Dov Linzer
{{Short description|New York rabbi}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Rabbi Dov Linzer
| image =
| native_name = דב נתן לינזר
| native_name_lang = Hebrew
| birth_name = David Barry Linzer
| birth_date = September 16, 1966
| birth_place = Silver Spring, Maryland
| death_date =
| death_place =
| years_active =
| occupation = Rabbi, teacher, lecturer, author, podcaster
| spouse = Devorah Zlochower
| children = Kasriel, Netanel
| alma_mater = Yeshivat Har Etzion, Yeshiva University, University of Maryland, Columbia University
| website = rabbidovlinzer.blogspot.com, www.the-daf.com, weeklyparsha.wordpress.com
}}
Rabbi Dov Linzer (Hebrew: דב נתן לינזר; born September 16, 1966) is the President and Rabbinic Head (Rosh HaYeshiva) of the Modern Orthodox Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School in Riverdale, New York. He is a teacher, lecturer, podcaster, and author.
He has a BA in philosophy from the University of Maryland, semicha from the Israeli Rabbinate and is a doctoral candidate in religion at Columbia University. He is an alumnus of Yeshivat Har Etzion and Yeshiva University's Gruss Kollel Elyon. Rabbi Linzer has been a scholar-in-residence in synagogues across the United States, and has published in numerous Talmudic journals and Jewish newspapers. Previously, he headed the Boca Raton Kollel, one of the first Modern Orthodox kollels, for the first two-and-a-half years of its existence.{{Cite web|title=Speaker Info|url=http://www.edah.org/backend/coldfusion/speakerInfo.cfm?authorid=186&title=Chumrah|access-date=2022-01-20|website=www.edah.org}}{{Cite web|title=Halacha & Science: Sympathies and Strategies - OU-JLIC|url=https://oujlic.org/shiurim/halacha_science_sympathies_and_strategies/|access-date=2022-01-20|website=oujlic.org|language=en}}
In 2011, Newsweek ranked him among the 50 most prominent rabbis in the United States,
{{cite news|url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/2011/04/14/most-influential-rabbis.html|publisher=thedailybeast.com|title=Most Influential Rabbis - The Daily Beast|newspaper=The Daily Beast |date=14 April 2011 |access-date=2017-02-24}} stating that "Linzer's students now hold some of the most prominent positions in shuls and Hillels all over the country" and that his school's "alumni will undoubtedly alter the fabric of Modern Orthodoxy".
In 2008, Linzer received the prestigious Avi Chai Fellowship,{{cite web |url=http://avichai.org/press-room/press-room/press-releases/2008-fellow/ |title=AVI CHAI » 2008 AVI CHAI Fellows Announced |access-date=2012-01-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120717182557/http://avichai.org/press-room/press-room/press-releases/2008-fellow/ |archive-date=2012-07-17 }}{{cite web|url=http://www.thejewishweek.com/features/creative_thinkers_get_big_bucks|publisher=thejewishweek.com|title=www.thejewishweek.com/features/creative_thinkers_get_big_bucks|access-date=2017-02-24}}{{dead link|date=September 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} awarded to emerging communal and educational leaders.
Yeshivat Chovevei Torah
Linzer has been the Rabbinic Head of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah since its founding in 1999. He was named its dean, assuming ultimate responsibility of both the religious studies and the professional training, in October, 2007. He is recognized as a left leaning, novel styled scholar in the community,{{cite web|url=http://commie.droryikra.com/v67i7/features/reits.html|publisher=commie.droryikra.com|title=Students Choose Between RIETS and Chovevei Torah|access-date=2017-02-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305015823/http://commie.droryikra.com/v67i7/features/reits.html|archive-date=2016-03-05|url-status=dead}} and is the primary architect of the school's innovative curriculum.{{cite web|url=http://www.brandeis.edu/mandel/teachingrabbinics/presenters.html#Anchor-Dov-42424|publisher=brandeis.edu|title=Conference on Teaching Rabbinic Literature: Bridging Scholarship and Pedagogy | Brandeis University|access-date=2017-02-24}} In 2018 Rabbi Linzer was appointed as President of the yeshiva while continuing to serve as its Rabbinic Head. Linzer also teaches Halakha and Jewish Thought to the school's rabbinical students.
