1. Shlomo Riskin is an Orthodox rabbi, and the founding rabbi of Lincoln Square Synagogue on the Upper West Side of New York City, which he led for 20 years; founding chief rabbi of the Israeli settlement of Efrat in the Israeli-occupied West Bank; former dean of Manhattan Day School in New York City; and founder and Chancellor of the Ohr Torah Stone Institutions, a network of high schools, colleges, and graduate Programs in the United States and Israel.
Shlomo Riskin was born on May 28,1940, in Brooklyn, New York.
In 1963, Riskin received his master's degree in Jewish history, and he completed a Ph.
At the age of 23, Shlomo Riskin became the founding rabbi of Lincoln Square Synagogue in New York City and served in that position until 1983.
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin transformed the Conservative minyan into one of New York's most innovative and dynamic Orthodox communities.
Shlomo Riskin was the chairman of Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, the first American national movement to free Russian Jews.
In 1983, Shlomo Riskin immigrated to the Israeli settlement of Efrat in the Israeli-occupied West Bank with his family, where he became the founding Chief Rabbi, a position he held until 2020.
In Israel, Shlomo Riskin has established a network of high schools, colleges, graduate programs, seminaries and rabbinical schools under the name Ohr Torah Stone Institutions with a total student enrollment numbering in the thousands.
Shlomo Riskin has dedicated himself to training a new generation of leaders for the Orthodox Jewish world.
Shlomo Riskin now has hundreds of former students serving as rabbis and educators in Israel and throughout the world.
Shlomo Riskin has pioneered the rights of women in the world of Orthodox Judaism.
Shlomo Riskin broadened women's participation in public religious practices, and declared that women could hold their own celebration of Simhat Torah.
Shlomo Riskin co-founded a women's college, Midreshet Lindenbaum, a prominent seminary for Orthodox women.
The women were ordained by Shlomo Riskin, after completing Midreshet Lindenbaum women's college five-year ordination course in advanced studies in Jewish law, as well as passing examinations equivalent to the rabbinate's requirement for men.
In 1991, Shlomo Riskin issued a challenge in Israel's High Court to the laws which prevented women from serving as Toanot - advocates in the Rabbinical Court.
Shlomo Riskin won the case and established the first program for the training of women advocates in the religious courts.
Shlomo Riskin is an advocate of prenuptial agreements as a solution for the problem of recalcitrant husbands.
Parallel to these institutions, Shlomo Riskin established the first ever programs for young men and women from the Diaspora with severe learning and developmental difficulties to spend a year studying Torah in Israel while gaining vocational training.
Shlomo Riskin is a forceful spokesperson for Jews and Israel, and against anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism.
In 2018, Shlomo Riskin was awarded the Bonei Zion Prize for outstanding achievements in Education.
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin was accused of comparing US President Barack Obama to the antagonist of the Book of Esther, Haman, in a March 28,2015, speech in the Great Synagogue in Jerusalem.
In 2010, Shlomo Riskin appeared in a video where he referenced Jesus with a title of Rabbi, and called Jesus a "model Rabbi", referring to the historical origins of Jesus as a Jew, and not of the modern perception of Jesus.
Shlomo Riskin explained in an additional statement that a poor edit to the video left out his explanation elaborating upon the fundamental differences between the religions, and the historical context within which his statements were made.