Emanuel Rackman

Who was Emanuel Rackman?

Rabbi Emanuel Rackman was an American Modern Orthodox Rabbi, who held pulpits in major congregations and helped draw attention to the plight of Refuseniks in the then-Soviet Union and attempted to resolve the dilemma of the Agunah, a woman who cannot remarry because her husband will not grant a Get, the required religious divorce degree that would free her to remarry under Halacha.

Rackman was born in Albany, New York on June 24, 1910. He graduated from the Talmudical Academy in 1927, as its valedictorian. Rackman asked for a one-year deferral from Columbia University, and spent the entire year working towards semicha at Yeshiva University, where he was in the shiur of Rabbi Moshe Soloveichik. The following year he started splitting his time, spending half of each day at Columbia and the other half at YU. He earned a bachelors degree from Columbia University in 1931 and was awarded a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1933; He was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy from Columbia in 1953. During that time, he also studied for and received his semicha from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University, which was awarded in 1934, signed by Rabbis Samuel Belkin and Moshe Soloveichik.