The youngest of five children, Ahron Soloveichik was born to
Moshe Soloveichik in
Khislavichi, Russia, at which time his father was the
rabbi of that town.
Joseph Soloveitchik and
Samuel Soloveichik were his older brothers. His family first moved to
Poland in 1920. Before his father moved to New York in 1929, Moshe engaged his student
Yitzchak Hutner to become Soloveichik's rebbe. Soloveichik was Hutner's first student. Soloveichik celebrated his
bar mitzvah in Warsaw and then immigrated with his family to join his father in the United States in 1930. After he graduated from
Yeshiva College, he went to law school at
New York University and graduated with a law degree in 1946. He then spent the next 20 years teaching at
yeshivas in
New York City. Soloveichik's first teaching position was in
Mesivtha Tifereth Jerusalem then headed by
Moshe Feinstein, from whom he received his
semikhah (rabbinic ordination). Shortly thereafter Soloveichik was appointed by
Hutner to give the highest daily lecture in
Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin. Soloveichik's final position in New York was at
Yeshiva University, where he instituted a weekly
hashkafa class in addition to giving one of the advanced daily Talmud classes, and where he was the first rabbi to be named Lecturer of the Year at Yeshiva University. In 1966, he moved to
Chicago to head the
Hebrew Theological College in
Skokie, Illinois. After differing with the administration there on certain key issues, he was let go in 1974 and opened his own yeshiva as the
Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Brisk (
Brisk Rabbinical College) in Chicago, an American incarnation of the
Brisk yeshivas and
methods. Soloveichik taught
Torah for 58 years, the last 34 of which were in Chicago. Although a stroke in 1983 left him partially paralyzed he continued his duties at Yeshivas Brisk in Chicago and flew to New York every week to deliver a Talmudic lecture at
Yeshiva University (a position he accepted after his older brother Rabbi Dr.
Joseph B. Soloveitchik became ill and was unable to continue lecturing). His wife, Ella Shurin, was a writer and teacher. The couple raised six children all of whom are rabbis or women married to rabbis. His grandchildren include Rabbi Dr.
Meir Soloveichik (renowned scholar and writer) and Nachama Soloveichik (Communications Director for Senator
Pat Toomey and the
Nikki Haley 2024 presidential campaign). ==Works==