor of Jewish History and Jewish Thought at Yeshiva University (YU), in addition to serving as Senior Scholar at YU's Center for the Jewish Future. He previously served as Dean of the Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik Institute in Boston; as rabbi of the Maimonides Minyan in Brookline, MA; as the first rabbi of the Young Israel of Sharon, MA; and as the rabbi of the Jewish Center in New York City.

Rabbi Schacter holds a PhD in Near Eastern languages from Harvard University and received rabbinic ordination from Mesivta Torah Vodaath. He graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Brooklyn College in 1973 with the Abraham S. Goodhartz Award for Excellence in Judaic Studies. Rabbi Schacter was a teaching fellow at Harvard from 1978 to 1980, director of YU's Torah Umadda Project from 1986 to 1997, and an adjunct assistant professor at YU's Stern College for Women from 1993 to 1999. In 1995, he was awarded the prestigious Daniel Jeremy Silver Fellowship from Harvard's Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. He presently serves as a member of the faculty of the Wexner Foundation and the Wexner Heritage Foundation. Rabbi Schacter is also co-author or editor of award-winning books, articles, and journals.