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December 27, 2024

Moses Feinstein’s Idiosyncratic Patriotism and Pluralism

“Even the hippies will remain until the coming of the messiah!”

Considered one of the greatest legal authorities by American Orthodox Jews, Rabbi Moses Feinstein (1895–1986) did not share with such contemporaries as Joseph B. Soloveitchik (his cousin) or Abraham Joshua Heschel an interest in confronting the ideas of the non-Jewish world or the problems facing American society. Feinstein, who came to the U.S. from the USSR in 1939, instead continued to pursue the life he was trained for: studying and teaching the Talmud and engaging with the thorniest questions of practical halakhah. Yet, Moshe Kurtz argues, this old-world sage had a robust patriotism and understanding of American exceptionalism:

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December 27, 2024

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