In 2008, Linzer's Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, together with JOFA and the Drisha Institute sponsored a conference entitled "Demystifying Sex and Teaching Halacha: A Kallah (Jewish Bridal) Teacher's Workshop,"{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/03/us/03religion.html | work=The New York Times | title=Among Orthodox Jews, More Openness on Sexuality | date=May 3, 2008}} to address issues of sex and sexuality into classes given to Orthodox brides prior to their wedding.
Linzer delivers a daily Daf Yomi class to men and women, available on iTunes{{cite web|url=https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daf-yomi-by-rabbi-dov-linzer/id386842781|publisher=iTunes|title=Daf Yomi from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah by Rabbi Dov Linzer, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah on iTunes|access-date=2017-02-24}} and YouTube.{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/user/YCTorah|publisher=YouTube|title=www.youtube.com/user/YCTorah|access-date=2017-02-24}}
Two-Ring Ceremony
In 2003, Linzer wrote an article, "Towards a More Balanced Wedding Ceremony,",{{cite web|url=http://www.jofa.org/pdf/JofaSummer2003.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2012-01-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081006063856/http://www.jofa.org/pdf/JofaSummer2003.pdf |archive-date=2008-10-06 }}{{cite web|url=http://www.myjewishlearning.com/life/Life_Events/Weddings/Contemporary_Issues/Egalitarianism/Jewish_Law.shtml|publisher=My Jewish Learning|title=Toward a More Balanced Wedding Ceremony - My Jewish Learning|access-date=2017-02-24}} describing ways of creating a more gender-balanced wedding ceremony while keeping within the letter of Jewish Law. His most innovative suggestion was that of a halakhic two-ring ceremony, informally known as the "Linzer Two-Ring Ceremony".{{cite web|url=http://www.myjewishlearning.com/life/Life_Events/Weddings/Contemporary_Issues/Egalitarianism/Double_Ring_Ceremonies.shtml|publisher=My Jewish Learning|title=Double Ring Ceremonies - My Jewish Learning|access-date=2017-02-24}}{{cite web|url=http://alternativestokiddushin.wordpress.com/2006/07/30/the-linzer-model/|publisher=alternativestokiddushin.wordpress.com|title=The Linzer Model | The Kiddushin Variations|date=30 July 2006 |access-date=2017-02-24}} A standard Orthodox wedding ceremony has only the groom giving a ring to the bride and does not allow for the bride to give a ring to the groom other than in a purely symbolic fashion after the ceremony was completed. In contrast, Linzer's model has the bride giving a ring immediately after the groom does so, in the presence of witnesses, and serving a substantive halakhic (Jewish legal) function. This ceremony is seeing increasing use among liberal couples.{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/04/fashion/weddings/04vows.html | work=The New York Times | first=Debra | last=Galant | title=Tamara York and David Lowin | date=September 4, 2005}}
Public Positions
Linzer has taken a public stand on a number of crucial and at times controversial issues within the Orthodox Jewish community. In 2006, he was the only Orthodox rabbi to go on record supporting the naming of Dina Najman as spiritual leader of the Orthodox congregation, Kehilat Orach Eliezer.{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/21/nyregion/21rabbi.html | work=The New York Times | first=Michael | last=Luo | title=An Orthodox Jewish Woman, and Soon, a Spiritual Leader | date=August 21, 2006}}
Linzer, together with his wife, Devorah Zlochower, has been outspoken about the Orthodox community's responsibility to address children of special needs in its schools, synagogues and communal institutions.{{cite web|url=http://rabbidovlinzer.blogspot.com/2009/11/invisible-disability-kids-are-being.html|publisher=rabbidovlinzer.blogspot.com|title=A Message from the Rosh HaYeshiva: 'Invisible Disability' Kids Are Being Left Out|access-date=2017-02-24}}{{cite web|url=http://www.thejewishweek.com/blogs/adam_dickters_continuum/small_steps_toward_inclusion|publisher=thejewishweek.com|title=Small Steps Toward Inclusion | Jewish Week|access-date=2017-02-24|archive-date=2016-03-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304050859/http://www.thejewishweek.com/blogs/adam_dickters_continuum/small_steps_toward_inclusion|url-status=dead}} At Linzer's Chovevei Torah, rabbinical students receive special training in inclusion for people with physical, developmental and learning disabilities.{{cite web|url=http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new_york/special_needs_families_fighting_jewish_day_schools|publisher=thejewishweek.com|title=www.thejewishweek.com/news/new_york/special_needs_families_fighting_jewish_day_schools|access-date=2017-02-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160405155318/http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new_york/special_needs_families_fighting_jewish_day_schools|archive-date=2016-04-05|url-status=dead}}
