Natan Slifkin

Natan Slifkin also Nosson Slifkin (Hebrew: נתן סליפקין‎‎; born 25 June 1975 in Manchester, England), popularly known as the "Zoo Rabbi", is a British-born Israeli Orthodox rabbi (non-pulpit serving) and director of the Biblical Museum of Natural History in Beit Shemesh, Israel. He best known for his interest in zoology, science and for his books on these topics, which are controversial to Haredi Jews.

Slifkin was born and raised in Manchester, United Kingdom, where he studied at a local yeshiva. He left in 1995 to continue his studies in the Medrash Shmuel yeshiva and Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem, Israel. He was ordained at Ohr Somayach Institutions, where he taught Talmud and contemporary Judaism. He now lives with his family in Ramat Beit Shemesh, where he teaches at Yeshivat Lev HaTorah. Slifkin has a master's degree in Judaic Studies from the Lander Institute in Jerusalem and a doctorate in Jewish History from Bar-Ilan University, completed in 2016. His dissertation was entitled: Rabbinic and Maskilic Encounters with Zoology in the Nineteenth Century.

Slifkin explores traditional rabbinic perspectives in his books and discusses how they may relate to issues of interest to modern science. Slifkin is the author of numerous books dealing with the Torah, science and zoology. In Slifkin's approach to the reconciliation of Genesis and modern scientific theory, traditional Judaism mandates neither a literalistic approach to Biblical cosmology, nor a belief that the Talmud is always correct about scientific matters. Views similar to these were accepted by some as within the realm of Orthodox Judaism. A public debate began about Slifkin's books about the question of how literally Orthodox Judaism interprets the Torah and how much weight should be given to the scientific discussions of rabbinic sages.

...
Wikipedia