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Joseph B. Soloveitchik

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Joseph Ber (Yosef Dov) Soloveitchik (1903 - 1993) was an Orthodox rabbi, Talmudist and modern Jewish philosopher.

Over the course of almost half a century he ordained close to 2,000 rabbis who took positions in Orthodox synagogues across America; they were able to relate to their less traditional congregants, drawing them closer to traditional Jewish observance with quite a few becoming religiously observant. He served as an advisor, guide, mentor, and role-model for tens of thousands of Modern Orthodox Jews as their favorite Talmudical Scholar and religious leader.

Rabbi Soloveitchik inherited his father's, Rabbi Moses (Moshe), position as head of the RIETS rabbinical school at Yeshiva University in 1940. Scion of the famous Soloveitchik Lithuanian rabbinical dynasty going back some 200 years. Grandson of the renowned rabbinical scholar Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik, and grandson as well as name-sake, of his great grand-father Rabbi Yoshe Ber Soloveitchik known for his work as the Bais HaLevi.

Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik was educated by private tutors as his parents realized his great mental powers. Soon after marriage to Tonya, he moved to Berlin in Germany where he remained for almost a decade studying at the University of Berlin obtaining a Ph.D. based on the philosophy of the great German philosopher Herman Cohen. He is still revered as the guiding thinker behind Modern Orthodox Judaism in America.

During his tenure at Yeshiva University in addition to his Talmudic lectures, he evolved a system of synthesis whereby the best of religious Torah scholarship would be combined with the best secular scholarship in Western civilization. This has become known as the Torah Umada philosophy unique to Yeshiva University. He authored a book on Jewish thought called "The Lonely Man of Faith".

Known as the "Rav", he became the greatest leader of Modern Orthodoxy, sometimes espousing relatively liberal positions on educational, political, and social issues within the Orthodox world. He ordained more Orthodox rabbis at Yeshiva University, about 2000, than anyone else. He pioneered one of the first Hebrew day schools in Boston where he resided when not teaching in New York. He advocated more intensive textual studies for Jewish women, giving the first class in Talmud inuagurated at Stern College, the women's division of Yeshiva College - University.

With his enlightened outlook, he attracted and inspired many young men to become rabbis and educators, who in turn went out with the education of Yeshiva University to head synagogues, schools and communities, where they influenced many Jews to remain Orthodox.His children married prominent academics and Tulmudic scholars, one to Rabbi Dr. Araon Lichtenstein Dean of Gush Etzyon Yeshiva in Israel, another to the late Rabbi Dr. Twersky former head of the Jewish studies department at Harvard University, and his son Rabbi Dr. Haim Soloveitchik is a professor of Jewish History at Yeshiva University. He attracted many others to the cause of Orthodoxy. Among his alumni are Rabbis Nachman Bulman, Shlomo Riskin, and Ephraim Buchwald and many others who became leaders of the Baal teshuva movement.