Gedalia Schorr

He was called the "first American Gadol" (Torah giant) by Rabbi Aharon Kotler.

He was named after his paternal grandfather, Gedalyahu, a highly respected scholar and close Hasid of the Sadigerer Rebbe, a descendant of Yisrael of Rizhin.

The Schorr family came to the United States in 1922, settling first on the Lower East Side and then moving to Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

He soon caught the eye of Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz, principal of Mesivta Torah Vodaas.

When World War II was dawning, Rabbi Schorr, under pressure from his family and the U.S. Consul in Poland, returned to America again.