“We are, at our core, a yeshiva,” he said. “Regardless of what program any student is in, he is a ben hayeshiva, a member of the yeshiva community.” Several months into his new role as dean, Rabbi Reiss is charting a course for the yeshiva that builds on its illustrious position as the leading center for the education and ordination of Orthodox rabbis in North America.

He is taking steps to make the yeshiva cohesive in its internal organization, broad in its outreach to communities across North America, and more practical in its training of professional rabbis. The initiatives will further enhance the school’s high standards of excellence and will be grounded in a rabbinic curriculum that treasures Torah Lishmah [Torah study for its own sake].

“We employ the best and the brightest roshei yeshiva [professors of Talmud],” said Rabbi Reiss, himself a RIETS musmakh [graduate]. “Our learning tradition is a continuation of the high level of learning at the classical European yeshivot thanks to the strong foundation laid by my predecessor, Rabbi Zevulun Charlop,” Rabbi Reiss said.

Rabbi Reiss has the benefit of mentorship of Rabbi Charlop, who presided over a period of enormous growth at the seminary for more than 35 years and is now dean emeritus of RIETS and special advisor to the University president on yeshiva affairs.

“I am immensely proud of what has been accomplished at the yeshiva under Rabbi Charlop’s leadership,” said Julius Berman, chairman of the RIETS board. “I look forward to partnering with Rabbi Reiss to ensure our yeshiva grows even stronger in the years ahead.”

A noted Torah scholar with an esteemed academic pedigree, Rabbi Reiss is a summa cum laude graduate of Yeshiva College. While at RIETS, he earned the distinction of Yadin Yadin, an advanced juridical ordination that qualifies outstanding scholars to fill the role of posekim [decisors of Jewish law]. He also earned a law degree from Yale Law School, where he was senior editor of the Law Journal, and worked as an associate at the international law firm of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in New York City from 1992 to 1998.

“In Rabbi Yona Reiss, we have a leader who will nurture Yeshiva University’s soul, advance Torah study, and protect Torah values,” said President Richard M. Joel, who is also President of RIETS.

“His integrity, intellect, warmth, and humility inform his work as he partners with an outstanding rabbinic faculty to shape the educational direction for the seminary. There are enormous opportunities and needs for our community, which our students and alumni must be poised to lead,” President Joel said. Rabbi Reiss brings his considerable experience as a jurist and expert in Halakhah [Jewish law]—particularly as it relates to divorce—to bear on the rabbinical curriculum.

“Our rabbinical school needs to be responsive to the needs of the community and the needs of our times,” Rabbi Reiss noted. “Rabbis now need to be not only master sermon-givers; they need to be acquainted with cutting-edge medical issues, issues relating to the psychological well-being of families, youth at-risk, tensions of people who are becoming newly observant, and conflicts be­tween Jewish ethical norms and those accepted in the society around us,” he added.

Under his guidance, the yeshiva will be the center of training for rabbis to become dayonim [judges] who are equipped to deal with problems and disputes within the Jewish community. He also sees scope for an even larger role across the U.S. and Canada through the school’s many kollelim [advanced learn­ing institutes]. “The Jewish community is gaining a greater appreciation of the primacy of Torah study, so there has been a greater demand for us to branch out to more communities,” said Rabbi Reiss.

He added: “The strength of our institution is not to withdraw into a cocoon but to enhance society through our Torah knowledge.”

“The generosity of our phil­anthropic partners, especially in a difficult economic climate, is a great story,” said President Richard M. Joel, “but it is only a part of the story.” Because tui­tion alone does not cover the full cost of educating an undergraduate student, he noted, the University needs to raise a significant amount of unrestricted funds to make up the difference every year.

Scholarships are particularly critical: approximately two-thirds of YU undergraduates receive gift aid from the University. “The University’s needs—and the cost to fulfill them—are high,” President Joel said. “It is only with increased participation that our progress can continue.”

The final 2007–08 fundraising figures compound the success of the previous year, and bode well for continued growth: over two years, YU has raised more than $300 million in new pledges and cash. Reflecting their increasing support, the percentage of alumni giving in university-wide cash gifts this year has almost doubled from 2006–07.

“Mr. Stanton’s gift clearly has helped to motivate other supporters, with the extraordinary results that you see,” the President said. “Every year, more and more YU alumni decide to give to their alma mater, and we are grateful to all those who support us. Their gifts—no matter what the size—enable YU to bring on board the brightest minds and graduate the most committed community members.”

Peter Achinstein will teach the history and philosophy of science at Yeshiva College.

Yeshiva University con­tinues the steady expan­sion of its faculty this academic year with the appointment of 30 new faculty members. Of these, 10 are newly created posi­tions or replacements of former adjunct positions.

“We’re continuing the mo­men­tum forward to make sure we have a first-class faculty and to keep the student-to-faculty ratio at 10 to 1,” said Morton Lowengrub, PhD, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, who oversees faculty appointments at all schools, except Albert Einstein College of Medicine. New faculty were added across the entire University, with a particular focus on undergraduate philosophy, mathematics, English, biology, and Jewish studies. Three full professors were hired in the philosophy, English, and math departments.

Peter Achinstein, a distinguished professor of history and philosophy of science from Johns Hopkins University, was appointed the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein Professor of Philosophy at Yeshiva College. Achinstein, who begins in January 2009 and will play a major role in the college’s Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein Honors Program, won numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Lakatos Award from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and numerous research grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has written five books, edited seven others, and published widely in scholarly journals.

Linda Shires, PhD, a widely published scholar of Victorian literature, was appointed professor of English at Stern College for Women. Previously at Syracuse University for the past 12 years, Shires also taught at New York University and Princeton, from which she received her PhD in 1981. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, she will take over the chair of the English department at Stern in fall 2009.

Yisong Yang, PhD, joins Yeshiva College as a professor of mathematics from Polytechnic University in Brooklyn. His areas of research are nonlinear partial differential equations, mathematical physics, and applied mathematics. Yang was an Othmer Senior Faculty Fellow at Polytechnic in 2006 and 2009 and received the Institut Henri Poincare/Gauthier-Villars Prize in Paris in 1996. He has organized a number of national conferences and has received numerous research grants from the National Science Foundation.

