Rabbi Hyman E. Goldin, LL.B. (March 15, 1881, near

Vilna Vilnius ( , ; see also #Etymology and other names, other names) is the capital and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the munic ...

– March 1971) was a Lithuanian-American Orthodox

Rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

, attorney and Judaic scholar. A prolific author of English Jewish literature, he wrote over fifty works.Shmuel Goldin, ''Unlocking the Torah text'', 2007, p.v Hyman Elias Goldin studied at the

Yeshiva A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are st ...

of Vilna, where he was ordained a rabbi. According to a possibly-apocryphal story, Goldin was dismissed from the Yeshiva for studying the writings of

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...

at a time when Orthodox Jews considered evolution a to be heresy. He emigrated from the Eishyshok

shtetl A shtetl or shtetel (; yi, שטעטל, translit=shtetl (singular); שטעטלעך, romanized: ''shtetlekh'' (plural)) is a Yiddish term for the small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jewish populations which existed in Eastern Europe before ...

in Lithuania to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

in 1900, and settled in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. Goldin purchased 360 acres of land in the

Adirondack Mountains The Adirondack Mountains (; a-də-RÄN-dak) form a massif in northeastern New York with boundaries that correspond roughly to those of Adirondack Park. They cover about 5,000 square miles (13,000 km2). The mountains form a roughly circular ...

and established children's summer camps and the Blue Sky Lodge Hotel, which become a meeting ground for modern Orthodox thinkers. Jewish chaplain to Comstock Prison from 1932 to 1947, Goldin collaborated with two prisoners to write a ''Dictionary of American Underworld Lingo'' (1950). His ''The Case of the Nazarene Reopened'' (1948), written in the form of a court transcript, acquitted the Jews of the charge of killing

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

. Goldin translated the '' Kitzur Shulchan Aruch,'' an abridged version of the

Shulchan Aruch The ''Shulchan Aruch'' ( he, שֻׁלְחָן עָרוּך , literally: "Set Table"), sometimes dubbed in English as the Code of Jewish Law, is the most widely consulted of the various legal codes in Judaism. It was authored in Safed (today in I ...

(The standard code of Jewish law), publishing his translation in 1961. He also authored works on Jewish history, family life, religious festivals, Hebrew and Yiddish primers, and translated several works of the

Mishnah The Mishnah or the Mishna (; he, מִשְׁנָה, "study by repetition", from the verb ''shanah'' , or "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions which is known as the Oral Tor ...

. His grandson, Rabbi Shmuel Goldin, is Rabbi Emeritus of

Congregation Ahavath Torah Congregation Ahavath Torah is a Modern Orthodox Modern may refer to: History *Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemas ...

(Englewood, NJ) and a past president of the

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Goldin, Hyman 1881 births 1972 deaths Hebrew–English translators American Orthodox rabbis American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent Jewish American writers Lithuanian Orthodox rabbis 20th-century translators 19th-century Lithuanian rabbis