Mordecai Menahem Kaplan was a Lithuanian-born American rabbi, writer, Jewish educator, professor, theologian, philosopher, activist, and religious leader who founded the Reconstructionist branch of Judaism along with his son-in-law Ira Eisenstein. He has been described as a "towering figure" in the recent history of Judaism for his influential work in adapting it to modern society, contending that Judaism should be a unifying and creative force by stressing the cultural and historical character of the religion as well as theological doctrine.
Modern Orthodox Judaism is a movement within Orthodox Judaism that attempts to synthesize Jewish values and the observance of Jewish law with the modern world.
The Orthodox Union is one of the largest Orthodox Jewish organizations in the United States. Founded in 1898, the OU supports a network of synagogues, youth programs, Jewish and Religious Zionist advocacy programs, programs for the disabled, localized religious study programs, and international units with locations in Israel and formerly in Ukraine. The OU maintains a kosher certification service, whose circled-U hechsher symbol, U+24CAⓊ, is found on the labels of many kosher commercial and consumer food products.
The National Council of Young Israel (NCYI) or Young Israel, is a synagogue-based Orthodox Judaism organization in the United States with a network of affiliated "Young Israel" synagogues. Young Israel was founded in 1912, in its earliest form, by a group of 15 young Jews on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Their goal was to make Orthodox Judaism more relevant to young Americanized Jews at a time when a significant Jewish education was rare, and most Orthodox institutions were Yiddish-speaking and oriented to an older, European Jewish demographic.
Yeshiva Torah Vodaas is a yeshiva in the Kensington neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.
The Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada (UOR), often called by its Hebrew name, Agudath Harabonim or (in Ashkenazi Hebrew) Agudas Harabonim ("union of rabbis"), was established in 1901 in the United States and is the oldest organization of Orthodox rabbis in the United States. It had been for many years the principal group for such rabbis, though in recent years it has lost much of its former membership and influence.
Judah David Bleich is an authority on Jewish law and ethics, including Jewish medical ethics. He is a professor of Talmud at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, an affiliate of Yeshiva University, as well as head of its postgraduate institute for the study of Talmudic jurisprudence and family law. At Yeshiva University, he holds the Herbert and Florence Tenzer Chair in Jewish Law and Ethics. He also teaches at Cardozo Law School. He is married to Dr. Judith Bleich, a historian of 19th-century European Jewry.
The Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary was founded in Berlin on 22 October 1873 by Rabbi Dr. Israel Hildesheimer for the training of rabbis in the tradition of Orthodox Judaism.
The Congregation Shearith Israel – often called The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue – is the oldest Jewish congregation in the United States. It was established in 1654 in New Amsterdam by Jews who arrived from Dutch Brazil. Until 1825, when Jewish immigrants from Germany established a congregation, it was the only Jewish congregation in New York City.
Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun is a Modern Orthodox Jewish synagogue, located at 126 East 85th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, in New York City, New York, in the United States. The synagogue was founded in 1872. The synagogue is closely affiliated with the Ramaz School. The lower school is co-located in an adjacent building and is across the street from the middle school.
Congregation Shaare Zedek is a Conservative synagogue located on West 93rd Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York, in the United States.
Saul J. Berman is an American scholar and Modern Orthodox rabbi.
Ramath Orah is an Modern Orthodox synagogue located on West 110th Street in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, in New York City, New York, in the United States. Located close to Columbia University the synagogue occupies a neo-Georgian building that was built in 1921 as the first stage of a large West Side Unitarian Church.
Congregation Beth Israel is a Modern Orthodox synagogue in Berkeley, California, in the United States. Established in 1924 as the Berkeley Hebrew Center, it traces its origins to the First Hebrew Congregation of Berkeley, founded in 1909. It was Berkeley's first synagogue and remains its oldest. Lay-led for four decades, it hired its first rabbi, Saul Berman, in 1963.
Congregation Beth Israel, commonly referred to as the West Side Jewish Center or, in more recent years, the Hudson Yards Synagogue, is an Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue located at 347 West 34th Street, in the Garment District of Manhattan, in New York City, New York, in the United States. Established in 1890, the congregation completed its current building near Penn Station in 1925.
Yeshiva University, a United States private university in New York City, with six campuses in New York and one in Israel, was founded in 1886. It is a research university ranked as 105th in the US among national universities by U.S. News & World Report in 2023.
Jacob J. Schacter is an American Orthodox rabbi. Schacter, a historian of intellectual trends in Orthodox Judaism, is University Professor of Jewish History and Jewish Thought and Senior Scholar at the Center for the Jewish Future at Yeshiva University.
Ari Berman is an American-Israeli Modern Orthodox / Religious Zionist rabbi and academic administrator who serves as the fifth President of Yeshiva University.