At Einstein, Jan Vijg, PhD, was named professor and chair of genetics. He comes from the Buck Institute for Age Research in Novato, CA, where his studies focused on genome instability and the mechanisms through which it may cause human disease and aging. Vijg’s investigations of DNA damage and its impact on longevity will augment the work for which investigators in Einstein’s Institute for Aging Research are renowned. A native of the Netherlands, he holds eight patents in research processes and methodologies and has authored more than 200 scientific publications.

For a complete list of new faculty hires across the University, go to www.yu.edu/news/newfaculty2008

The Medieval ornaments and jewelry were found under a cellar.

The Yeshiva University Museum provides the only North American venue for an unusually significant exhibition of Medieval gold and silver jewelry, tableware, and rare coins discovered just a decade ago concealed within the foundation of a 12th-century house in Erfurt, Germany, a historic center of German-speaking Ash­kenazi Jewry. The treasure, which scholars believe was buried by a Jew­ish merchant or moneylender during anti-Semitic violence, was discovered by archeologists during an excavation in the Medieval Jewish quarter of the city.

Carefully hidden under the wall of a private home’s stone cellar were over 3,000 silver coins, 14 silver ingots, and over 600 pieces of jewelry. “Erfurt: Jewish Treasures from Medieval Ashkenaz,” on view until February 9, features 167 objects including a Jewish wedding ring in the shape of a tower, unique silver drinking vessels, coins, elaborate belt buckles, and a variety of garment accessories, all dating from the late 13th and early 14th centuries. The exhibition offers a glimpse into Jewish life and culture in Medieval Europe before the bubonic plague, or Black Death, and anti-Semitic attacks decimated this small but thriving population in the mid 14th century.

An international tour will follow with stops at the Wallace Collection (London) and Beth Hatefutsoth (Tel Aviv), before the objects go on permanent display in Erfurt’s 11th-century synagogue in the fall of 2009.

Located approximately 70 miles southwest of Kassel, Erfurt is the capital city of the central German region of Thuringia. The vast number of coins and ingots found among the treasure hoard dem­onstrate Erfurt’s status as a center for trade and commerce in medi­eval Germany. The Jew­ish quarter of the city was located on the banks of the Gera River, crucial to regional trade.

Records show that Jews prospered in Erfurt as early as the 9th century, peacefully coexisting there with other groups until the 14th century. At this time, bur­geoning anti-Semitism erupted into violence, and Jews were targeted as scapegoats for perceived social and economic ills. Tragically, the entire Jewish community of Erfurt was expelled or murdered at the height of the bubonic plague in 1349, when Jews were scapegoated for spreading the deadly disease.

The exhibition includes a three-dimensional model of the city’s synagogue during the 12th century, an architectural model of a Medieval synagogue, a 16th-century map of Erfurt, photographs of important sites, and facsimiles of original manuscripts.

Exhibition highlights in­clude a hand-crafted gold Jewish wedding ring from the early 14th century, one of very few Medieval Ashkenazi wedding rings in existence. Well-preserved artifacts from this period are rare as jewelry was often melted down when it was deemed out of style. This ring features an ornate, miniature version of a gothic tower and six engraved Hebrew letters spelling out mazal tov, meaning “good luck,” written on the tower’s roof.

Scholars have interpreted the tower as symbolizing the Temple of Jerusalem, destroyed by the Romans in 70 C.E. Jewish tradition still mandates that wedding bands be made of plain gold without the addition of stones.

The silver double cups housed the jewelry found in the treasure and are noteworthy for their colorful enameled images from Aesop’s fables of The Fox and the Eagle and The Fox and the Raven. Additional rarities include a set of eight silver cups designed to fit inside each other, dozens of belt buckles and garment appliqués, a cosmetic set, and seven brooches.

The exhibition is sponsored by the Leon Levy Foundation, with additional funds from the David Berg Foundation and Lufthansa. A symposium, “Treasured Possessions: Jews and Christians in a Medieval City,” will be held at the YU Museum on November 5 and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on November 6. For more info, go to www.yu.edu and click on “Events.”

Counselor Ayelet Kahane helps Dimona campers with an art project.

This summer, 26 students from Yeshiva University and other colleges across the United States and Israel made a lasting impact on the next generation of Israeli youth from development communities. The Counterpoint Israel Program, a project of the Center for the Jewish Future (CJF), ran three-week summer camps for 110 secular teens from diverse backgrounds in the southern Israeli towns of Yerucham and Dimona.

The Zusman Family Counterpoint Israel Program in Yerucham and the Service Corps Counterpoint Israel Program in Dimona—held for the first time this year with support from the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foun­dation—provided the youth with important life skills.

The college students created programs to promote the teens’ self-esteem and teach them Jewish values. At the local municipalities’ request, the teens also took English-language classes to improve their chances of college acceptance.

The college students, many of whom have worked before as Hebrew school teachers and counselors, were trained for their roles as camp counselors at Yeshiva University before they left. This year, the CJF was able to create a “dream team” of counselors, chosen from a pool of close to 100 applicants, said Aliza Abrams ’05S, Counterpoint Israel’s coordinator.

“Our counselors are full of energy, creativity, and passion,” said Abrams. “We have teens who have returned to camp a third time—not simply for the amazing art classes and the fun trips, but for our great counselors as well.” The program was a learning experience for the counselors who processed the experience of making a difference in the teens’ lives through workshops and seminars. They explored issues of tikkun olam [repairing the world], social action, human responsibility, commitment to the Jewish community, and their relationship with Israel.

“Counterpoint Israel is not just about service work—it is also about learning the process of what it means to be a Jewish leader,” said Shuki Taylor, Counterpoint’s director. “Our goal was for the counselors to leave with an understanding that it is not enough to just partake in chesed [charity] work—they need to internalize the experience. We wanted them to realize that they matter to the world, and that the world should matter to them.” Every day, professional instructors ran workshops to cultivate the teens’ individual talents in art, fashion, dance, song, and sports. The activities were designed to produce immediate results so that the teens felt a sense of self-gratification and artistic expression—an undiscovered area in their lives.

The workshops culminated in a moving closing ceremony attended by family members and local officials, where the teens performed, exhibited projects, and received prizes for their progress. Taylor described the breathtaking sight of the teens’ joy and their parents’ amazement upon discovering their children’s talents.

“When our students work with teenagers from different socio-economic backgrounds, they appreciate how effective they can be in transforming lives. It is through this process of giving that we discover so much more about ourselves” said Rabbi Kenneth Brander, dean of CJF. “Our students realize that they can serve as agents of change, both within the Jewish community and the world around them. It is my hope that they leave this experience with a renewed commitment to serve as klei Kodesh [Jewish community professionals] or as lay kodesh [lay leaders] as part of their future aspirations.”

