Rabbi Alexander (Sender) Linchner z”l, the Founder of Boys Town Jerusalem, was born and raised in the United States right after the turn of the 20th century. He was one of the few American bachurim to study at the great yeshivos of Eastern Europe before the Holocaust. During the course of his studies at the yeshivah at Radin, Poland, he came under the direct, personal influence of the holy Chofetz Chaim, Rav Yisroel Meir Kagan zt”l; and for the rest of his life, he always considered the Chofetz Chaim as his personal mentor. He returned to the United States before the outbreak of World War II, where he became principal at Yeshivah Torah Vodaath, in Brooklyn, New York, working under the guiding hand of his father-in-law, Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz zt”l, who was also the founder of Torah Umesorah, the National Society for Hebrew Day Schools. He and his son-in-law trained and inspired a generation of Jewish educators who founded Jewish day schools in many American Jewish communities, forming the backbone of Jewish education in this country.