Gedalia Dov Schwartz (January 24, 1925[2] — December 9, 2020[3]) was an eminent American Orthodox rabbi, scholar, and posek (halakhic authority) who lived in Chicago, Illinois.
[6] Schwartz was born and raised in Newark, New Jersey, where he first studied Torah in his teenage years with Rabbi Yaakov Benzion Mendelson.
[8] Before coming to Chicago in 1987,[9] Schwartz was the rabbi of the Young Israel of Boro Park for 18 years, having earlier held pulpits in Rhode Island, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Rabbi Schwartz's opinion was frequently sought by both Jewish and secular sources on issues such as conversion to Judaism,[12] halakhic prenuptial agreements,[13] kashering items for Passover,[14] child abuse,[15] and tattoos.
[16] In 2002 he was appointed as the head of a three-judge panel which examined cases of agunahs from the September 11 attacks,[17] using DNA testing of post-mortem remains to verify the death of their husbands and allow them to remarry.