This story appeared in the May 16, 2010 Jewish Advocate.
Maimonides founder’s writings still inspire
Drop hed:
Editors painstakingly piece together his papers
‘We wanted to be totally faithful to the manuscript, rather than cut out phrases we couldn’t read, or add words of our own.’
David E. Fishman (we have his pic)
Caption:
Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik
“Yiddish Voice,” Wednesdays 7:30-8:30 p.m., on WUNR 1600 AM (Brookline/Boston). For information, visit yiddishvoice.com or email radio@yv.org.
By Susie Davidson
Special to the Advocate
Longtime Brookline resident Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (1903-1993), who founded the Maimonides School in 1937, was renowned as a Talmudic scholar and credited with fostering the resurgence of Orthodox Judaism in the United States.
The “Rav,” an innovative, eminent thinker who gave weekly public lectures in Boston and New York, drew large audiences who hung on his every word on halachic, philosophical and Biblical subjects.
Much of his archives remain handwritten. Last summer’s release of “Drashos and Writings” (“Droshes un ksovim” in Yiddish) marked the first transcriptions and publication of 10 sermons and two speeches. The 355-page book – in Yiddish except for the preface and introduction – also includes reproductions of 10 articles Soloveitchik published in the Yiddish newspaper [start ital]Tog-Morgn Zhurnal[end ital]. The publisher, Toras HoRav Foundation, has released prior volumes, but never before his Yiddish writings in their original language.
Mark H. David, host of the weekly “Yiddish Voice” radio program, will interview the book’s editor, historian David E. Fishman, on July 21. “Fishman not only had to understand the complex language and concepts, expressed in a Yiddish infused with Hebrew and Aramaic references known primarily to Talmudic scholars, but also to decipher a handwriting that some rabbis and scholars had declared completely indecipherable,” David said.
“Letters merge into each other, and are written in unusual ways,” Fishman wrote in an email from Europe.
The editor was aided by Shmuel Goldenberg, an expert in Hebrew paleography (handwriting styles), but despite their best efforts, including consultations with other scholars, some words remained impossible to crack. “There are ellipses on almost every page, with a footnote: ‘word illegible in the manuscript,’” wrote Fishman. “We wanted to be totally faithful to the manuscript, rather than cut out phrases we couldn’t read, or add words of our own.” Included facsimiles of a few manuscript pages convey the sheer magnitude of the task.
Fishman was originally asked to undertake the project by the late Isadore Twersky, a son-in-law of the Rav. Twersky, formerly the Littauer Professor of Jewish Studies at Harvard University, was Fishman’s doctoral advisor. After Twersky’s death, his widow, Atarah Soloveitchik Twersky, saw through the project with Fishman.
Despite gaps in source material, the book offers a deep well of wisdom.
“This volume serves as a reminder that the Rav was a master-teacher and author in three languages: Hebrew, English, and Yiddish,” writes Fishman in the introduction, adding that it will “expose readers to [his] unique philosophic-rabbinic Yiddish style.”
In the preface, Julius Berman, who was the Rav’s lawyer and literary agent, recounts the first time he heard the Rav speak. The occasion was his annual address at Yeshiva University on the yartzeit of his father, Rav Moshe Soloveitchik. “We [were] overwhelmed not only by the ideas and concepts being presented, but also by the beauty of the language, the choice and combination of words and phrases, the sheer poetry of the presentation, the masterful delivery, and, of course, of course, the absolute brilliance of the speaker,” Berman writes.
He went on to praise the address as “breath-taking in its ability to organically weave together widely divergent sources from the Jewish tradition and Western culture.” Among them: Plato, the Midrash, Maimonides, the French Enlightenment and Communism.
In the ’40s, the Rav reached out to secular Yiddishists, seeking to draw them closer to traditional Judaism. The book includes one of many lectures he gave to the Boston Workmen’s Circle in the 1940s.