In 2010, a paper commissioned by the Rabbinical Council of America voiced serious reservations as to the validity of brain-stem death as the Jewish legal definition of death.{{cite web|url=http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new_york/rca_backs_stand_brain_death_transplants|publisher=thejewishweek.com|title=RCA Backs Off Stand On Brain Death For Transplants | Jewish Week|access-date=2017-02-24|archive-date=2016-03-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304044538/http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new_york/rca_backs_stand_brain_death_transplants|url-status=dead}} The rejection of this definition would make almost all organ-transplants forbidden by Jewish Law. Linzer authored a "Rabbinic Statement Regarding Organ Donation and Brain Death",{{cite web|url=http://organdonationstatement.blogspot.com/|publisher=organdonationstatement.blogspot.com|title=Rabbinic Statement Regarding Organ Donation and Brain Death|access-date=2017-02-24}} reaffirming the legitimacy of the brain-death definition and critiquing those who would be prepared to receive organs but refuse to donate them.{{cite web|url=http://www.thejewishweek.com/editorial_opinion/letters/moral_consistency|publisher=thejewishweek.com|title=Moral Consistency | Jewish Week|access-date=2017-02-24|archive-date=2016-03-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304094334/http://www.thejewishweek.com/editorial_opinion/letters/moral_consistency|url-status=dead}} This statement was signed by over 100 rabbis, including some of the most prominent Modern Orthodox rabbis in the U.S. and Israel. The RCA subsequently backed away from the implications of its paper.{{cite web|url=http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new_york/pushback_some_orthodox_rabbis_brain_death_ruling|publisher=thejewishweek.com|title=Pushback From Some Orthodox Rabbis On Brain-Death Ruling | Jewish Week|access-date=2017-02-24|archive-date=2016-03-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304073115/http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new_york/pushback_some_orthodox_rabbis_brain_death_ruling|url-status=dead}} The Agudath Israel of America then issued a statement which affirmed the halakhic validity of the original 2010 paper commissioned by the RCA as reflecting the position of "a majority of major poskim today".{{cite web|url=http://torahmusings.com/2011/01/statement-re-statement-re-brain-death/|publisher=torahmusings.com|title=Statement re Statement re Brain Death - - | - Torah Musings|date=18 January 2011 |access-date=2017-02-24}} This, in turn, prompted the journal Tradition to publish a philosophical analysis of the merits of both Rabbi Linzer's and the Agudath Israel of America's respective statements.{{cite web|url=http://text.rcarabbis.org/the-rabbi-linzer-%e2%80%93-agudath-israel-debate-on-brain-death-methodological-considerations-by-aryeh-klapper/|publisher=text.rcarabbis.org|title=The Rabbi Linzer – Agudath Israel Debate on Brain Death: Methodological Considerations by Aryeh Klapper | Text & Texture|access-date=2017-02-24|archive-date=2017-02-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170225132042/http://text.rcarabbis.org/the-rabbi-linzer-%e2%80%93-agudath-israel-debate-on-brain-death-methodological-considerations-by-aryeh-klapper/|url-status=dead}}
Organizations
- Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (headed by Linzer)
Works
- {{cite book |title=Mishpetei Shalom: A Jubilee Volume in Honor of Rabbi Saul (Shalom) Berman |chapter=Tza'ar Ba'alei Chaim (Animal Suffering): A Case Study in Halakha and Values|editor1-first=Yamin |editor1-last=Levy |last=Linzer |first=Dov |year=2010 |publisher= KTAV Publishing House|location=Hoboken, NJ |isbn= 978-1-60280-147-9}}
- {{cite book |title=It Takes Two To Torah: An Orthodox Rabbi and Reform Journalist Discuss and Debate Their Way Through the Five Books of Moses | last1=Linzer |first1=Dov | last2=Pogrebin| first2=Abigail | year=2024 |publisher= Fig Tree Books |location= Bedford, NY |isbn= 978-1-941493-34-2}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://rabbidovlinzer.blogspot.com Linzer's Blog]
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Category:American Modern Orthodox rabbis
Category:Religious leaders from the Bronx
Category:20th-century American rabbis