J. Michael Gower

Yeshiva University has appointed J. Michael Gower as vice president for business affairs and chief financial officer. Gower, who most recently served as vice president for finance and administration at the University of Vermont, has extensive experience in university and medical school financial and business leadership, financing, and systems development.

“Michael is an experienced university professional who will guide our financial progress for the future,” said President Richard M. Joel. “He has served with integrity in financial management positions in university settings for a quarter of a century.”

The greater part of his career was spent at Duke University, where he received his bachelor’s degree as well as an MBA from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. Gower will lead the way in strengthening YU’s sound financial foundation—“the foundation on which we are carrying out our mission to ennoble and enable our students to use our sacred values, our knowledge, and our skills to make a positive difference in the world around us,” added President Joel. The President thanked Karl Kunz for all of his efforts as acting vice president for finance and chief financial officer. “We are grateful that Karl will remain with the finance office working closely with Michael,” he said.

Gower recently received the 2008 Professional Development Award from the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), which recognizes individuals who have made notable contributions to NACUBO’s professional development activities and to the association’s publications program.

Yeshiva College and Stern College for Women professors will tackle male infer­tility, breast cancer, and supercritical fluids as recipients of three substantial science grants totaling close to half a million dollars.

Dr. Margarita Vigodner, assis­tant professor of biology at Stern College, was awarded a $300,000 Young Clinical Scientist Award by the Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute to research the effects of secondhand smoke on male infertility. Stern students Gabi Goodfriend, Eliana Grosser, and Marina Pekar will assist her.

Vigodner’s long-term goal is to identify the roots of male infertility and believes that “the problem will be overcome in the foreseen future,” she said. Her current research is based on 10 years of investigation in the fields of spermatogenesis (the devel­opment of sperm), male fertility, and reproductive health.

Dr. Marina Holz, assistant professor of biology at Stern, will study the role of the S6 Kinase 1 (S6K1) gene in breast cancer through a three-year, $75,000 grant from the Elias Genevieve and Georgianna Atol Charitable Trust.

After spending several years researching the molecular mech­anisms of S6K1, Holz observed that the gene was overexpressed in cancers, especially breast cancer. “I would like to identify specific targets of S6K1 in breast cancer that control cell proliferation and contribute to the cancerous phenotype,” said Holz, who will be working with Stern graduates Rachel Yamnik ’08S and Nilly Brodt ’08S, and current students Alla Digilova and Daphne Davis.

The American Chemical Soci­ety Petroleum Research Fund awarded Dr. Bruce Hrnjez, associate professor of chemistry at Yeshiva College, $65,000 for his research on solvent effects in supercritical fluids. Yeshiva College will match $55,000 of that funding, for a total of $120,000 over three years.

Hrnjez’s work focuses on a molecule’s surroundings; the medium in which a molecule is dissolved can have an effect on the way the molecule vibrates, rotates, and interacts with light, and the way its chemical bonds break or form in a chemical reaction.

Hrnjez, who created an experimental research laboratory in Belfer Hall on the Wilf Campus, coauthored his first paper to come out of this research in 2005 in the Journal of Physical Chemistry, with student coauthors Samuel Sultan ’05Y, Georgiy Natanov ’07Y, David Kastner ’05Y, and Michael Rosman ’05Y. “The grant shows external recognition from my peers that I have created a viable research program at Yeshiva College,” said Hrnjez.

Lea Ferreira dos Santos

Lea Ferreira dos Santos, assistant professor of physics at Stern Col­lege for Women, was selected from over 70 applicants to join the US delegation to the 3rd International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) International Conference on Women in Phys­ics in Seoul, South Korea, in Octo­ber. The conference will bring participants together to share common problems and find ways to improve women’s underrepresentation in physics.

Growing up in Brazil, where she attended the University of São Paulo and earned her PhD, Santos remembers feeling somewhat isolated as a woman in her science classes. “It wasn’t until I came to the United States and was exposed to discussions about women in science that I realized the depth of the social problem behind the small numbers,” she said.

Santos will help prepare the U.S. delegation’s paper on the situation of women in physics in this country and will pre­sent a poster on her research. Since joining Stern College last fall, Santos has worked to increase the number of physics students. “In seven years, our department has evolved from offering just two classes for freshmen to being one of the most vibrant in the college,” said Santos, who will share this success with conference participants. “This year, for the first time in our history, one of our students is going to a graduate school in physics.” [See “Forging a Career Path in Physics” in YUToday, Summer 2008.]

Evelyn Havasi-Stavsky

The alumnae of Stern College for Women (SCW) and Sy Syms School of Business (SSSB) are carefully planting a seed that they will nurture over the next 10–25 years. A group of alumnae—Evelyn Havasi-Stavsky ’82S, Cali Orenbuch ’85S, Shira Yoshor ’89S, and Aviva Weilgus ’01SB—and Stern board member Doris Travis have spear­headed the creation of a long-term investment fund, the SCW Future Fund, that will bear fruit over the next two decades.

“With this fund, alumnae have the opportunity to inspire first-class women’s leadership and to perpetuate an endur­ing commitment to excellence in women’s education,” said Havasi-Stavsky, global head of the asset finance group at Citi­­group Global Markets.

The fund has an initial target of $180,000 in seed money that the founders hope to reach with contributions from alumnae and friends. Contrubutions will be invested and managed by the Investment Committee of YU’s Board of Trustees.

“We want Stern alumnae to share in this unique opportunity to secure their alma mater for the future,” said Travis, a former banker herself for 25 years. “We hope to show the next generation what we have accomplished.”

Initially, 1,000 shares are available at different levels, from half shares starting at $90 to 120 shares (at over $21,600), which entitles the shareholder to sit on the executive board and participate in decisions on how the money is spent.

“We want alumnae to think of giving these shares as gifts to celebrate the birth of grandchildren, anniversaries, bat mitz­vahs, and weddings,” said Travis. The SCW Future Fund is a unique way to give to the school as it presents the opportunity for alumnae to drive its future growth, said Havasi-Stavsky, who recently joined Stern’s board.

With a daughter entering Stern in the fall and another planning to follow in a few years, she said it was time for her to begin giving back to her alma mater. “If any Stern graduate thinks about her college years, she’ll see the value of a commitment to philanthropy, which includes making Stern’s future education even better,” said Havasi-Stavsky.

