YESHIVA UNIVERSITY
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FALL 2011
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VOLUME 15 • NO. 3
YUTODAY
Top-Tier Graduate Schools Accept MoreYU Alumni Than Ever
T
he new classes o 2014 and 2015 have arrived at YeshivaUniversity (YU) armed with personal and academic goals anda desire to succeed in whatever career path they choose. Forsome inspiration and encouragement, they can simply look toward YU’s current crop o students and alumni.At Stern College or Women, 30 students applied to medicalschool this past year, with 27 receiving oers o admission, including 17 to YU’s Albert Einstein College o Medicine, making them eligibleto apply or up to a ull tuition scholarship rom the Anne ScheiberFund. Stern’s 90 percent acceptance rate to medical schools is wellabove the national average o 60 percent.“As the years have progressed, the number o students interestedin the health elds has grown substantially, and the acceptance ratehas gotten better and better,” said Dr. Brenda Loewy, who has beenthe pre-health advisor at Stern or close to seven years. “This reectsthe high caliber o students that we are attracting, and is also indica-tive o the quality o education that they are receiving at Stern Col-lege, both in the overall curriculum and especially in the sciences.”One Stern student will be pursing a Ph.D. at Einstein in thebiomedical sciences, while two others will be pursuing Ph.D.s inchemistry, one at Princeton and the other at Columbia. Thirteenout o the 14 women who applied to dental school were also oeredacceptance to top schools, including Columbia, Harvard and theUniversity o Pennsylvania.
Yeshiva University welcomed over 600 new undergraduate students during Orientation 2011
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Creating Sense From Tragedy: Remembering 9/11
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hey elt helpless.Jessica Russak Homan,then a senior at Stern Collegeor Women, watched the two tow-ers o the World Trade Center all tothe ground rom the window o herapartment on Lexington Avenue.“One second you’re having a nor-mal morning, brushing your teeth,”she said. “The next you’re staring atthe television, at the window, at thesmoke, saying, ‘What do we do?’ ”Dodi-Lee Hecht heard the rstplane as it roared across Manhat-tan beore crashing into the SouthTower. A reshman rom Toronto,she turned to her new roommates,also rst-timers in New York City,and joked, “I that pilot’s not careul,he’ll y into a building.” The joke leta deep memory. “It was the kind o joke that was never going to be unny again,” she said.For students, aculty and sta o Yeshiva University on Sept.11, 2001, those memories are as vivid today as they were a decadeago. Their experiences dier prooundly, but together they cre-ate a shared narrative o shock and utility, marked by nightmarishplumes o smoke, the constant wail o sirens, and dazed, ash-coveredmasses o people walking uptown to escape the calamity.“There was this terrible, over-whelming sense o ear and dis-belie,” recalled Dr. Karen Bacon,Dr. Monique C. Katz Dean o SternCollege. “It was like a science c-tion movie. A bright, sunny day wasturned into one o tragedy and hor-ror, and I think or all o us it tookdays to internalize how things hadchanged.”Former students remember acity without hope, where three-hour-long lines to donate bloodwere suddenly dispersed becausethe projected casualties were allassumed dead and subway stationswere wallpapered with photos o the missing. Yet, with no woundedto aid, members o the YU com-munity responded to the devasta-tion o 9/11 with the ultimate
chesedshel emet
(genuine kindness): They dedicated their eorts to thosewho perished.Rabbi Daniel Rapp, then associate dean or undergraduate Ju-daic studies at YU, was tapped to serve on the committee investigat-ing the resulting
aguna
(chained wie) crisis. As one o the youngestmembers o the Beth Din o America, his understanding o currenttechnology, including computer
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Interesting new facts
about YU all the time.
