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This concluding chapter addresses the issue of Rabbi Jehiel Jacob Weinberg's lasting importance. Because Weinberg's form of Orthodoxy has been forced on to the defensive in recent years, it is no surprise that the so-called Modern Orthodox look towards him as a guiding light in their encounter with modernity. His name is often brought up in Modern Orthodox writings, for he identified with the ideals of this ‘movement’. He believed in a halakhah which responded to social change wherever possible, and was frightened by the rising extremism in Orthodoxy. Therefore, the chapter reveals that the Modern Orthodox claim Weinberg as one of their own, and draw inferences from his published opinions to cases which were not yet relevant in his time. As such, Weinberg stands out as an icon of Modern Orthodoxy.

This chapter reviews the book Beyond Sectarianism: The Realignment of American Orthodox Judaism (2015), by Adam Ferziger. In Beyond Sectarianism, Ferziger chronicles the evolution of American Jewish Orthodoxy during the last seventy-five years. He begins with stating the fact that Orthodox affiliations today are voluntary, emerging out of choices made in the modern world. Although Ferziger necessarily talks about early settlers who brought Orthodoxy to America, American Orthodoxy traces its roots to those who came as refugees from persecutions. Those Orthodox Jews have become divided into two main groups: those who embrace insularity and a mono-culture, distancing themselves from mainstream society, versus those who seek to become integrated, albeit not at the cost of relinquishing their (often contradictory) commitments to Orthodoxy. Ferziger’s goal is to point out the signs foreshadowing the current crisis of Modern Orthodoxy.

This chapter details the author's attempts to reach the Council of Torah Sages. In the world of Modern Orthodoxy exemplified by the Rabbinical Council of America, the author has friends, acquaintances, former students, and a modicum of standing, so that the author could accomplish something from within. The leaders of Traditionalist Orthodoxy, marked by greater insularity and profound reservations about higher secular education, are far less accessible to the author. Committed to the authority of da'at torah, or ‘the opinion of the Torah’, the Traditionalist Orthodox Agudath Israel has set up a group of distinguished rabbis (gedolim) empowered to decide issues of both Jewish law and public policy. This Council of Torah Sages (Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah) and its equivalent bodies in Israel hold a position of unparalleled influence in a major segment of Orthodoxy, and the leading authorities in that community command great respect among Modern Orthodox Jews as well. The author sent the rabbis copies of the exchange in Jewish Action, the author's letter to the RCA, and two additional letters commenting on the RCA resolution and the controversy over Rabbi Soloveichik's statements. In the absence of any response, the author had no way of assessing the reaction.

This chapter focuses on the rabbis in Russia in the 1860s and 1870s who, with a measure of enlightenment, aspired to reform Jewish society. In this period, the gap between maskilim and traditional Jews was not as wide as is usually thought. The chapter then cautions against a simple dualistic view of the relationship between Haskalah and tradition, describing a group of Lithuanian rabbis who were involved in demands for reform in the spirit of an Enlightenment which turned Zionist in the 1880s. Like the moderate maskilim in eastern Europe, these rabbis tried to fuse Enlightenment and tradition. Ultimately, they can be regarded as the source of modern Orthodoxy in Israel and the United States.