For more information visit www.yu.edu/scwfuture

John Hogan (center) led students on a tour of the Vatican Museum.

Nothing could have prepared Tzvi Feifel for the impact of seeing Michelangelo’s David up close at the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Florence. The Yeshiva College (YC) junior was “awestruck” by the sculpture during the YC Summer Honors Travel Course to Italy, sponsored by the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein Honors Program, in June.

Feifel was one of a group of 12 men who took courses in “Western Art in Italy,” taught by Dr. John Hogan, assistant professor of art history at YC, and “Crisis and Authority in European Literature and Art in the 17th Century,” taught by Dr. Elizabeth Stewart, professor of English at YC.

The two professors accompanied the students to Italy, and were joined by Dr. Gabriel Cwilich, professor of physics—who organized much of the trip and served as translator—and Rabbi David Horwitz, rosh yeshiva [professor of Talmud] at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, who supervised the students’ daily religious learning.

Before their departure, the students spent almost three weeks poring over the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s ancient art collection and immersing themselves in literature from the Baroque period.

In Rome and Florence, the students saw some of Western history’s most significant art, architecture, and material culture from the ancient Roman period to the Renaissance and Baroque eras. They investigated the Roman Forum and Capitoline Hill and studied the art in the Galleria Borghese in Rome. In Florence, they visited the Uffizi Gallery and the Duomo, climbing all 464 steps of Brunelleschi’s Dome.

“Walking around, touching, seeing, tasting, and hearing our objects of study in their immediacy—there’s no substitute for that,” said Stewart. The group visited the Jewish Museum of the Synagogue in Florence, the Roman Jewish Community Museum, the Jewish catacombs on Via Appia, and toured the ghetto in Rome. Senior Noam Srolovitz found the synagogue in Flor­ence most inspiring. “Its massive size and beautifully classical design blew me away and made me proud to be Jewish,” he said.

“For me as a teacher, the most inspiring moments in this course were witnessing the students’ sense of wonder at the magnificent, historic works we visited,” Hogan said.

“A new language is hard to learn,” said Michelle Grundman, a junior at Stern College, “but being in the country makes you want to learn it and use it daily.”

In Paris, they participated in guided tours given in French, attended a French play, and practiced their new language skills, under the guidance of Dr. Rachel Mesch, assis­tant professor of French and chair of modern languages at YC, and Dr. Holly Haahr Pouquet, former YC assistant professor of French who lives in Paris.

The course was the beginning of what Mesch hoped would be “a lifelong relationship with France and the French language for students. That’s what learning a language does— it creates a foundation upon which you can build a relationship with another culture,” the professor said.

The group visited the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, and Versailles. They toured the Jewish Marais District, prayed in Ash­ke­nazi and Sephar­dic syn­agogues, and engaged Jewish French students in conversation over Shabbat meals. In all these activities, they had the guidance of Nachum Rybak, a rabbinical student at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, who accompanied the group.

The class also made its way to Troyes, birthplace of the legendary Jewish biblical exegete Rashi, and met Rabbi Gilles Bernheim, the newly elected Grand Rabbi of France.

Said YC student Michael Goon: “The trip was an opportunity to connect with French culture and way of life, in the native tongue.”

Eleven Yeshiva University undergraduate science students worked alongside top scientific scholars at Albert Einstein College of Medicine over the summer. They were: (front L–R) David Pinn; Wendy Hosinking; Chanie Dinerman (in striped shirt); Tehilla Raviv; and Ari Greenbaum; and (back L–R) David Gottlieb; Yehudit Fischer; Reena Gottesman; Ariella Hollander; Batya Matla Herzberg; and Yossi Steinberger. Although all 11 students participated in the same program, nine were designated Roth Scholars and two were University Summer Research Scholars, reflecting different sources of funding. Although most of the students are considering medical careers, this experience often piques their interest in research and spurs them to apply to combined MD/PhD programs.

Dr. Allen M. Spiegel (left), The Marilyn and Stanley M. Katz Dean of Einstein, showed Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss (right), India’s Minister of Health and Family Welfare, around the medical college during his visit in June. Dr. Ramadoss was impressed with the breadth of programs and research col­laborations estab­lished by Einstein faculty members throughout his homeland. Overall, 11 faculty members, 14 students, and four postdoctoral fellows were involved with 10 institutions in Mum­bai, Bangalore, and rural India. The special meeting was organized by Dr. Sanjeev Gupta, professor of medicine and of pathology at Einstein.

Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law student Sarah Gregory (above) got an insider’s view on media law reform and free speech issues in Amman, Jordan, during a summer internship with AmmanNet radio station, Center for Defending the Freedom of Journalists, and Al Isra University Law School. Gregory was one of 154 law students who chose to spend the summer working in the public sector with the support of stipends from Cardozo. The school awarded a total of $556,000 to students working in government agencies, international organizations, and judicial chambers. They work to make a difference in fields as diverse as prisoners’ legal services, family violence, Medicare rights, and the environment, and in places as far as Kenya, Rwanda, Budapest, and Hong Kong.

Harry Ballan (left) and Lance L. Hirt (right), YU Trustee,  attended the conference.

“A great shared journey” is how Presi­dent Richard M. Joel described the Cham­pionsGate III National Lead­ership Conference in Orlando, FL, July 20–22. The ChampionsGate conference, convened by Ira and Mindy Mitzner and the Center for the Jewish Future (CJF) and sponsored by the Legacy Heritage Fund Rabbinic Enrich­ment Initiative, was a vehicle to build consensus among the leadership of Orthodoxy—rabbis, lay leaders, and Jewish com­munity professionals.

“We have a wonderful oppor­tunity to bring our people together,” said President Joel. “We have to strive as individuals to think about who we want to be in order to have a com­mon sense of identity.”

The excitement and sense of shared purpose was palpable among the 17 rabbis, 110 lay leaders from 35 communities around the country, 18 heads of school, and the YU deans, faculty, and administrators who participated.

Ira Mitzner ’81Y, president of Rida Development Corporation, which owns ChampionsGate, and a YU Trustee, hosted the conference. “Our objective was to strengthen an emerging network of passionate and committed leaders who understand how to leverage the efforts of one another and partner effectively to realize communal goals,” said Rabbi Kenneth Brander, dean of CJF.

