Rabbi Aryeh Malkiel Kotler is one of the Roshei Yeshiva

Rosh yeshiva

Rosh yeshiva, , , is the title given to the dean of a Talmudical academy . It is made up of the Hebrew words rosh — meaning head, and yeshiva — a school of religious Jewish education...

, or Deans, of Beth Medrash Govoha

Beth Medrash Govoha

Beth Medrash Govoha is a Haredi yeshiva located in Lakewood Township, New Jersey. It is commonly known as BMG, or Lakewood Yeshiva....

 in Lakewood, New Jersey. He is the son of Rabbi

Rabbi

In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...

 Shneur Kotler

Shneur Kotler

Yosef Chaim Shneur Kotler was an Orthodox rabbi and rosh yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, New Jersey from 1962 to 1982. During his tenure, he developed the Lithuanian-style, Haredi but non-Hasidic yeshiva into the largest post-graduate Torah institution in the world...

 who preceded him as rosh yeshiva, the grandson of the yeshiva

Yeshiva

Yeshiva is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study. Study is usually done through daily shiurim and in study pairs called chavrutas...

's founder, Rabbi Aharon Kotler

Aharon Kotler

Aharon Kotler was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi and a prominent leader of Orthodox Judaism in Lithuania, and later the United States, where he built Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood Township, New Jersey.- Early life :...

, and the great-grandson of Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer

Isser Zalman Meltzer

Isser Zalman Meltzer, , was a famous Lithuanian Orthodox rabbi, rosh yeshiva and posek. He is also known as the "Even HaEzel" - the title of his commentary on Rambam's Mishne Torah....

.

He shares the leadership of Beth Medrash Govoha together with Rabbis Yerucham Olshin

Yerucham Olshin

Yerucham Olshin is an Orthodox Jewish rabbi and one of the rosh yeshivas of Beth Medrash Govoha, an Orthodox yeshiva located in Lakewood, New Jersey...

, Dovid Schustal

Dovid Schustal

Dovid Tzvi Schustal is an Orthodox rabbi and one of the four roshei yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, New Jersey...

, and Yisroel Neuman

Yisroel Neuman

Yisroel Tzvi Neuman is an Orthodox rabbi and one of the four roshei yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, New Jersey. He shares this post with Rabbi Malkiel Kotler, Rabbi Yerucham Olshin, and Rabbi Dovid Schustal...

 who are all married to other grandchildren of Rabbi Aharon Kotler.

Kotler was first married to a granddaughter of Rabbi Yitzchok Zev Soloveitchik, and daughter of Rabbi Yechiel Michel Feinstein

Yechiel Michel Feinstein

Yechiel Michel Feinstein was a Haredi rabbi and rosh yeshiva in Israel and the United States.-Biography:He was born to Rabbi Avrohom Yitzchok Feinstein in the town of Uzda, Lithuania, a town near Minsk, Belarus, then part of the Russian empire...

. After his father died he was called back to head the Yeshiva in Lakewood. His wife, a native Israeli, was not interested in living in America. Kotler wanted to divorce his wife, but she refused to accept the Get (divorce document)

Get (divorce document)

A is a divorce document, which according to Jewish Law, must be presented by a husband to his wife to effect their divorce. The essential text of the is quite short: "You are hereby permitted to all men," i.e., the wife is no longer a married woman, and the laws of adultery no longer apply...

. To allow himself to marry again he obtained a Heter meah rabbanim

Heter meah rabbanim

Heter meah rabbanim is a term in Jewish law which means that one hundred Rabbis agree with a Rabbinical court that a particular situation warrants an exemption to permit a man to remarry even though his wife refuses or is unable to accept a get .In about 1000 C.E...

(literally permission from a hundred rabbis) that would allow himself to leave his wife in Israel and marry again in the United States. As a result a large controversy developed between the Soloveitchik and Kotler families that has continued for many years.

Rabbi Kotler was also involved in another controversy when he first put and later recanted an approbation on the book by one of his former students, Saadya Grama, that argued that Jews constitute a separate genetically superior species. The approbation was withdrawn only after a major anti-Kotler campaign had been started by the Jewish newspaper Forward, Anti-Defamation League and Yeshiva University. In his reconsideration Kotler asserted that the anti-Gentile sentiments contained in the book did not reflect the normative Jewish law. In his earlier endorsement of Grama's book, though, he had explicitly said that the author had written "on the subjects of the Exile, the Election of Israel and her exaltation above and superiority to all of the other nations, all in accordance with the viewpoint of the Torah, based on the solid instruction he has received from his teachers."