An Orthodox Hebraist’s Love of America and Vision of Modern Jewish Scholarship

Born in 1899 and raised in the heart of Orthodox Jerusalem, Samuel K. Mirsky came as a young man under the influence of Abraham Isaac Kook and his disciples, who sought to infuse a number of modern ideas, including Zionism, into Orthodox Judaism. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1926, and spent the rest of his career as a teacher at what was soon to become Yeshiva University. Deeply committed to religious Zionism, the Hebrew language, Jewish education, and the synthesis of modern and traditional scholarship, Mirsky published hundreds of articles, founded and edited four journals, and produced scholarly editions of classical rabbinic works. He also harbored a unique vision of what it meant to be a Jew in America, as his grandson, Yehudah Mirsky, writes. (Free registration may be required.)