Meir Yaakov Soloveichik (born July 29, 1977) [1] is an American Orthodox rabbi and writer. He is the son of Rabbi Eliyahu Soloveichik, grandson of Rabbi Ahron Soloveichik, and a great nephew of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, the leader of American Jewry who identified with what became known as Modern Orthodoxy.
Soloveichik learned in Cheder Lubavitch Hebrew Day School of Chicago (in Skokie, IL) for elementary and Brisk Yeshiva high school (Chicago, IL) run by his grandfather, Ahron Soloveichik. He then graduated from Yeshiva College in New York City, where he also received rabbinic ordination (semicha) at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary and studied philosophy of religion at Yale University Divinity School, although he did not receive a degree from Yale. He later received a PhD in Religion from Princeton University. He wrote his doctorate on the modern Orthodox theologian Michael Wyschogrod.
A regular contributor to general interest and Jewish publications such as First Things , The Forward , Commentary Magazine , and the journal Azure, where he was Contributing Editor, he has written a number of articles concerning issues in Jewish thought and life, the relationship between Judaism and Christianity and the limits of interfaith dialogue established by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik.
He was the resident scholar of the Jewish Center in New York City, and later, Associate Rabbi at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, also in New York City. In May 2013, he became Rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York City, a Sephardic synagogue, and the oldest Jewish congregation in the United States.
He is the director of the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University. [2]
It had been reported that he had been considered a candidate to replace Jonathan Sacks as the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom. [3] However, the position ultimately went to Ephraim Mirvis.
In August 2012, he gave the invocation at the opening session of the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida. [4] [5]
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Judaism and the Origins of America
He is married to Layaliza Soloveichik (née Klein), a 1997 graduate of Yale University Law School.
Modern Orthodox Judaism is a movement within Orthodox Judaism that attempts to synthesize Jewish values and the observance of Jewish law with the secular, modern world.
Yitzchak Hutner, also known as Isaac Hutner, was an American Orthodox rabbi and rosh yeshiva (dean).
Joseph Ber Soloveitchik was a major American Orthodox rabbi, Talmudist, and modern Jewish philosopher. He was a scion of the Lithuanian Jewish Soloveitchik rabbinic dynasty.
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Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin, also known as Reb Hirsch Leib Berlin, and commonly known by the acronym Netziv, was an Orthodox rabbi, Rosh yeshiva (dean) of the Volozhin Yeshiva and author of several works of rabbinic literature in Lithuania.
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Chaim (Halevi) Soloveitchik, also known as Reb Chaim Brisker, was a rabbi and Talmudic scholar credited as the founder of the popular Brisker approach to Talmudic study within Judaism. He is also a member of the Soloveitchik dynasty, as the son of the Beis HaLevi.
Jonathan Henry Sacks, Baron Sacks was an English Orthodox rabbi, philosopher, theologian, and author. Sacks served as the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from 1991 to 2013. As the spiritual head of the United Synagogue, the largest synagogue body in the United Kingdom, he was the Chief Rabbi of those Orthodox synagogues but was not recognized as the religious authority for the Haredi Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations or for the progressive movements such as Masorti, Reform, and Liberal Judaism. As Chief Rabbi, he formally carried the title of Av Beit Din (head) of the London Beth Din. At the time of his death, he was the Emeritus Chief Rabbi.
Torah Umadda is a worldview in Orthodox Judaism concerning the relationship between the secular world and Judaism, and in particular between secular knowledge and Jewish religious knowledge. The resultant mode of Orthodox Judaism is referred to as Centrist Orthodoxy.
Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary is the rabbinical seminary of Yeshiva University (YU). It is located along Amsterdam Avenue in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City.
Moshe Soloveichik was an Orthodox rabbi. He was the middle son of renowned Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik and grandson of the Beis HaLevi. He married Pesya Feinstein, daughter of the renowned Rabbi of Pruzany, Rabbi Eliyahu Feinstein, and first cousins with Rabbi Moshe Feinstein.
Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah is the supreme rabbinical policy-making council of the Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah movements in Israel; and of Agudath Israel of America in the United States. Members are usually prestigious Roshei Yeshiva or Hasidic rebbes, who are also usually regarded by many Haredi Jews to be the Gedolim ("great/est") sages of Torah Judaism. Before the Holocaust, it was the supreme authority for the World Agudath Israel in Europe.
Boruch Ber Leibowitz (Yiddish: ברוך בער לייבאוויץ Hebrew: רב ברוך דוב ליבוביץ, romanized: Boruch Dov Libovitz; 1862 – November 17, 1939, known as Reb Boruch Ber, was a rabbi famed for his Talmudic lectures, particularly in that they were rooted styled in the method of his teacher Chaim Soloveitchik. He is known for leading Yeshivas Knesses Beis Yitzchak in Slabodka and Kaminetz.
The Rebbe the Messiah, and the Scandal of Orthodox Indifference is a book by Rabbi Dr. David Berger on the topic of Chabad messianism and the mainstream orthodox Jewish reaction to that trend. Rabbi Berger addresses the Chabad-Messianic question, regarding a dead Messiah, from a halachic perspective. The book is written as a historical narrative of Berger's encounter with Chabad messianism from the time of the death of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson in 1994 through the book's publication in 2001. The narrative is interlaced with Dr. Berger's published articles, written correspondences, and transcribed public lectures, in which he passionately appeals to both the leadership of the Orthodox and Chabad communities for an appropriate response to Chabad-Lubavitch messianism.
Ahron (Aaron) Soloveichik was an Orthodox Jewish rosh yeshiva, and scholar of Talmud and halakha.
Moshe Meiselman is an American-born Orthodox rabbi and rosh yeshiva (dean) of Yeshiva Toras Moshe in Jerusalem, which he established in 1982. He also founded and served as principal of Yeshiva University of Los Angeles (YULA) from 1977 to 1982. He is a descendant of the Lithuanian Jewish Soloveitchik rabbinic dynasty.
Dr. Samuel Soloveichik was an Orthodox Jewish chemist and talmudist.