The Contested Legacy of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik

In his new book Soloveitchik’s Children, Daniel Ross Goodman doesn’t attempt to examine the many rabbis who can claim to be disciples of the renowned rabbi, talmudist, and theologian Joseph B. Soloveitchik. Nor does he try to contend in general terms with the sometimes widely divergent interpretations of his legacy and his vision of Orthodox Judaism. Rather, Goodman focuses on the theology of three prominent rabbis—Irving Greenberg, the late David Hartman, and the late Jonathan Sacks—and especially their attitudes toward interfaith dialogue, a subject on which Rabbi Soloveitchik wrote a major essay and discussed on other occasions.