The topics covered during the course of the conference touched on issues of primary concern to the Jewish world, such as core values in a Torah Umadda community, future lead­ership, and modeling healthy leadership collaboration.

The final plenary on the crisis of tuition in Jewish education drew the most attention and intense discussion. Rabbi Josh Elkin, executive director of the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE), and Yossi Prager ’86Y, North American director of the AVI CHAI Foundation, which supports Jewish programs in the US and Israel, offered honest and practical alternative sources of revenue to defray soaring tuition fees.

The closing session, entitled “Machar” [tomorrow], charged participants to set goals and action items for themselves, and their families, institutions, and communities.

“This conference is extremely important to perpetuate our core values and ideas for the future of Orthodox Jewry,” said Barry Shrage, president of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Boston.

“The leadership and collaborative spirit that President Joel has engendered, and that Rabbi Brander has helped shape, provides an opportunity for lay leaders to share ideas and experiences that will help secure the future of Modern Orthodoxy,” Shrage said.

Rabbi Efrem Goldberg ’97Y,R, spiritual leader of Boca Raton Synagogue, called ChampionsGate III “a remarkable opportunity to connect with Jewish leaders from across the United States.”

“Although I graduated from YU many years ago, it continues to inspire me and my community through the incredible resources it provides,” Rabbi Goldberg said. “Together we can create an energy and spirit to propel the Jewish community forward.” Click here to listen to some of the proceedings of this conference.

Rebbetzin Meira Davis

Today’s generation of rabbis’ wives faces the unique dilemma of managing their private lives and career objectives while remaining accessible and responsive to their husbands and congregations.

Meira Davis—wife of Rabbi Edward Davis, leader of the Young Israel of Hollywood-Fort Lauderdale since 1981—is a veteran of this juggling act. Davis was recently appointed to coordinate the services that the Center for the Jewish Future (CJF) offers these wives as they pursue concurrent roles as mothers, communal leaders, and professionals.

Davis’s reputation for “wisdom, thoughtfulness, and integ­rity precedes her,” said Rabbi Jacob J. Schacter, senior scholar at CJF, who oversees the rebbetzins’ initiative with Davis. “We are thrilled that she accepted our invitation to utilize her formidable talents to the benefit of so many others.”

Davis’s appointment comes as the CJF has expanded its programming for rebbetzins after the huge response it received from the women attending its annual Rebbetzins’ Yarchei Kallah—a two-day conference where the women can network with one another, learn Torah, and hear from counseling professionals in a safe and supportive environment. Several regional mini-conferences coordinated by CJF have recently spun off from the conference.

Many of the younger women have established mentoring relationships with the veteran rebbetzins they met at the conferences. Davis is also “on call” to share her expertise with the younger rebbetzins.

“These events provide rebbetzins of the YU world with a tremendous sense of chizuk [strength],” said Tzipporah Gelman ’02S, a rebbetzin and teacher in Skokie, IL. “When I speak with my mentor, I feel that I am not alone in the things I go through on a daily basis.”

The rebbetzins are also turning to some appropriately modern tools to stay in touch and deal with their modern-day dilemmas. They share a private, online listserv called the Rebbetzins’ Café, and enjoy a year-round support network via e-mail and telephone.

The programs are part of the Legacy Heritage Fund Rabbinic Enrichment Initiative, supported by the Legacy Heritage Fund Limited. Rebbetzins who would like to contact Meira Davis can e-mail meira.davis@yu.edu

Dr. Edward Berliner (above left)—pictured here being congratulated by Dr. Seth Taylor, assistant principal at Yeshiva University High School (YUHS) for Boys—was honored as Faculty Member of the Year at the YUHS annual dinner of tribute at the Marriott Marquis in June. Berliner recently oversaw the design and construction of new state-of-the-art science laboratories at both the boys’ and girls’ schools. He teaches calculus and AP physics at YUHS-Boys and serves as the executive director of science management and clinical professor of physics at YU. The gala dinner drew over 400 students, alumni, faculty, and staff members from around the tristate area.

The upgraded lab inspired the creation of the Science Institute.

This fall, the brightest sophomores at Samuel H. Wang Yeshiva Uni­versity High School for Girls (YUHSG) will participate in a new Science Institute, an in-house curriculum that will advance their scientific knowledge, science literacy, and research methodology skills. It is the first program of its kind among Jewish high schools in the metropolitan area.

The 10 young women in­vited to join the Science Institute participated in a weeklong sum­mer seminar at the Dolan DNA Learning Center, the world’s first science center devoted entirely to edu­cation in the field of genetics.

The advanced curriculum will be in addition to the students’ regular course load of Jewish and general studies during the school year. “We wanted to accommodate these students’ academic needs,” said teacher Ruth Fried, science department chairperson at YUHSG and creator of the Science Institute. “But we also wanted to keep them integrated within the broader class.”

For this reason, students in the institute will have self-contained lessons in the sciences, but will be fully integrated with their classmates for the remainder of the day.

YUHSG’s new $1 million, state-of-the-art science laboratory prompted consideration for the formation of the Science Institute. The lab will house experiments for Regents, SAT II, and Advanced Placement courses in biology, chemistry, and physics, as well as forensic science, human physiology, and research methodology.

Twice a week, the young women will join Jason J. Williams of Stony Brook University and the Dolan DNA Learning Center’s Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory for after-school classes in research meth­odology. Williams will help the students cultivate a sophisticated approach to scientific inquiry and prepare them for the prestigious Siemens Westinghouse Science and Technology Competition and the Intel Science Talent Search.

In addition, before their ju­nior year, students will be placed in the Albert Einstein College of Medicine-YUHSG Sum­mer Research Program, where they will work with world-renowned scientists including Dr. Nir Barzilai, director of the Institute for Aging Research at Einstein and originator of the Lon­gevity Genes Project. Rochelle Brand, head of school at YUHSG, sees the new program as a good example of YU’s Torah Umadda mission of combining secular studies with Torah values. “I truly believe that as we gain a greater knowledge and appreciation for the wonders of science, so too do we gain a greater appreciation for our creator,” Brand said.

The upgraded lab inspired the creation of the Science Institute.

This fall, the brightest sophomores at Samuel H. Wang Yeshiva Uni­versity High School for Girls (YUHSG) will participate in a new Science Institute, an in-house curriculum that will advance their scientific knowledge, science literacy, and research methodology skills. It is the first program of its kind among Jewish high schools in the metropolitan area.

