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92_SR0212
LRB9210684RHrhA
1 SENATE RESOLUTION
2 WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate wish to
3 express their sincere condolences to the family and friends
4 of Rabbi Ahron Soloveichik, who passed away on October 5,
5 2001; and
6 WHEREAS, Rabbi Soloveichik was a member of a family of
7 world-renowned Talmudic scholars with a history that
8 stretches more than 200 years; and
9 WHEREAS, Rabbi Soloveichik was born in Khaslavichy,
10 Russia, where his father, Moshe, was the town's rabbi and
11 represented the eighth generation of a Talmudic legacy for
12 scholarship that dates to the 18th Century; his early years
13 were spent amid a wealth of guidance from the Torah's
14 "giants", including the Hafetz Haim, the Gerer rebbe, Yitzhak
15 Hutner, Menachem Zember, and Shlomo Zalman Kahane; and
16 WHEREAS, After the Communist Party took power in Russia,
17 the Soloveichik family moved to Poland, and, in 1930, to the
18 United States, where Moshe Soloveichik got a job teaching at
19 Yeshiva University; and
20 WHEREAS, After earning a law degree and teaching at
21 several schools in New York, Rabbi Soloveichik became the
22 rosh yeshiva, or spiritual leader and dean at Hebrew
23 Theological College in Skokie in 1966; he founded his own
24 Orthodox Jewish School, Brisk Yeshiva, in Chicago in 1974 and
25 remained the head of the school until his death; after a
26 debilitating heart attack in 1983, he continued traveling to
27 and from New York's Yeshiva University, where he became dean
28 after his brother's, death; and
29 WHEREAS, Over the years, Rabbi Soloveichik took many
30 controversial stands, including speaking out in support of
31 civil rights in the 1960s and opposing the Vietnam War; he
-2- LRB9210684RHrhA
1 was by his own account "old fashioned" and held to a view of
2 Israel that led him to be one of a few leading rabbis to
3 oppose the 1993 Oslo peace accords between Israel and
4 Palestine; and
5 WHEREAS, Rabbi Soloveichik has authored many books that
6 are considered the foremost works of modern Jewish thought;
7 his works include "Logic of the Heart", "Logic of the Mind",
8 and "The Warmth and the Light", as well as the prolific
9 volumes he authored in Hebrew; and
10 WHEREAS, The passing of Rabbi Ahron Soloveichik will be
11 felt deeply by those who knew and loved him, especially his
12 sons, Moshe, Chaim, Eliyhu, and Yosef; his daughters Tova
13 Seigal and Rochel Leeah Marcus; his 40 grandchildren; his 3
14 great-grandchildren; and his sisters, Shulamit Meiselman and
15 Anne Gerber; therefore, be it
16 RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-SECOND GENERAL
17 ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn, along with
18 all who knew him, the death of Rabbi Ahron Soloveichik of
19 Chicago, Illinois; and be it further
20 RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
21 presented to the family of Rabbi Ahron Soloveichik with our
22 sincere condolences.