Rabbi Dr. Moshe Meiselman

Rabbi Moshe Meiselman is the rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Toras Moshe, a small American yeshiva in Jerusalem, a former principal of Yeshiva University High Schools of Los Angeles[1], and the author of Jewish Women in Jewish Law. A student of Dr. Donald Anderson, he received a doctorate in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1967 for his thesis The Operation Ring for Connective K-Theory.[2] He is a son-in-law of the previous Ziditshoiver Rebbe of Chicago (Rabbi Avrohom Eichenstein). His mother, Shulamit Soloveitchik Meiselman, is author of the widely acclaimed "The Soloveitchik Heritage: A Daughter's Memoir"

Rabbi Meiselman and Rabbi Soloveitchik

Rabbi Meiselman is Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik's nephew and claimed to be one of his close students, though he never attended Yeshiva University. Instead, Meiselman opted to attend Harvard University. However, Meiselman subsequently cast Rabbi Soloveitchik in the role of a traditional haredi Rosh Yeshiva. Rabbi Meiselman believes that Rabbi Soloveitchik's Zionism and secular studies were solely for the purpose of outreach and as a response to the assimilation of American Jews.[3]. This professed belief has led him to attract the ire of many Modern Orthodox and Mizrachi thinkers.[4]

Rabbi Meiselman and Rabbi Slifkin

Rabbi Meiselman gave four lectures at Toras Moshe in which he criticised Rabbi Natan Slifkin's The Camel, The Hare, and The Hyrax. Rabbi Slifkin sent a letter to Rabbi Meiselman rebutting his critique and accusing him of untrue character defamation. Rabbi Meiselman did not respond to Rabbi Slifkin's letter. Rabbi Slifkin subsequently posted the lectures on his website and then Rabbi Meiselman requested that Rabbi Slifkin remove the lectures from his website. Rabbi Slifkin did not agree to his request.[5]

Published work

Meiselman, Moshe (1978). Jewish Women in Jewish Law. Ktav Publishing House. ISBN 0-870683-29-2.

l links

Moshe Meiselman at the Mathematics Genealogy Project

References

1. ^ back cover of Jewish Woman and Jewish Law
2. ^ The Mathematics Genealogy Project - Moshe Meiselman
3. ^ Moshe Meiselman, "The Rav, Feminism and Public Policy: An Insider's Overview," Tradition 33.1 (1998): 5--30.
4. ^ Tradition 33.2 (1999), Communications by Rabbis Yosef Blau, Nathaniel Helfgot, and Eli Clark. See also "Revisionism and the Rav: the Struggle for the Soul of Modern Orthodoxy" by Rabbi Lawrence Kaplan.
5. ^ Rabbi Meiselman's Lectures and the Response