The 10 young women in­vited to join the Science Institute participated in a weeklong sum­mer seminar at the Dolan DNA Learning Center, the world’s first science center devoted entirely to edu­cation in the field of genetics.

The advanced curriculum will be in addition to the students’ regular course load of Jewish and general studies during the school year. “We wanted to accommodate these students’ academic needs,” said teacher Ruth Fried, science department chairperson at YUHSG and creator of the Science Institute. “But we also wanted to keep them integrated within the broader class.”

For this reason, students in the institute will have self-contained lessons in the sciences, but will be fully integrated with their classmates for the remainder of the day.

YUHSG’s new $1 million, state-of-the-art science laboratory prompted consideration for the formation of the Science Institute. The lab will house experiments for Regents, SAT II, and Advanced Placement courses in biology, chemistry, and physics, as well as forensic science, human physiology, and research methodology.

Twice a week, the young women will join Jason J. Williams of Stony Brook University and the Dolan DNA Learning Center’s Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory for after-school classes in research meth­odology. Williams will help the students cultivate a sophisticated approach to scientific inquiry and prepare them for the prestigious Siemens Westinghouse Science and Technology Competition and the Intel Science Talent Search.

In addition, before their ju­nior year, students will be placed in the Albert Einstein College of Medicine-YUHSG Sum­mer Research Program, where they will work with world-renowned scientists including Dr. Nir Barzilai, director of the Institute for Aging Research at Einstein and originator of the Lon­gevity Genes Project. Rochelle Brand, head of school at YUHSG, sees the new program as a good example of YU’s Torah Umadda mission of combining secular studies with Torah values. “I truly believe that as we gain a greater knowledge and appreciation for the wonders of science, so too do we gain a greater appreciation for our creator,” Brand said.

Dr. Edward Berliner (above left)—pictured here being congratulated by Dr. Seth Taylor, assistant principal at Yeshiva University High School (YUHS) for Boys—was honored as Faculty Member of the Year at the YUHS annual dinner of tribute at the Marriott Marquis in June. Berliner recently oversaw the design and construction of new state-of-the-art science laboratories at both the boys’ and girls’ schools. He teaches calculus and AP physics at YUHS-Boys and serves as the executive director of science management and clinical professor of physics at YU. The gala dinner drew over 400 students, alumni, faculty, and staff members from around the tristate area.

Gabrielle Hiller (middle) won the girls’ division. Ariel Karp (left) and Michal Elias Bachrach (right) came in third and second, respectively.

Yeshiva University wrapped up a year­long program of intense Gemara study for day-school students across North America when it recently named the winners of a series of exams testing the students’ knowledge.

Some 250 students from grades nine through 12 participated in the Bronka Weintraub Bekius Program, held for the first time last year.

Gabrielle Hiller, a senior at Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls in Teaneck, NJ, was placed first in the girls’ section of the program, while Elie Weintraub, from the Yeshivah of Flatbush, and Yisrael Witty, from Yeshivat Or Chaim, tied for first place in the boys’ division. The winners each received a cash prize of $5,000. Students took exams during the school year, for which they were given cash prizes based on their performance.

“Participating students broad­ened their Torah horizons and forged a lifelong love of learning,” said Rabbi Ezra Schwartz, who created the program. Rabbi Schwartz is bochein [examiner of incoming students] at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) and a teacher in its Irving I. Stone Beit Midrash Program. T

he competition exposed the participants to a new type of learning.

“I had never learned a whole masechta [Talmudic tractate] before,” said Hiller. “That was the most exciting part for me.” Rabbi Schwartz is confident the number of yeshivot participating in the program—18 this past year—will at least double in the near future.

Michal Elias Bachrach, from the Stern Hebrew High School, won second place in the girls’ division, while Ariel Karp, from the Yeshivah of Flatbush came in third. Hillel Weintraub won third place in the men’s division (there was no second prize because first place was a tie).

The program was named for Bronka Weintraub, z”l, who endowed the Bronka Weintraub Chair in Talmud at RIETS, occupied by Rabbi Hershel Reichman. Weintraub was also a founder and benefactor of Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Epigenomics is the study of the vast network of chemical “marks” inside our cells that control the expression of our genes, turning them on and off at certain times and in certain tissues.

“We want to support endeavors that will position Einstein to excel in research and medical education, while also attracting the best and brightest to our laboratories and to our classrooms,” added Dr. Gottesman, who enjoyed a distinguished 33-year academic career at the school before being elected chair.
Funds from the gift will be allocated as follows: $15 million will be used to establish the Ruth L. and David S. Gottesman Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Research; $7 million will fund the Center for Epigenomics, to be headed by Einstein researcher Dr. John Greally; and $3 million will be used to create the Ruth L. Gottesman Clinical Skills Facility in the soon-to-be renovated Van Etten Building, which Einstein has leased from Jacobi Medical Center as part of its overall expansion.
In addition, the gift will support an endowed chair at the Gottesman stem cell institute and a faculty scholar in epigenomics. It will also enable the college to recruit topflight faculty that will bolster Einstein’s already prominent leadership in both of these important fields.

“The Gottesman gift will contribute significantly to Einstein’s already formidable research efforts in stem cell/ regenerative medicine research and epigenomics,” said Allen M. Spiegel, MD, the Marilyn and Stanley M. Katz Dean at Einstein. “The gift will also establish an innovative facility to enhance the training of future generations of physicians at Einstein, helping them master the clinical skills that will prepare them to be first-rate health care providers.”
The Gottesmans have a long-standing affiliation with the college. In 2002, the couple endowed a professorial chair at Einstein’s Children’s Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center (CERC) in connection with Dr. Gottesman’s lifelong interest in helping people with learning disabilities.

Dr. Gottesman began her career at Einstein in 1968 when she joined CERC to develop a program for children with dyslexia and other learning disabilities. She went on to serve as the center’s director of psychoeducational services and later as director of the Adult Literacy Program. In 1999, she became founding director of the Fisher Landau Center for the Treatment of Learning Disabilities, a new division of CERC that was established to provide interdisciplinary services to individuals of all ages with learning disabilities. Mr. Gottesman is the founder and senior managing director of the First Manhattan Company, an investment advisory firm. He was chairman of YU’s Board from 1990 to 1998.

