Highlighting: “The Rabbi of Buchenwald: The Life and Times of Rabbi Herschel Schacter,” by Rafael Medoff. Yeshiva University Press. 2021. English. Hardcover. 512 pages. ISBN-13: 978-1602804265. Available for Pre-Order from www.Ktav.com

(Courtesy of Yeshiva University Press) Yeshiva University Press announced the release of “The Rabbi of Buchenwald,” a new book written by Dr. Rafael Medoff about the remarkable life of the late Rabbi Herschel Schacter.

Schacter, a U.S. army chaplain in World War II, was part of the unit that liberated the Nazi concentration camp of Buchenwald in April 1945. His legendary cry of “Yidden, ihr zent frei! (Jews, you are free!)” as he went from barracks to barracks was the first ray of hope in the years of nightmarish darkness for Jewish captives of the Nazis. For the next two and a half months, Schacter remained in Buchenwald, helping the survivors rebuild their shattered lives and reuniting them with their loved ones.

That was just the beginning of Rabbi Schacter’s remarkable life of Jewish leadership. After the war, Rabbi Schacter helped spearhead a revival of Orthodox Judaism in America, played a significant role in the Soviet Jewry protest movement, and led efforts to secure American support for Israel. He was the first Orthodox rabbi to reach the pinnacle of communal leadership as chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

“Our father’s activism and devotion to the Jewish people was the backdrop of our family life, and deeply affected our own life choices,” wrote Rabbi J.J. Schacter and Miriam Schacter, Herschel Schacter’s children. “‘The Rabbi of Buchenwald’ is an exceptional book that captures the fullness of our father’s life and will be a great resource for everyone interested in the history of Jewish life in America and beyond.”

Dr. Rafael Medoff is founding director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, based in Washington, D.C., which focuses on America’s response to Nazism and the Holocaust. He is the author of more than 20 books about the Holocaust, Zionism and American Jewish history. He has taught Jewish history at Ohio State University, Purchase College of the State University of New York, and elsewhere, and is a fellow of the Finkler Institute of Holocaust Research at Bar- Ilan University.

“The Rabbi of Buchenwald” is published with the support of the Michael Scharf Publication Trust of the Yeshiva University Press and the Emil A. and Jenny Fish Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies at Yeshiva University.