Meir Soloveichik
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
On August 28, Meir Soloveichik, a 35-year old rabbi, stepped into the national spotlight at the Republican National Convention, delivering the opening invocation, the capstone of a year that saw his influence spread widely throughout political circles.
In May, Soloveichik led a widely praised discussion on religion in education with Newark Mayor Cory Booker at Yeshiva University, where Soloveichik is the director of the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought. Throughout the academic year, Soloveichik held similar panels with Sen. Joe Lieberman and Jonathan Sacks, chief rabbi of the United Kingdom.
Soloveichik, who is also the associate rabbi at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun in New York City, has been reported to be a candidate to succeed Sacks when he steps down from his post next September, adding another prestigious honor to the family legacy (“The Rav,” Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, is Meir’s great-uncle.)
Soloveichik has also reached audiences through his writing, publishing articles in Commentary and the Wall Street Journal, and he collaborates with a diverse group of speakers and religious leaders at the Straus Center, whose mission is to “develop Jewish thinkers” by exposing them “to the richness of human knowledge and insight from across the ages.”
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