Mayer Schiller


Rabbi Mayer Schiller is an American Chasid based in Monsey, New York, who identifies himself as a member of Skver and Rachmastrivka groups, and serves as spokesperson for the Skver community in New Square. Schiller also maintains active ties to the Modern Orthodox community, and has advocated for a symbiosis between the best of traditional Orthodoxy and broader culture. He teaches advanced Talmud, Bible, and Jewish History at Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy of Yeshiva University, where he has been a teacher since 1987. Prior to that, from 1977-1981, Rabbi Schiller taught at YHSQ, and from 1981-1987, he taught at Mesivta Ohr Torah. From 1979 to 1981, he served as the first hockey coach at the Ramaz School, and later in the same capacity at MTA from 1985-1988, and again from 1990-1995. In his final 6 years as coach, his teams won 6 consecutive championships. He is a baal teshuva, having begun practicing Orthodoxy in the spring of 1964 at age 12. Rabbi Schiller and his wife have 2 children.
In the arena of political thought, the Rabbi is most noted for his advocation of non-violent racial separatism ensuing most significantly from principles of religious, cultural, ethnic, and racial identity, and social anti-universalism. As a nationalist, he is an outspoken critic of liberal notions of race and the bias against traditional religion in today's media and popular culture. He has been associated with various groups, including the Third Way and the Ulster Third Way. However, Schiller has also advocated a universalist morality and embrace of the Other, provided that is pursued without loss to group identity. He is involved with the group Toward Tradition, which seeks to advance co-operation between Orthodox Jews and conservative Christians, for example, on issues like abortion, marriage, family, religious schools, and religious freedom.
Schiller is also the author of two books - The Road Back: A Discovery of Judaism Without Embellishments, The Conscience of a Conservative -and a monograph in defense of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch's Torah Im Derech Eretz philosophy, titled "And They Shall Judge the People With True Righteousness".

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