A sampling
Louis Ginzberg - wikipedia
Ginzberg was born into a religious family whose piety and erudition was well known. The family traced its lineage back to the legendary Gaon of Vilna. In his own mind, Ginzberg emulated the Vilna Gaon's intermingling of 'academic knowledge' in Torah studies under the label 'historical Judaism'. In his book "Students, Scholars and Saints", Ginzberg quotes the Vilna Gaon instructing, "Do not regard the views of the Shulchan Aruch as binding if you think that they are not in agreement with those of the Talmud."
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Five years later, Rabbi Isaac Simha Hurewitz, an Orthodox rabbi from Hartford, Connecticut, challenged Ginzberg's ruling on unfermented wine. The critique did not appear in the newspapers for the masses to read; rather it was only to be found in his commentary, the Yad Levi, on Sefer HaMitzvot. Rabbi Hurewitz did not just challenge Ginzberg's responsa based on legal logic. Part and parcel of Hurewitz's attack is an attempted character assassination on Ginzberg himself: Rabbi Hurewitz prepares a twofold attack. First he attacks the Conservative Movement by calling them Karaites and thus attempts to diminish Ginzberg's status as a legitimate rabbinic authority. Though he does not mention Ginzberg by name, it is obvious that Hurewitz was familiar with both the activities of the Conservative Movement and Ginzberg's responsa. Second, he attacks the erudition of Ginzberg. He says that 'Ginzberg does not have a brain' since even a non-Jewish child could tell you that wine is tastier and preferred to grape juice'. Thus, with this ad hominem attack he claims that all of Ginzberg's intellectual arguments are invalid. Rabbi Hurewitz exemplifies the Orthodox stance that recognized Ginzberg as the leader of Conservative Judaism in the 1920s, whether or not Ginzberg would have agreed.
Vilna Gaon
Enlightenment - The Experience Festival
http://www.experiencefestival.com/vilna_gaon_-_antagonism_to_hasidism
http://www.experiencefestival.com/vilna_gaon_-_antagonism_to_hasidism
When Hasidic Judaism became influential in his native town Elijah, joining the rabbis and heads of the Polish communities, took steps to check the Hasidic influence. In 1777 the first excommunication by the Mitnagdim was launched at Vilna against the Hasidim, while a letter was also addressed to all the large communities, exhorting them to deal with the Hasidim after the example of Vilna, and to watch them until they had recanted. The letter was acted upon by several communities; and in Brody, during the fair, the cherem (ban of ....
Agudah
Agudah attacks RCA deal with Rabbi Weiss | The Jewish Star
Shalom RRWThe decision to make a deal with Rabbi Weiss rather than expel him from the RCA was "deeply dismaying," the Agudah statement continued. "We trust that this capitulation does not represent the perspective of the principled majority of the organization's member rabbis," the statement concluded.
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