The Young Israel of Teaneck (YIOT) has announced that Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik, a preeminent Jewish thinker and educator, will deliver the Dr. Asher Ze’ev and Mrs. Pnina Leah Rabinowitz Memorial Shiur Sunday, September 29 at 8 p.m. on the topic “Shattered Tablets and Tablets Reborn: The Yamim Noraim and Our Current Moment.” This event is part of the YIOT’s Dr. Bertram J., z”l, and Ann Newman Adult Education Program and is sponsored by Sivan and Neil Greenspan in commemoration of the yahrzeits of Sivan’s parents, Dr. Asher Ze’ev and Mrs. Pnina Leah Rabinowitz, z”l. This annual lecture takes place around the Yamim Noraim as a way to inspire the community and help us prepare for this important time of year. This year the lecture takes place during the week before Rosh Hashanah.
According to Rabbi Beni Krohn, rabbi of the Young Israel of Teaneck, “We are grateful to the Greenspans for enabling us to once again bring an acclaimed speaker to YIOT in preparation for the Yamim Noraim. Rabbi Soloveichik has an extraordinary ability to synthesize ideas that challenge his audience to think and question. We know it will be an evening to remember.”
Daniel R. Lowe, YIOT adult education committee chair, shared: “We are so appreciative of our dear friends Sivan and Neil Greenspan, and their commitment to Talmud Torah. Their generosity once again allows us to bring another outstanding and acclaimed talmid chacham to our shul in loving memory of Sivan’s parents.”
“It’s my honor and privilege to sponsor this lecture in memory of my parents, Dr. Asher Ze’ev and Mrs. Pnina Leah Rabinowitz,” Sivan Greenspan told The Jewish Link. “Both of them were intellectually curious and very proud of their Judaism. This event is a way to celebrate their love for learning and strong connection to the Jewish community. Rabbi Meir Soloveichik is one of our generation’s most fascinating and gifted speakers. Through his insights and inspirational words, I hope to keep my parents’ legacy alive.”
Rabbi Soloveichik is the senior rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel in Manhattan, the oldest Jewish congregation in the United States, and is recognized as one of America’s most influential religious leaders. He is also director of the Zahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University. Rabbi Soloveichik has lectured internationally to Jewish and non-Jewish audiences on topics relating to faith in America, the Hebraic roots of the American founding, Jewish theology, bioethics, wartime ethics, Jewish-Christian relations, and more. He writes a monthly column in Commentary magazine, and his writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Mosaic, First Things, Azure, Tradition, the Jewish Review of Books, and many other outlets.
Rabbi Soloveichik is a descendant of one of the Jewish world’s great rabbinic dynasties. He graduated summa cum laude from Yeshiva University, received his rabbinic ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, and studied at its Beren Kollel Elyon. He has also studied at Yale Divinity School, and in 2010 received his doctorate in religion from Princeton University.
The YIOT is located at 868 Perry Lane in Teaneck. The event is free and open to the public. For more information contact [email protected].
