Gems in the Commentator: Legacies and Open Orthodoxy

The last articles in the Legacies series:

• The Rav - How He Developed Psak and His Views of Daat Torah by R. Julius Berman
• The Rav: Public Giant, Private Mentsch by R. Norman Lamm
• Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik ("the Rav") as Pedagogue by Dr. Michael Chernik

Kudos to The Commentator and Zev Eleff in particular for creating this series.

Among the many interesting articles, there is an interview with Prof. Joel Roth of JTS (link). This question and answer caught my eye:

Commie: Even assuming that the laypeople would subscribe to halakha in the sense that the Conservative Movement views it, is that a movement which is really so different from the "Open Orthodoxy" espoused by Rabbi Avi Weiss? If not, what is the need for a Conservative Movement?

JR: If Open Orthodoxy is not radically different it's because they're really Conservative. I know they may reject such a claim. The truth is though if they're not radically different it's because they are in fact behaving the way the Conservative movement has always advocated. They're on their guard against being thrown out of the Orthodox world. They're being very careful to make sure that the world doesn't consider them to be conservative.

Yes, he did go there.