Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (1903–1993) was born in Russia into a family of renowned Eastern European rabbis. Initially trained in the scholarship of the sacred texts of Judaism, he enrolled at twenty-three at the University of Berlin in order to study physics, mathematics, and philosophy. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on the philosopher Hermann Cohen. In 1932, he accepted the position of chief rabbi of Boston, where he resided until his death. In 1937, he founded the Maimonides School there. For over four decades he commuted to New York City in order to teach at Yeshiva University, where his Talmudic and philosophical lectures gained renown for their probity and breadth. He was regarded throughout the world as a leading authority on the meaning of the Jewish law and as the leading intellectual figure in the effort to build bridges between Orthodox Judaism and the modern world.