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50
years ofYU and communityservice by RabbiAharon Lichtensteinand Rabbi Julius Berman
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99
YU alumni whohave served asPresidential Fellows
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Community kollelsand learning programsrun by CJF across thecountry this summer
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21
years Sheldon Gelmanserved as Wurzweilerdean, a record forsocial work schoolsin North America
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4
YU alumni selectedfor Wexner Fellowshipslast year
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116
YU student athletesnamed to the SkylineAcademic Honor Roll,the most in theconference
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September 11, 2001
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YESHIVA UNIVERSITY
YUTODAY
PHOTO GALLERIES
Orientation 2011
Over 600 new YU studentsarrived on campus duringOrientation 2011. To view ourull photo gallery, please visit
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CJF Missions
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Dr. Pava Leads New Team Forward at Syms
Y
U’s Syms School o Business has a newdirector. Dr. Moses Pava, Alvin EinbenderProessor o Business Ethics and proes-sor o accounting at Syms, is nowresponsible or both the undergrad-uate and graduate programs, report-ing directly to the provost’s ofce.Pava is the author o numerous booksand articles on corporate account-ability and is an expert on Jewishbusiness ethics. He has been withthe business school since 1988, haschaired the accounting departmentand served as chair o the ExecutiveFaculty Committee.“My goal as director or theSyms School o Business is tostrengthen our primary commitment to our en-ergetic, bright, ambitious and very hardworking students,” Pava said. “I view Syms as a dynamiclearning-community, dedicated—rst and ore-most—to preparing the next generation o highlysuccessul Jewish business leaders and pro-essionals in accounting, nance, marketing,management and entrepreneurship.”Michael Strauss, entrepreneur-in-residenceand clinical proessor o management at Syms,has been appointed associate director o studentadvising and administration at the school, wherehe has taught business courses or several years.Strauss is currently CEO o a company he oundedseveral years ago, BSae Electrix,Inc. and is also chairman o Sher-wood Consulting Group, Inc., whileserving on several advisory boards.Dr. Avi Giloni has been namedassociate director or academic re-search o Syms. Giloni has been withSyms since 2000 and chaired theInormation and Decision SciencesDepartment since its inception. Hisresearch is in robust orecasting,optimization, stochastic system de-sign and their applications to sup-ply chain management. Giloni haspublished papers in top-tier journals, including
Management Science
and the
SIAM Journal onOptimization
.Syms continues to pursue accreditationthrough the Association to Advance CollegiateSchools o Business International and recentlyreceived New York State approval or an executiveMBA program. The growing Master o Scienceprogram in accounting, which has graduated itssecond cohort, will continue under the director-ship o Dr. Joseph Kerstein.
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Packed House or Sen. JosephLieberman at New Straus Center
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FALL 2011
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VOLUME 15 • NO. 3DR. HENRY KRESSEL
Chairman, YU Board of Trustees
RICHARD M. JOEL DR. NORMAN LAMM
President Chancellor
YUTODAY
MAYER FERTIG YAFFI SPODEK GISEL PINEYRO
Editor in Chief Editor Art Director
Bruce Bobbins, Enrique Cubillo, Zev Ele, Norman Goldberg,Aliza (Berenholz) Peled, Peter Robertson, Tova RossPerel Skier, V. Jane Windsor, Matt Yaniv
Contributors
yutoday@yu.edu www.yu.edu/cpa
YUToday
is published quarterly by the Oce o Communications and Public Aairs and is distributedree to aculty, sta, students, alumni, donors and riends. It keeps them inormed o news romacross Yeshiva University’s undergraduate and graduate divisions and aliates. The quarterlynewsletter covers academic and campus lie, aculty and student research, community outreachand philanthropic support. It showcases the University’s mission o Torah Umadda, the combina-tion o Jewish study and values with secular learning, through stories about the diverse achieve-ments o the University community.