In 1944, the Rav addressed the New York chapter of YIVO (now know as the Yiddish Scientific Institute). He was introduced by its director, Dr. Max Weinreich in what the Yiddish press hailed as the public reconciliation between pious and socialist Judaism. “For weeks afterwards, all the Yiddish newspapers, regardless of orientation, reported” on the event, according to the Boston correspondent of the Yiddish [start ital] Forverts.[end ital]
The Rav, born into the Soloveitchik Rabbinic dynasty of Lithuania, moved to the Boston area in 1932, where he both founded and helmed the Maimonides School. In a departure from Orthodox tradition, he made the school coeducation. “This policy of discrimination between the sexes as to subject matter and method of instruction which is still advocated by certain groups within our Orthodox community has contributed greatly to the deterioration and downfall of traditional Judaism. Boys and girls alike should be introduced to the inner halls of Torah she-be-al peh [Oral Law],” Soloveitchik wrote in a 1953 letter to a fellow educator and rabbi.
Soloveitchik, who was considered by many to be Boston’s unofficial chief rabbi, summered at Congregation Beth Israel in Onset with his wife, Dr. Tonya Soloveitchik (1904-1967), and his students.
From 1941 to 1986, he also served as Rosh Yeshiva of the RIETS Rabbinical Seminary of Yeshiva University in New York; while there, he ordained more than 2,000 rabbis.
David, a computer programmer by day, began his “Yiddish Voice” in 1994. The Chicago native said his mother, a multilingual survivor of Auschwitz, spurred him to start learning Yiddish. He studied the language in college, where being a DJ whetted his appetite for radio.
He modeled his all-Yiddish show on programs aired in New York, Montreal and Israel. “It’s become kind of its own institution, with several volunteer contributors, numerous dedicated listeners, a Web site and an archive,” David said.
“Since so many speakers and listeners are from Eastern Europe and are survivors of the Holocaust and/or of Soviet Russia, we often interview ordinary people who describe very extraordinary experiences.”
Original copy as submitted:
A freely usable photo of Rabbi Soloveitchik may be obtained here:
Yiddish Voice to feature editor of Soloveitchik works:
Maimonides founder’s writings still inspire
By Susie Davidson
Special to the Advocate
Longtime Brookline resident Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (1903-1993), who founded the Maimonides School in 1937, was renowned as a Talmudic scholar and credited with fostering the resurgence of Orthodox Judaism in the United States. The “Rav,” an innovative, eminent thinker who gave weekly public lectures in Boston and New York, drew large audiences who hung on his every word on halachic, philosophical and Biblical subjects.
Much of his archives remain handwritten. Last summer’s release of “Drashos and Writings” (“Droshes un ksovim” in Yiddish) marked the first transcriptions and publication of 10 sermons and two speeches. The 355-page book – in Yiddish except for the Preface and Introduction – also includes reproductions of 10 articles Soloveitchik published in the Yiddish newspaper [start ital]Tog-Morgn Zhurnal[end ital]. The publisher, Toras HoRav Foundation, has released prior volumes, but never before his Yiddish writings in their original language.
Mark H. David, host of the weekly “Yiddish Voice” radio program, will interview the book’s editor, historian David E. Fishman, on July 21. “Fishman not only had to understand the complex language and concepts, expressed in a Yiddish infused with Hebrew and Aramaic references known primarily to Talmudic scholars, but also to decipher a handwriting that some rabbis and scholars had declared completely indecipherable,” David said.
“Letters merge into each other, and are written in unusual ways,” Fishman wrote in an email from Europe.
The editor was aided by Shmuel Goldenberg, an expert in Hebrew paleography (handwriting styles), but despite their best efforts, including consultations with other scholars, some words remained impossible to crack. “There are ellipses on almost every page, with a footnote: ‘word illegible in the manuscript,’” wrote Fishman. “We wanted to be totally faithful to the manuscript, rather than cut out phrases we couldn't read, or add words of our own.” Included facsimiles of a few manuscript pages convey the sheer magnitude of the task.
Fishman was asked to undertake the project by Isadore Twersky, the Rav’s son-in-law. Twersky, formerly the Littauer Professor of Jewish Studies at Harvard University, was Fishman’s doctoral advisor.
Despite gaps in source material, the book offers a deep well of wisdom.
“This volume serves as a reminder that the Rav was a master-teacher and author in three languages: Hebrew, English, and Yiddish,” writes Fishman in the Introduction, adding that it will “expose readers to [his] unique philosophic-rabbinic Yiddish style.”