Albert Einstein College of Medicine officially opened its 223,000-square-foot Michael F. Price Center for Genetic and Translational Medicine/Harold and Muriel Block Research Pavilion on June 12. The $220 million facility is the largest and most significant research building to be constructed in the Bronx in 50 years. Helping with the ribbon-cutting were, above L-R: NYC Council Member James Vacca; Michael F. Price, whose gift made the center possible; Samuel Weinberg, Einstein Board member (behind); Dean Allen M. Spiegel; Muriel Block, another major supporter of the center; Robert Belfer, Einstein Board chairman emeritus; and President Richard M. Joel.

Foxman drew on his personal history of being saved from the Holocaust by his Catholic Polish nanny.

Calling “Never Again” the 11th commandment “etched in the aftermath of Auschwitz,” Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, urged graduates at Yeshiva University’s 77th Annual Commencement exercises in May to turn that message into a universal mandate to act against bigotry.
Foxman, a renowned leader in the fight against anti-Semitism, received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from President Richard M. Joel during the ceremony at Madison Square Garden.

More than 2,000 graduate students of law, medicine, social work, education, Jewish studies, and psychology, as well as undergraduate students from Yeshiva College, Stern College for Women, and Sy Syms School of Business, were awarded degrees this commencement season.
“The gas chambers did not begin with bricks-they began with words,” Foxman said. “Ugly, hateful words that demonized, degraded, and debased Jews. And those words became ugly, hateful deeds.”

Foxman emphasized the importance of knowing about atrocities and the power of good people to save lives. He drew on his personal history of being saved from the Holocaust by his Catholic Polish nanny, Bronislawa Kurpi.

“Respond with words backed by reasonable action, and both words and action impressed with the full weight of the ethical values imparted to you by Jewish tradition,” he told the graduates. “Do that and you will answer the question ‘What if?’ by being one of many who will give hateful words and hateful deeds no quarter,” Foxman said. As a passionate supporter of the State of Israel and a voice for peace in the Middle East, Foxman was appointed by Presidents Reagan, Bush, and Clinton to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. He is the author of The Deadliest Lies: The Israel Lobby and the Myth of Jewish Control and Never Again? The Threat of the New Anti-Semitism. President Joel also conferred an honorary degree on Dr. Edie Goldenberg, professor of political science and public policy at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.

As the first female dean of its College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, Goldenberg completed what is believed to be the most successful fundraising campaign by a public arts and sciences college at that time, which raised $110 million. She instituted the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program, which increased the number of endowed chairs and enhanced the quality and number of undergraduate seminars.

Goldenberg is an accomplished author and the recipient of several awards including the Goldsmith Research Award from Harvard University in 1993. Her research has focused on the role of the media in public policy and she has received grants to study the role of the mass media in congressional campaigns, gender differences in US Senate campaign coverage, and AIDS news coverage.

Commencement was also an occasion to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Israel and highlight YU’s many ties with the Holy Land. “Today we mark the dream and celebrate its reality,” said President Joel.

Gallery

This year’s Presidential Medallion, the highest honor that YU bestows on a member of the faculty or administration for excellent service, was awarded during the commencement ceremony to Rabbi Zevulun Charlop, who stepped down as the Max and Marion Grill Dean of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) at the end of June but will serve as dean emeritus.

President Joel paid tribute to Rabbi Charlop’s “brilliant mind, gentle hand, and sensitive heart” in leading the seminary for more than 35 years. Under his distinguished leadership, RIETS experienced enormous growth, graduating thousands of rabbis, educators, and Jewish scholars.
He will continue to serve as one of the Masmichim, those who administer ordination exams. Additionally, he will maintain his special relationship with the Kollelei Elyon (advanced study groups) and will serve as special advisor to the YU President on yeshiva affairs, with cabinet rank.
President Joel also announced the creation of the Rabbi Zevulun Charlop Chair at RIETS, thanks to an endowment from the Legacy Heritage Fund Limited.

President Joel gave a special honor to Dr. Sheldon E. Socol ’58Y, special advisor to the dean and to the chairman of the Board of Overseers Building Committee at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, at graduation. Socol received a proclamation recognizing 50 years of service and dedication to the university.

He began his career as assistant bursar the same year as his graduation from Yeshiva College. His many posts included director of student finances, secretary of the university, and vice president for business affairs. Effective July 1, 2008, Socol will serve as advisor to the Office of the President of YU.

Novick says that bullied children can suffer long-term effects.

Many adults recall being bullied or witnessing bullying during their school years and assume that the phenomenon is a given in any school situation.
But according to Dr. Rona Novick, associate professor at Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, research shows there are positive steps that parents and educators can take to combat bullying.

Novick, a licensed clinical psychologist with a PhD from Rutgers University, said bullying and related problems such as taunting, name-calling, and social exclusion are more serious than most adults acknowledge.

“It is common that children who are harassed and bullied suffer severe long-term effects, including depression and suicidal feelings,” Novick said.
Her classroom-based program called Bully Reduction/ Anti-Violence Education and Social Leadership Development (BRAVE) has been widely implemented in both public and Jewish schools around the country and will soon be piloted in Israeli schools.

She has vast experience in the field of education and child psychology (she is also associate professor of child and adolescent psychology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine), and helping children deal with various forms of violence is one of the hallmarks of her career.
She has dealt with the effects of 9/11 on children in numerous articles, and has treated children in area hospitals including Long Island Jewish Medical Center and Beth Israel Medical Center. Her current project is part of a career-long goal to bring psychological expertise into the classroom to help educators make better decisions. “Bullying is a social issue that requires a social context and an audience,” said Novick. “Often that social context is the school peer group.”
Novick pointed to statistics that say 85 percent of bullying cases are witnessed by other children, with typical reactions ranging from ignoring the bullying to taking an active part in it. Encouraging those witnesses to at least not join in, and at best help stand up for the bullying victim, is a key part of her program.
The BRAVE program begins with a mock trial of cartoon-character bullies and bystanders accused of bullying, which “allows students to explore the definition of bullying and come to understand the impact ‘innocent’ bystanders have when they do not become involved in helping those victimized.”

Novick said it is also important to give teachers and administrators appropriate tools for dealing with bullying, as some of the best procedures may be counterintuitive. “Schools may want to publicly take bullies to task. In doing so, however, they may actually make the situation worse for a victim,” she explained. A better way to respond to a case of reported bullying, Novick said, would be to assign the bully an adult mentor who could serve as a role model to “help them see the error of their ways, and corral their smarts and their energies for positive rather than negative social action.”
Since January, Novick has been doing carefully controlled research on bullying and the viability of her BRAVE program at five Jewish middle schools across the country. The application of the program in Jewish schools is supported by the Institute for University-School Partnership at Azrieli.
The program includes student workshops to help children find the appropriate responses to real-life bullying situations. Later, trained BRAVE instructors conduct monthly sessions with students to further ameliorate bullying in the school and build students’ coping skills.

