Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel was considered by many to be one of the most significant Jewish theologians of the 20th century. Heschel was a descendant of preeminent rabbinic families of Europe, both on his father's (Moshe Mordechai Heschel, who died of influenza in 1916) and mother's (Reizel Perlow Heschel) side, and a descendant of Rebbe Avrohom Yehoshua Heshl of Apt and other dynasties. He was the youngest of six children including his siblings: Sarah, Dvora Miriam, …

Rabbi Dr. J. (Judah) David Bleich (born 1936) is an authority on Jewish law and ethics and bioethics. He is a professor of Talmud (Rosh Yeshiva) at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, an affiliate of Yeshiva University, as well as head of its postgraduate institute for the study of Talmudic jurisprudence and family law.

David Golinkin is a rabbi, author and President and Rector of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies, Israel. He is a major halachic authority in the Masorti movement (Conservative Judaism in Israel.) Golinkin is a Conservative rabbi, and a member of the Rabbinical Assembly. He is the editor or author of eighteen books, and over 150 responsa, articles, sermons and books. He is a professor of Jewish law at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies, …

Rabbi Louis Finkelstein was a Talmud scholar and expert in Jewish law. He taught at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, the first American seminary of Conservative Judaism. He was awarded a doctorate from Columbia in 1918, became a rabbi in 1919, and after many years as professor of theology at the Jewish Theological Seminary he was appointed Chancellor in 1951. He authored a number of books, including "Tradition in the Making, …

Isaac Klein (1905-1979).Rabbi Isaac Klein was born in Hungary in 1905, and emigrated with his family to the United States in 1921. After earning a BA from City College in New York in 1931, As he was nearing ordination at the Yeshiva's REITS he transferred to the Jewish Theological Seminary of America where he was ordained in 1934. Rabbi Klein subsequently earned a PhD from Harvard.

Elliot N. Dorff (born 24 June 1943) is a Conservative rabbi, a professor of Jewish theology at the American Jewish University (formerly the University of Judaism) in California (where he is also Rector), author, and a bio-ethicist. Dorff is an expert in the philosophy of Conservative Judaism, Bioethics, and acknowledged within the Conservative community as an expert decisor of Jewish law. Dorff was ordained as a rabbi from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1970.

Semicha ("leaning [of the hands]"), also "semichut" ("ordination"), or "semicha lerabbanut" ("rabbinical ordination") is derived from a Hebrew word which means to "rely on" or "to be authorized". It generally refers to the ordination of a rabbi within Judaism. In this sense it is the "transmission" of rabbinic authority to give advice or judgment in Jewish law.

Shlomo Goren (1917-1994), was a former Orthodox Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel. Goren, born "Gorenchik", was born in Zambrow, Poland and immigrated to British administered Palestine with his family in 1925. He served in the Israel Defense Forces during three wars, wrote several award-winning books on Jewish law, and was appointed Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv in 1968. Rabbi Goren served as Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1973- 1983, …

Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky is a Haredi rabbi and posek ("decisor of Jewish law") living in Bnei Brak, Israel. He is the author of several works of Jewish law, such as "Derech Emunoh" ("The Path of Faith"), on agricultural laws and "Shoneh Halachos" (a systematic presentation of the popular work Mishnah Berurah). His Halakhic rulings regarding prayer are recorded in "Ishei Yisroel". He is the son of Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky ("the Steipler"), …

Rabbi Samuel Belkin (1911-1976) is best known as the second University President of Yeshiva University. He was born in Swislocz, Poland and studied in the yeshivas of Slonim and Mir. He went to the United States in 1929 and received his doctorate (concerned with the writings of Philo) at Brown University in 1935, one of the first awarded for Judaic studies in academia. He then joined the faculty of Yeshiva College, New York, …

Philip S. Berg (original name Feivel Gruberger) is the rabbi and current Dean of the worldwide Kabbalah Centre organization, as well as its main figurehead. He is known for his position that the Kabbalah should no longer be taught exclusively to a selected few Jewish scholars, but should instead become a shared wealth of practical wisdom available to all of humankind, and was the first translator of the complete Zohar into the English language.

Yechiel Michel Epstein (1829-1907), often called "the "Aruch ha-Shulchan" (after his main work, Aruch HaShulchan), was a Rabbi and "posek" (authority in Jewish law) in Lithuania. His surname is often preceded by "ha-Levi", as he descended from a family of Levites.

Chaim (Halevi) Soloveitchik, a method of highly exacting and analytical Talmudical study that focuses on precise definition/s and categorization/s of Jewish law as commanded in the Torah with particular emphasis on the legal writings of Maimonides. His primary work was "Chiddushei Rabbeinu Chaim", a volume of insights on Maimonides' Mishnah Torah which often would suggest novel understandings of the Talmud as well.