In the Preface, Julius Berman, who was the Rav’s lawyer and literary agent, recounts the first time he heard the Rav speak. The occasion was his annual address at Yeshiva University on the yartzeit of his father, Rav Moshe Soloveitchik. “We [were] overwhelmed not only by the ideas and concepts being presented, but also by the beauty of the language, the choice and combination of words and phrase, the sheer poetry of the presentation, the masterful delivery, and, of course, of course, the absolute brilliance of the speaker,” Berman writes.
He went on to praise the address as “breath-taking in its ability to organically weave together widely divergent sources from the Jewish tradition and Western culture.” Among them: Plato, the Midrash, Maimonides, the French Enlightenment and Communism.
In the ’40s, the Rav reached out to secular Yiddishists, seeking to draw them closer to traditional Judaism. The book includes one of many lectures he gave to the Boston Workmen’s Circle in the 1940s.
Sources:
http://www.forward.com/articles/112890/One Sunday in 1949, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, the leading Orthodox Talmudic scholar in America, addressed the Boston chapter of the outspokenly secular and leftist Workmen’s Circle/Arbeter Ring in Yiddish, the mother tongue of both speaker and audience. The
rabbi used his assigned topic, tzedakah, as a springboard to discuss how the classical sources of Judaism addressed socioeconomic issues. He concluded by ruefully recalling his own youthful interest in pacifism — he had read Tolstoy, Romain Rolland, Franz Werfel, Stefan Zweig and the Yiddish writer Chaim Zhitlovsky — and explaining how the crimes of the Nazis made him appreciate the Torah’s wisdom in recognizing the need to combat and destroy those who spread ideologies of hate.
From the records of the Workmen’s Circle in Boston, it can be ascertained that t
he locale must have been Blue Hill Ave. in Dorchester: http://findingaids.cjh.org/?pID=642321In Boston, centers were open on Leverett Street, Warren Street in Roxbury, and Blue Hill Avenue in Dorchester.
By 1940, the National Workmen's Circle had 100 Labor Lyceums (community centers) throughout the United States. In 1962, the Workmen's Circle Center relocated from Dorchester to its current location in Brookline, Massachusetts.
In 1944, the Rav addressed the New York chapter of YIVO (now know as the Yiddish Scientific Institute). He was introduced by its director, Dr. Max Weinreich in what the Yiddish press hailed as the public reconciliation between pious and socialist Judaism. “For weeks afterwards, all the Yiddish newspapers, regardless of orientation, reported” on the event, according to the Boston correspondent of the Yiddish [start ital] Forverts.[end ital]
The Rav, born into the Soloveitchik Rabbinic dynasty of Lithuania, moved to the Boston area in 1932, where he both founded and helmed the Maimonides School.
Source:
http://www.jewishideas.org/articles/rabbi-joseph-soloveitchik-and-coeducational-jewish-According to Rabbi Shaul (Seth) Farber, who authored "An American Orthodox Dreamer" a book about Soloveitchik's establishment of the Maimonides school in Boston, Soloveitchik
“served as the intellectual and spiritual force behind the Maimonides School from its founding and was responsible for its innovative curriculum.”He
left no written testimony about the reasoning behind coeducation at the school, a concept that was radical then, and indeed, continues to attract controversy. “The question of coeducation at Maimonides has plagued scholars and educators for years, given that coeducation is generally not associated with the Orthodox community,” writes Farber. He cites Rabbi Hershel Schachter, a student of Soloveitchik: “[Soloveitchik],” he wrote, “only had two options: to be guilty of limiting education for girls, or to be guilty of opening a coeducational school.” With the alternative being no education at all for girls, Farber writes that “Rabbi Schachter's evaluation of Rabbi Soloveitchik's innovation implies that the primary motivation for creating a coeducational school was based on practical and pragmatic considerations, not on educational or halakhic ones.”Other of the Rav’s students believed that he deliberately chose mixed education, foreseeing its value. Benny Brama, a former teacher at the Maimonides School, discussed this in a 1981 interview with the International Bnei Akiva movement [Benny Brama, “Al Shitat ha-Rav Soloveitchik,” in Amnon Shapira (ed.), Chevrah Meurevet Banim u’Banot be-Bnei Akiva be-Yameynu (Bnei Akiva, 1981), pp. 58-59.], stating that coeducation lessened sexual and social tension and created a healthier social life. “Rabbi Soloveitchik's educational approach in the Rambam Yeshiva in Boston stands out positively, ([for] all the classes in the yeshiva are mixed, and the boys and girls are required to conform to the daily schedule that includes shacharit and mincha)…Only a great thinker and halakhist like him, who understands that one should confront rather than flee from contemporary realities, could have established a yeshiva with this educational approach,” Brama wrote.
