Yoel Schwartz and Yitzchak Goldstein

Abstract Rabbi Yoel Schwartz and Rabbi Yitzchak Goldstein both live their lives within the orbit of the Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jewish world. As youths, they both received traditional Jewish educations and then went on to do advanced rabbinical studies. Rabbi Schwartz has been a student at several of Israel’s most prestigious yeshivot (advanced rabbinical academies) including the Mir yeshiva in Jerusalem and the Ponevitz yeshiva in BneiBrak. He now is a member of the teaching faculty at Yeshiva D’var Yerushalyim in Jerusalem. He has published very widely on ethical issues in the Jewish tradition and has produced commentaries on biblical and rabbinic texts. In addition, he has addressed contemporary theological subjects in a variety of publications. For example, he has written about the issues surrounding conversion to Judaism; the issues of peace, materialism, and spirituality; and the holiness of the human body, as seen from an ultra-Orthodox perspective. He is also the author of a book in Hebrew entitled Zechut Avot (Merit ef the Fathers). Rabbi Goldstein did his rabbinic studies at Yeshiva Yoesodei Ha-Torah inJerusalem and now teaches at the Ithri yeshiva. He is the author of a number of articles for the important Encyclopedia ef the Talmud published in [Hebrew] in Jerusalem.