Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik was born on Rosh Hashanah 5675 (September 1914), in Minsk according to the encyclopedias, where refugees from Brisk had fled during World War I. His father, Rabbi Yisrael Gershon, was the eldest son of Rabbi Chaim of Brisk, who served as his sandak. He grew up in Brisk, where he formed a lifelong friendship with Rabbi Aharon Leib Steinman.

He studied at Yeshivas Toras Chesed in Brisk under Rabbi Moshe Sokolovsky, author of Imrei Moshe, and later at Yeshivas Knesses Beis Yitzchak in Kamenitz under Rabbi Baruch Ber Leibowitz. Before the war he left for Switzerland together with Rabbi Steinman, invited to teach at the Etz Chaim yeshiva in Montreux; his family, which remained in Brisk, perished in the Holocaust. After the war he studied at the Lomza Yeshiva in Petach Tikva and became close to the Chazon Ish.

Returning to Switzerland in 5709 (1948/49), he married Rivka, daughter of Rabbi Shmuel Zanvil Neuman of Lugano, and founded a yeshiva in Lugano that later moved to Lucerne. It marked a turning point for Orthodox youth in Switzerland. In the early 1960s he settled in Zurich.

In Zurich he held no official post but gave many shiurim in Gemara and Minchas Chinuch, and every Shabbat afternoon a lecture on Proverbs, Pirkei Avot and Psalms. He came to be regarded as one of the leaders of European Orthodox Jewry, consulted by many rabbis, and known for his humility and his care for the sick and distressed. In 5749 (1989) he initiated the founding of the Toras Chaim yeshiva in Moscow.

He passed away in Iyar 5755 (May 1995) and was buried on Har HaMenuchot in Jerusalem. Among his sons were Rabbi Yisrael, Rabbi Shmuel Chaim and Rabbi Baruch, rosh yeshiva of Toras Zev in Jerusalem.