Solveitchik responded to detailed questioning on girls learning Talmud by Rabbi Leonard Rosenfeld, then director of the Education Committee of the Hebrew Institute of Long Island (HILI) thusly: “We have reached a stage at which party lines and political ideologies influence our halakhic thinking to the extent that people cannot rise above partisan issue to the level of Halakhah-objectivity,” he wrote. “Some are in a perennial quest for ‘liberalization’ of the Law and its subordination to the majority opinion of a political legislative body, while others would like to see the Halakhah fossilized and completely shut out of life,” he wrote, adding, “I am not inclined to give any of these factions an opportunity for nonsensical debates.”
On May 27th, 1953, Soloveitchik wrote more fully on the matter to Rosenfeld. “It would be a very regrettable oversight on our part if we were to arrange separate Hebrew courses for girls,” he wrote. “Not only is the teaching of Torah she-be-al peh to girls permissible, but it is nowadays an absolute imperative. This policy of discrimination between the sexes as to subject matter and method of instruction which is still advocated by certain groups within our Orthodox community has contributed greatly to the deterioration and downfall of traditional Judaism. Boys and girls alike should be introduced to the inner halls of Torah she-be-al peh,” he continued, stating that he hoped to prepare a halakhic brief on the issue. “In the meantime I heartily endorse a uniform program for the entire student body,” he advised.
In Boston, Soloveitchik became the unofficial chief rabbinic figure and lived here throughout his life, summering at Congregation Beth Israel in Onset with his wife, Dr. Tonya Soloveitchik (1904-1967), and students.
From 1941 to 1986, he also served as Rosh Yeshiva of the RIETS Rabbinical Seminary of Yeshiva University in New York; while there, he ordained more than 2,000 rabbis.
David, a computer programmer originally from Chicago, began the “Yiddish Voice” in 1994. “I very much liked listening to radio and had enjoyed briefly being a DJ at my college radio show,” he said. A Yiddish speaker, reader and writer who began studying the language in college, he envisioned an all-Yiddish radio show as is offered in New York, Israel, Montreal and other places. “It's become kind of its own institution of sorts, with several volunteer contributors, numerous dedicated listeners, a web site and an archive,” said David, whose multilingual mother was a survivor of Auschwitz. “She did not teach me Yiddish, but she helped me get started learning it, and encouraged me to learn it,” he said.
The show features international guests who have included authors, journalists, academics, religious figures, actors, singers, and musicians, as well as the average citizen, he said. “Since so many speakers and listeners are from Eastern Europe and are survivors of the Holocaust and/or of Soviet Russia, we often interview such ‘ordinary people’ about their lives, which often ends up with them describing very extraordinary experiences.” The show observes the Jewish calendar and implements special programming, garnering greetings and well wishes from sponsors and listeners around holidays. Cohosts are former Temple Emeth Hebrew teacher and Yiddish lecturer Hasia Segal and Brighton, Mass.-based Yiddish Forward correspondent Iosif Lakhman. Regular contributors include Yiddish linguist and Cambridge resident Dovid Braun, Yiddish Forward correspondent Misha Khazin, and Cambrige resident, Vilna Ghetto expert and former history professor at Washington University Sholem Beinfeld.
“It's become kind of its own institution, with several volunteer contributors, numerous dedicated listeners, a Web site and an archive,” David said.
TAG:
The Yiddish Voice can be heard Wednesdays, 7:30-8:30 p.m., on WUNR 1600 AM (Brookline/Boston). For information, please visit
http://yiddishvoice.com, email radio@yv.org, or call 617-730-8484.