Moshe Soloveichik

Moshe Soloveichik (1879 – January 31, 1941) was an Orthodox rabbi. He was Rosh Yeshiva at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University.

Biography He was born in Valozhyn, the middle son of Chaim Soloveitchik and grandson of the Beis HaLevi. He married Pesya Feinstein, daughter of the Rabbi of Pruzany, Eliyahu Feinstein, and first cousin with Rabbi Moshe Feinstein.

At the age of 31, he was appointed rabbi of the town of Raseiniai, a position he held for three years. He also was the dean of a yeshiva in the town that Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel of Slabodka was instrumental in founding. In 1913, he took the position of rabbi of Khislavichi.

After World War I, he went to Poland in 1920, and served as the director of Talmud studies at Tachkemoni Rabbinical Seminary in Warsaw.

From there he immigrated to New York in 1929, joining the faculty as a Rosh Yeshiva at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University.

While Soloveichik was in New York City, his eldest son, Joseph B. Soloveitchik (known as Yosef Dov) was working on his PhD in philosophy at the University of Berlin, which he completed in 1931. The following year, Yosef Dov moved to Boston and became head of the Orthodox Jewish community there. When Soloveichik died in 1941 at the age of 62, Yosef Dov was asked to fill his father's place.

His funeral at RIETS was attended by more than 4,000 mourners and he was eulogized by Rabbi Moshe Rosen on behalf of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis as well as his wife's cousin Moshe Feinstein and other rabbinic leaders.

Soloveichik's two younger sons were Ahron Soloveichik (1917–2001), who also taught at RIETS, and Samuel Soloveichik (1909–1967) who taught chemistry at Yeshiva College. He also had two daughters: Shulamit Soloveitchik Meiselman (1912–2009), and Anne Soloveitchik Gerber (1913-2011).

In 1938, Rabbi Moshe Besdin founded Yeshiva Rabbi Moses Soloveitchik, located in Beth Hamedrash Hagodol Synagogue in Manhattan. In 1941, Besdin chaired the memorial service for Rabbi Soloveichik at Yeshiva University.

Notable students

In Europe Dovid Leibowitz

In America Jacob B. Agus Abraham Avrutick Mordechai Gifter Bernard Lander Moses Mescheloff

Avigdor Miller Emanuel Rackman Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg Melech Schachter

Nosson Meir Wachtfogel Louis (Eliezer) Werfel Chaim Zimmerman

Brisk family tree