Rabbi Soloveichik Gives Invocation

By COLlive reporter

Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik, the scion of a storied rabbinical family, has delivered the invocation at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, on Tuesday.

An associate rabbi at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Soloveichik is the founding director of the Zahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University (YU).

“He is a leader of his community and was recommended by a friend of the campaign,” said GOP spokesman Kyle Downey in an emailed statement, before the speech.

Soloveichik, 35, has recently been mentioned as a potential candidate to succeed Chief Rabbi of Britain Jonathan Sacks.

His invocation went down well with the convention’s participants who offered 2 rounds of applause, an uncommon reaction to a prayer.

To his former educator, Rabbi Yitzchok Wolf, it was no surprise.

Before moving to New York at age 16, Soloveichik received his elementary school education at Cheder Lubavitch Hebrew Day School in Chicago, where he was born.

Soloveichik learned there with his siblings and Rabbi Wolf, Dean of the Cheder Lubavitch, recalls how “Meir Yakov was always a top student, full of energy and loved by all his classmates.”

He later studied at the Brisk Yeshiva in Chicago where his father Rabbi Eliyohu Soloveichik served as Magid Shiur and his scholarly grandfather Rabbi Aron Soloveichik OBM served as Rosh Hayeshiva.

Upon hearing of this great honor, Cheder Lubavitch joined hundreds of Chicagoans emailing him congratulations and best wishes for success in conveying the Blessings of the American Jewish community to the Republican gathering.

Soloveichik opened with the Hebrew words “Ribono Shel Olam” and mentioned the State of Israel as “an island of liberty, democracy and hope.”

“Bless and guide Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan as they seek to lead this great nation,” Soloveichik prayed, not shying from the conservative political standing he is known for.