Between the Lines: Soloveitchik’s Children

Soloveitchik’s Children: Irving Greenberg, David Hartman, Jonathan Sacks, and the Future of Jewish Theology in America

Part of Between the Lines: Author Conversations from The Library of JTS

Monday, January 22, 2024
7:30–8:30 p.m. ET

Professor Arnold Eisen, chancellor emeritus and professor of Jewish Thought at JTS and author Daniel Ross Goodman will discuss Soloveitchik’s Children, a book that delves into how three of Soloveitchik’s most influential disciples in Jewish thought and philosophy—Rabbi Irving “Yitz” Greenberg, Rabbi David Hartman, and Jonathan Sacks—learned from and adapted his teachings in their own ways, while advancing his philosophical and theological legacy.

About the Author

Rabbi Daniel Ross Goodman, a western Massachusetts native, earned his PhD from JTS in 2021 and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Divinity School. His previous books include the 2020 novel A Single Life and his 2020 book on religion and film, Somewhere Over the Rainbow: Wonder and Religion in American Cinema. His new book, Soloveitchik’s Children: Irving Greenberg, David Hartman, Jonathan Sacks, and the Future of Jewish Theology in America, published this summer by the University of Alabama Press, is an adaptation of his JTS doctoral dissertation, which he wrote under now-emeritus JTS Professor of Jewish Thought Alan Mittleman. He is thrilled to be back at JTS (at least virtually!) for this book talk this evening. 

Praise for Soloveitchik’s Children

“An audacious and learned book, Soloveitchik’s Children ranks among the very best studies of contemporary Anglo-American Orthodox Jewish theology and debuts a scholar of unusual breadth and depth. Anyone interested in the thought of Irving Greenberg, David Hartman, and Jonathan Sacks, including their agreements and disagreements with one another, and also with the teacher they revered, Joseph Soloveitchik, should savor this volume—text and footnotes alike.”

—Jonathan D. Sarna, University Professor and Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis University

“Goodman demonstrates a complete command of the writings of the four men that are featured in this work. His erudition in rabbinics, secular philosophy, and theology, as well as his encyclopedic knowledge of Soloveitchik, Hartman, Greenberg, and Sacks, allows him to weave together an interesting narrative and insightful analysis of their thought on the numerous topics these men address in their writings. The book superbly provides a description of two generations of modern Orthodox Jewish thinkers who provide a foundation for future thinkers in this school of thought—and I suspect Goodman will be included in that number one day.”

—David Ellenson (z”l), author of Jewish Meaning in a World of Choice: Studies in Tradition and Modernity

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