Orthodox Roundtable

Orthodox Roundtable (a.k.a. The RCA Roundtable) was a Modern Orthodox rabbinic think tank that functioned from 1988 until 1994. Originally conceived by a group of orthodox rabbis and laypersons in the New York area, the goal of the Roundtable was to promote halakhic discussion of pressing contemporary issues, and to suggest solidly grounded responses to those problems. The solutions offered were meant to reflect authentic, valid halakhic responses that would reflect the spectrum of the Modern Orthodox community. In this sense, the group would provide a counterbalance to the already palpable 'shift to the right' that appeared to characterize orthodox Jewish legal authorities and thinking. From 1990 until 1992, the group was officially part of the Rabbinical Council of America, whose president, Rabbi Marc Angel, was a founding member of the group.

The initial organization of the Roundtable was undertaken in the Spring of 1988 by Rabbi Jeffrey Woolf, at the behest of prominent lay and rabbinic leaders from Riverdale, NY, where he resided. Woolf, who had studied for ten years under Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik and was a doctoral candidate at Harvard University, was suggested to the founders as a good representative of Modern Orthodox principles. Over the next few months, a group of prominent Orthodox Rabbis agreed to join the initiative. Most, though not all, were graduates of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) of Yeshiva University, and had themselves studied under Rabbi Soloveitchik.

The initial core group included: Rabbis J. Simcha Cohen, Reuven Bulka, Yosef Adler, Haskel Lookstein, Marc Angel, Yitz Greenberg, Jacob J. Schacter, Daniel Landes, Mark Dratch, Michael Broyde, Louis Bernstein, Abner Weiss, Daniel Tropper and Saul Berman. The group was later joined by Rabbis Simcha Weinberg and Adam Mintz. In the interim Rabbi Schacter resigned from the group. Rabbis Cohen and Bulka were elected as co-chairmen. Rabbi Woolf was appointed as Executive Chairman.

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