Rabbi David Golinkin – A Biographical Sketch

January 2010

Rabbi David Golinkin was born and raised in Arlington, Virginia. He made aliyah in 1972, earning a B.A. in Jewish History and two teaching certificates from The Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He received an M.A. in Rabbinics and a Ph.D. in Talmud from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America where he was also ordained as Rabbi.

Prof. Golinkin is President and Professor of Jewish Law at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. For twenty years he served as Chair of the Va’ad Halakhah (Law Committee) of the Rabbinical Assembly which writes responsa and gives halakhic guidance to the Masorti (Conservative) Movement in Israel. He is the founder and Director of the Institute of Applied Halakhah at The Schechter Institute whose goal is to publish a library of halakhic literature for the Conservative and Masorti Movements. He is also the Director of the Center for Women in Jewish Law at the Schechter Institute whose goal is to publish responsa and books by and about women in Jewish law.

Rabbi Golinkin is the author or editor of forty books, including Halakhah for Our Time, An Index of Conservative Responsa and Halakhic Studies 1917-1990, Responsa of the Va’ad Halakhah, Be’er Tuvia, The Responsa of Prof. Louis Ginzberg, Rediscovering the Art of Jewish Prayer, Proceedings of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards 1927-1970, Ginzey Rosh Hashanah, Responsa in a Moment, The Jewish Law Watch, The Status of Women in Jewish Law: Responsa, The Shoah Scroll, Insight Israel: The View from Schechter (2 volumes), To Learn and to Teach, The High Holy Days by Rabbi Hayyim Kieval, Responsa and Halakhic Studies by Rabbi Isaac Klein, Za’akat Dalot: Halakhic Solutions for the Agunot of our Time, Taking the Plunge by Rabbi Miriam Berkowitz, Essays in Jewish Studies in Honor of Prof. Shamma Friedman, Jewish Education for What? and other Essays by Walter Ackerman, The Schechter Haggadah, and the Hebrew edition of Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg. He authored a column entitled “Responsa” which appeared in Moment magazine from 1990-1996. From 2000-2006 he authored a monthly email column entitled “Insight Israel” at www.schechter.edu. His current email column on that website is entitled “Responsa in a Moment”. He has published over 190 articles, responsa and sermons.