Daniel Sinclair is a scholar of Jewish law (Halakhah) who specializes in contemporary Jewish medical ethics. His books include "Tradition and the biological revolution" (1989) and "Jewish biomedical law: Legal and extra-legal dimensions" (2003). Sinclair also has authored a number of articles on Jewish ethics and written about Israeli applications of Jewish law (Mishpat Ivri). Among other topics, he has written on Jewish approaches to abortion, …

Israel Bruna (1400 - 1480) was a German rabbi and "Posek" (decisor on Jewish Law). He is also known as Mahari Bruna, the Hebrew acronym for "Our Teacher, the Rabbi, Israel Bruna". Rabbi Bruna is best known as one of the primary Ashkenazi authorities quoted by Moses Isserles in the "Shulkhan Arukh".

Rabbi Yosef Sholom Eliashiv is a Haredi rabbi and "posek" (arbiter of Jewish law) who lives in Jerusalem, Israel. Presently well into his nineties, he is active and remains the paramount leader of Israel's Lithuanian non-Hasidic Haredi Ashkenazi Jews (sometimes called by the old label of "misnagdim") who regard him as the "posek ha-dor", the contemporary leading authority on halakha, or Jewish law.

Rabbi Shmuel (HaLevi) Wosner is a prominent Haredi rabbi and posek ("decisor of Jewish law") living in Bnei Brak, Israel. Rabbi Wosner Was born in 1913 in Vienna, Austria and he learned at the famous Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin lead by Rabbi Meir Shapiro and he was also a student of Rabbi Shimon of Zelicov who was the official supervisor and caretaker at the Yeshiva. In Vienna, he had known and befriended the late Rabbi Chanoch Dov Padwa.

Daniel S. ("Danny") Nevins (born 18 March 1966) is an American rabbi and an adherent of the Conservative Movement who was named the new Dean of the Rabbinical School of the Jewish Theological Seminary on January 29, 2007. He is currently the spiritual leader of Adat Shalom Synagogue in Farmington Hills, Michigan, but will leave his pulpit in July to assume his new position as dean of the Jewish Theological Seminary's rabbinical school.

Rabbi Yaakov Moelin was a Talmudist and "posek" (authority on Jewish law) best known for his codification of the customs ("minhagim") of the German Jews. He is also known as "Maharil" - the Hebrew acronym for "Our Teacher, the Rabbi, Yaakov Levi" - as well as "Mahari Segal" or "Mahari Moelin". Maharil's "Minhagim", was as a source of law for "HaMapah", …

Helena was queen of Adiabene and wife of Monobaz I. With her husband she was the mother of Izates II. She died about 56 CE. Her name and the fact that she was her husband's sister indicate a Hellenistic origin. Helena became a convert to Judaism about the year 30 CE. She was noted for her generosity; during a famine at Jerusalem she sent to Alexandria for corn and to Cyprus for dried figs for distribution among the sufferers from the famine. In the Talmud, however (B.

Shmuel Hakatan (literally "Shmuel" the Small) was a Babylonian Jew considered a great scholar of the Talmud, Jewish law and custom. He was one of the second generation of Tannaim, who served under the patriarch Gamliel II of Yavneh, during the last two decades of the first century CE. He is known for his great work on the Hebrew calendar in exilic times, which brought an end to the practice of witnesses testifying to the new moon.

Hillel ben Naphtali Zevi was a Lithuanian rabbi. He was born at Brest-Litovsk in 1615; died at Zolkiev January 3 1690. After he had studied under Hirsh Darshan, Hillel went to Vilna, where from 1650 to 1651 he was a member of the rabbinical college. He stayed at Wilna until 1666, then became rabbi in Kėdainiai and several other Lithuanian towns, was called in 1670 as rabbi to Altona and Hamburg, and in 1680 to Zolkiev.

Rabbi Dov Berish Weidenfeld was the Chief Rabbi of Tchebein (Trzebinia), Poland, and after World War II spent his final years in Jerusalem. His principal work of Jewish law is titled "Dovev Meisharim".

Michael Levi Rodkinson known for being the first to translate the Babylonian Talmud to English. Born with the surname Frumkin, he is the son of Alexander Sender Frumkin and half brother of Israel Dov Bär Frumkin, the editor of The Havatzeleth newspaper in Jerusalem, Arieh Tzvi Hirsch Frumkin and Guishe Frumkin-Navon. His grandfather was Aaron ha-Levi ben Moses of Staroselye, so he grew up in a Hasidic Chabad atmosphere.

Hayyim Joseph Gottlieb of Stropkov (Hebrew: חיים יוסף גאטליב), known as the Stropkover Rov, was a student of Rabbi Moshe Schreiber and author of "Tiv Gittin ve-Kiddushin". Upon completing his studies in 1823, he was appointed dayan and teacher in the town of his birth, Tertzal, Hungary, were he learnt together with his brother in law Rabbi Mordechai Ciment, and where he wrote extensively about Jewish law and Kabbalah.

Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Harfenes is an important Haredi posek ("decisor of Jewish law") and Scholar in the United States, residing in Williamsburgh, Brooklyn, New York. He is the author of "Yisroel Vehazmanim".