© Yeshiva University 2011 • Ofce of Communications and Public Affairs
Furst Hall Room 401 • 500 West 185th St. • New York, NY 10033-3201 • Tel.: 212.960.5285
Stanley I. Raskas, Chairman, Board o Overseers, Yeshiva College; Shira Yoshor, Chairman, Boardo Overseers, Stern College or Women; Alan Kestenbaum, Chairman, Board o Overseers, SymsSchool o Business; Ruth L. Gottesman, Chairperson, Board o Overseers, Albert Einstein Collegeo Medicine; Leslie E. Payson, Chair, Board o Overseers, Benjamin N. Cardozo School o Law;Froma Beneroe, Chair, Board o Overseers, Wurzweiler School o Social Work; Mordecai D.Katz, Chairman, Board o Overseers, Bernard Revel Graduate School o Jewish Studies; CarolBravmann, Chair, Board o Overseers, Ferkau Graduate School o Psychology; Moshael J. Straus,Chairman, Board o Overseers, Azrieli Graduate School o Jewish Education and Administration;Julius Berman, Chairman, Board o Trustees, (aliate) Rabbi Isaac Elchanan TheologicalSeminary; Miriam Goldberg, Chairman, Board o Trustees, YU High Schools; Theodore N. Mirvisand Michael Jesselson, Co-Chairs, Board o Directors, (aliate) Yeshiva University Museum.Board listings as o September 1, 2011.
T
he Zahava and Moshael Straus Center or Torah and WesternThought played a key role in the launch o Yeshiva University’snew academic year on Aug. 31, eaturing an appearance by U.S.Senator Joseph Lieberman o Connecticut. The program in LamportAuditorium drew more than 1,200 students, alumni and communitymembers.“I eel very much at home,” Lieberman said. “YU and the StrausCenter stand or an important proposition, that our mission cannotbe narrow.”Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik, the center’s director, interviewedthe senator about religion in America, his historic political careerand his new book,
The Git o Rest: Rediscovering the Beauty o theSabbath
.“The center’s theme or the year will ocus on Jewish ideas, aith and American democracy,” saidRabbi Soloveichik. “We will be eaturing public gures whose lives relate to that theme.”Future speakers will include ormer U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey and Britain’s Chie Rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks, who will lecture on aith and democracy in the United States and Europe.Rabbi Soloveichik will engage each guest in dialogue at the events, which are geared “rst and ore-most to the students, but will be open to the public as well,” he saidDuring the year, Rabbi Soloveichik will teach a course or undergraduate honors students onBiblical ideas in American democracy and will lead a seminar or select semicha students, which looksat how Jewish ideas appear throughout America’s oundational documents and helped shape the newdemocracy.
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For ull coverage o the event, please visit yu.edu/lieberman
Dr. Moses PavaSenator Joseph Lieberman
President Obama Appoints CardozoProessor to Federal Commission
P
resident Barack Obama announced his nomination o Proessor Richard Weisberg—theFloer-sheimer ProessoroConstitutional LawatYeshivaUniversity’s Benjamin N. Cardozo Schoolo Law—to the Commission or the Preservation o America’s Heritage Abroad. In this position,Weisberg will help protect and preserve historic buildings, collections and monuments in Europe that aresignicant to the heritage and culture o U.S. citizens.Weisberg has been a member o the Cardozo aculty since 1977. He received his doctorate rom CornellUniversity and his JD rom Columbia Law School, where he was an editor o the Columbia Law Review.“An opportunity to serve in any governmental capacity is a great privilege and I’m especially pleasedto serve on this commission,” Weisberg said. “Its work was designed to respect and extend the memory o Holocaust victims now in the U.S. and other interested citizens by preserving American patrimony abroadrom misuse, desecration or expropriation.”
