Straus Scholars Faculty
Yeshiva University Honors Leadership Society
Zahava and Moshael J. Straus Center
for Torah and Western Thought Scholars
Read more about our faculty, staff, and advisory board here.
Rabbi Dr. Meir Y. Soloveichik, Director
Rabbi Dr. Meir Y. Soloveichik is director of the Zahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University and rabbi at Congregation Shearith Israel in Manhattan. He graduated summa cum laude from Yeshiva College, received his semikha from RIETS, and was a member of its Beren Kollel Elyon. In 2010, he received his doctorate in religion from Princeton University. Rabbi Soloveichik has lectured throughout the United States, in Europe, and in Israel to both Jewish and non-Jewish audiences on topics relating to Jewish theology, bioethics, wartime ethics, and Jewish-Christian relations. His essays on these subjects have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Commentary, First Things, Azure, Tradition, and the Torah U-Madda Journal. He is the author of Providence and Power: Ten Portraits in Jewish Statesmanship (Encounter Books, 2023) and Sacred Time (Maggid Books, 2024).
Dr. Shaina Trapedo, Resident Scholar
and Recruitment Officer
Dr. Shaina Trapedo is an Assistant Professor of English at Stern College. She is committed to exploring the connections between literacy, cultural identity, and social engagement in her teaching and scholarship. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Irvine, and her current book project, From Scripture to Script: David, Daniel, Esther and the Performance of Early Modern Identity, considers the affordances and risks of hermeneutic engagements on the Renaissance stage.