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RIETS to Honor Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein and
Rabbi Julius and Dorothy Berman for 50 Years of Service
T
o hear Rabbi Aharon Lichtensteintell it, he simply “ended up being the right man at the right place atthe right time.” Ater entering YeshivaUniversity at 16, he went on to become anEnglish proessor at Stern College, later ashiur assistant to the Rav, Rabbi JosephB. Soloveitchik, o blessed memory, andnally a maggid shiur [Torah lecturer]and head o the Gruss Institute inJerusalem, an afliate o YeshivaUniversity’s Rabbi Isaac ElchananTheological Seminary (RIETS).RIETS will honor 50 yearso Torah and community leader-ship by Rabbi Lichtenstein and byits chairman o the board, RabbiJulius Berman, and his wieDorothy, at its annual dinner onNov. 13 at the Grand Hyatt in New York—a jubilee tribute to RabbiLichtenstein and the Bermans.Rabbi Lichtenstein earned hisbachelor’s degree rom YU,
semi-cha
[rabbinical ordination] romRIETS and a PhD in English litera-ture rom Harvard. Ater serving as rosh yeshiva at YU in New Yorkor several years, he made aliyahin 1971 to become rosh yeshiva at Yeshivat Har Etzion. He maintainsa close connection to YU as rosh kollel orthe Gruss Institute. He is deeply involvedin educator training programs world-wide and has published extensively onJewish lie and education.A renowned scholar, Rabbi Lich-tenstein’s teachings reect the traditiono the Rav, who was not only his teacherbut also his ather-in-law. “I spent manyyears learning,” Rabbi Lichtenstein said.“The combination o background skillsthat I had made me, both or YU and or Yeshivat Har Etzion, the kind o personwhom they elt they needed to promote,to develop and to inculcate learning andan agenda or
Yiddishkeit
[Judaism],and to develop bnei Torah, both withinthe respective yeshivot and the broadercommunity.”Reecting on the occasion o being honored, Rabbi Lichtenstein said heconsiders it a privilege to work in
chinuch
[education], “which satises a personalneed, and enables one to transcend theegocentricity and to devote onesel withgenuine religious ervor to the
Ribonoshel Olam
[Master o the Universe].”As or RIETS today, “any observero the
beis
medrash
[study hall] would beimpressed with the positive developmento a more
Torahdig
[Torah-oriented] cli-mate, as regards both the ability to learn,the desire to learn, and the readinessto assume the mantle o responsibilitywithin the Jewish world,” he noted.Over the last 50 years, Rabbi Lich-tenstein is most proud o “having built,together with my wie [Tova, nee So-loveitchik], the wonderul amily thatwe have,” he said. “It is a personal ac-complishment, a social accomplishment,and a contribution—through what theyare giving and will give in service o the
Ribbono shel Olam
in the uture.”Rabbi Berman, who currently chairsthe RIETS Board o Trustees, receivedhis bachelor’s degree rom YU and his
semicha
rom RIETS, where he was also astudent o the Rav. Ater graduating romNew York University School o Law, hewent on to hold a number o inuentialpositions in communal aairs, including leadership roles at the Orthodox Unionand the Conerence o Presidents o Major American Jewish Organizations.Today, in addition to his work asa partner at the law rm Kaye Scholer,Rabbi Berman is chairman o the Coner-ence on Jewish Material Claims AgainstGermany. He took the helm o the RIETSboard ater the previous chairman,Judah Feinerman, stepped down in 1999.“Yeshiva has been and remainsthe core o the movement with which Iproudly identiy, so it stands to reasonthat I would ‘return home’ … and sharewhatever leadership talent G-d hasgranted me as honed by the teaching o the Rav,” he said o his appointment.In 2002, under Rabbi Berman’sleadership, a Special Strategic InitiativeTask Force was convened and eventu-ally recommended “exceptionalproessional training to prepareour
talmidim
[students] or the cur-rent realities o the Jewish com-munity,” leading to the creation o R-PEP, the Rabbinic ProessionalEducation Program.Those advancements havecontributed to the way RIETSstudents are now tracked, in oneo ve courses o study: pulpit,education, community and cam-pus outreach, non-prot work andhospital chaplaincy.Alongside these changes,“RIETS continues to perorm itsage-old responsibility o ground-ing our
musmakhim
[ordainedrabbis] with the spiritual and intel-lectual base upon which they can
pasken
[determine] the Halacha,while at the same time, equipping them with the wherewithal to deal withthe diverse situations that arise, to enablethem to educate, lead and care or ourpeople,” Rabbi Berman noted.Reecting on his achievements inthe broader Jewish community, RabbiBerman takes pride in having been therst Orthodox lay person elected tochair the Conerence o Presidents. “Tosit in the Oval Ofce next to PresidentReagan or in the Kube Palace in Cairowith [ormer] President Mubarak, as
the
representative o the total organizedJewish community in America is anexperience beyond compare,” he said.
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Revel Hosts Int’l ConerenceIn Memoriam: Rabbi Moshe Furst
D
ozens o scholars rom Jerusalemto Wyoming gathered on YeshivaUniversity’s Wil Campus in Julyto share research on a broad array o topics within Jewish studies. The three–day international academic conerenceon “Israel and the Nations: Visions andReality” was hosted by YU’s BernardRevel Graduate School o Jewish Studies.“This conerence, precisely becauseo its breadth, high quality o participantsand international scope, reects the en-hanced role that the Bernard Revel Gradu-ate School has assumed on the global stageo Jewish studies,” said Dr. David Berger,dean and Ruth and I. Lewis Gordon Pro-essor o Jewish History at Revel. “To addto the extremely impressive research byour veteran aculty, we have recruitedyounger scholars who have bolstered ourresearch in Bible, modern Jewish historyand Jewish philosophy.”Berger served on the conerence’ssteering committee, along with Proes-sors Avinoam Cohen, Hanah Kasher, Yeshayahu Maori and Yose Rivlin. Sup-port or the conerence was provided bythe Mordecai D. and Dr. Monique C. KatzFund. Over 40 scholars lectured in bothHebrew and English and presented onancient, medieval and modern Jewishhistory, Bible, Jewish ethics, Jewish law,literature and Zionism.The opening day was highlighted byBerger’s keynote address, charting thedevelopment o Jewish-Christian encoun-ters throughout history. Cohen lecturedon the second day, arguing that it is possi-ble to detect early anti-Christian polemicin Talmudic literature.Dr. Seth Ward o the University o Wyoming presented on attitudes o 20thcentury writers toward gentiles. “Asa visiting scholar, it was a particularlywelcome opportunity to spend time withacademics who share both my commit-ment to Modern Orthodoxy and Judaicscholarship,” he said.
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R
abbi Moshe (Milton) Furst, the executive assistant to Dr. Samuel Belkin, Yeshiva University’s second president, passed away July 19 at the age o 88. A valedictorian o Yeshiva College in 1943 and a graduate o the RabbiIsaac Elchanan Theological Seminary in 1946, Rabbi Furst served the YU andRIETS communities with distinction, and was responsible or the SynagogueCampaign Division o RIETS.In 1971, he made aliyah to Israel, in where he was served as director gen-eral in the Rabbinical Council o America’s Yeshivat HaDarom. He and his wieBatya (Beatrice, nee Bick), who predeceased him in 2005, were both deeplybeloved by the members o the Rabbinic Alumni or their warmth, riendshipand genuine commitment to strengthen RIETS and YU, together with mem-bers o their respective distinguished amilies.“He was very devoted and a great Zionist,” said Dr. Herbert Dobrinksy, YU’s vice president or university aairs, who succeeded Furst as executiveassistant. “I considered him to be my mentor, along with others here at Yeshiva,and a remarkable leader whose dedication to YU and RIETS was a source o inspiration to all who knew him.”Heartelt condolences are extended to his children, Zev (and Sandy) Furst,Aryeh (and Deborah) Furst, Malkah (and Dov) Cymbalista o Israel, and hisgrandchildren and great-grandchildren, as well as to his beloved cousin, YUTrustee and Beneactor Gerald (and Violet) Furst, the son o his beloved uncleand aunt, Sol and Hilda Furst, o blessed memory, or whom Furst Hall wasnamed during his tenure.
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Rabbi Aharon LichtensteinRabbi Julius and Dorothy Berman
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