Novick said preliminary results appear to indicate that the phenomenon of bullying is as prevalent among Jewish day schools as it is in comparable public schools. “Our schools are in no way immune,” said Novick, the author of Helping Your Child Make Friends and editor of the book series, Kids Don’t Come With Instruction Manuals. “We teach the notion of ‘bein adam l’chaveiro’ [treating one’s fellow man properly] as part of Torah values, but we still see children bullying and taunting their fellow students. “If we’re teaching it, why aren’t students getting it?” asked Novick.

Her program addresses bullying as the primary focus, but the point is really about creating a more socially responsible generation of Jewish youth and giving children the leadership skills to stand up for those who are being harassed.

Jacobson and Goldstein were awarded a $40,000 grant by the We The People program of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to research the museum exhibit. J

acobson, a professor in the college’s English department, said the show will debut at YUM in 2010 or 2011, depending on additional funding, after which it will travel around the country.

The grant will allow the co-curators to create a multidisciplinary exhibit that will examine the significance of suburbia to American Jews and American society in general. “The museum is delighted to be working with university faculty to explore new topics and to engage our audiences,” said Goldstein.

The exhibit will investigate a variety of suburban areas and recreate a typical 1950s-style suburban home.
NEH panelists at the proposal’s evaluation were enthusiastic about the idea, noting in their report that it had an “excellent project team with a stellar group of humanities scholars.”

Jacobson’s interest in mounting this exhibit grew out of public programs she organized at the museum after the publication in 2007 of Hunger Artist, her memoir about growing up Jewish in suburban Chicago.

The Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation presented Yeshiva University with its 2008 Partners for Life Award at its annual gala dinner in May. The university has facilitated 23 bone marrow transplants-more than any other institution-via Gift of Life’s campus recruitment program. President Richard M. Joel, who accepted the award on behalf of YU, is pictured above with Jay Feinberg (right), the foundation’s founder, and members of the YU Student Medical Ethics Society, which ran two hugely successful drives this past year.

(L-R) Cooper and Cheses will attend Azrieli and RIETS, respectively.

Four Yeshiva University graduates are among the 20 people selected this fall for the prestigious Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program awarded to aspiring Jewish leaders who pursue graduate training in the cantorate, Jewish education, Jewish professional leadership, Jewish studies, and the rabbinate.
This year’s fellows, who will each receive an annual stipend of $20,000, include Erin Cooper, a 2008 graduate of Stern College for Women (SCW); Noah Cheses, a 2008 graduate of Yeshiva College (YC); and Zev Nagel and Ari Gordon, both 2005 YC graduates.

Additionally, students are Davidson Scholars, a designation given to 10 fellows pursuing careers in Jewish education and Jewish communal leadership.
Fellows receive leadership training, peer support, professional mentoring, and networking across career choices and denominational affiliations, both during school and throughout their lives.

Cooper will attend Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration in the fall and is still considering schools for her MBA. She hopes that her studies in Jewish education and business administration will enable her to play a role in rejuvenating Jewish life outside of the major metropolitan areas of the US.
Noah Cheses, a graduate of YC’s Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein Honors Program, will enroll in the semikhah [rabbinical ordination] program at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary and the master’s program at Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies in the fall.

Nagel, past editor-in-chief of The Commentator, YC’s student newspaper, is a speechwriter at the Israeli Mission to the United Nations. He will pursue a master’s degree in law and diplomacy at Tufts University and hopes to forge a path within the American Jewish community that will energize Jewish youth to become involved in their communities and be active in political processes. He is excited about the opportunity the fellowship gives him “to interact with future leaders.”
Gordon, assistant director of inter-religious affairs at the American Jewish Committee, will attend Harvard Divinity School.

“I feel a profound hakarat hatov [appreciation] to Yeshiva University, which helped foster my commitment to serving the Jewish community and prepared me for this next exciting step of my journey,” said Gordon.

Deborah Ifrah ‘99SB (above), vice president of investment banking at JP Morgan Securities, Inc., was among the alumni honored at the Sy Syms School of Business Student and Alumni Gala Dinner in April. She spoke about how the school’s distinctive ethics-based education influenced her career and urged the students to “apply the lessons and skills that Yeshiva University and Syms’s unique education affords, and be a living example of a true God-fearing leader.” At the dinner, Dr. Michael J. Ginzberg was officially welcomed as the school’s new dean and distinguished alumni Rabbi Moshe (Martin) Blech, director of international taxation at Deloitte LLP, and J.J. Sussman, director of business development at SanDisk Corporation in Israel, were honored.

Dr. Dan Kelly, who graduated as an MD from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in June, is a one-man public health machine. While at medical school, Kelly, who had long been interested in poverty and health issues, met classmate Issa Toure, a Sierra Leone refugee, who urged him to focus his idealism on the desperate needs of Sierra Leone.

“At Einstein, I found a focus for my passion about health disparities,” he said.

In his third year, Kelly won an Albert Einstein Global Health Fellowship to travel to Sierra Leone, where he learned of the plight of the country’s amputees. Toure connected Kelly with Dr. Mohamed Barrie, a Sierra Leonean physician. Together, they founded the Global Action Foundation to address the desperate needs of the country’s people and help them attain self-reliance.

As a result, the Kono Medical Clinic opened in January in a Sierra Leone diamond-mining district that contains the impoverished nation’s highest concentration of amputees, victims of a 10-year civil war. The foundation also set up a project to train local women in Port Loko to recognize and prevent severe malnutrition in children.

Now back in the U.S., Kelly begins an internal medicine residency at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston this year. He intends to expand the foundation’s health projects in Sierra Leone with the help of Barrie and others.

CLIMBING THE LADDER OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Melissa Andre found her niche early on at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. She especially liked her criminal justice classes, which she complemented with an impressive list of internships in the criminal justice system.

Her first summer internship was at the New York Police Department’s Civil Enforcement Unit, where her responsibilities included presenting evidence in vehicle retention hearings. The next fall, Andre interned at the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office.

She followed that with a 2007 summer internship at the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office and a fall 2007 job as a family court intern with the New York City Law Department in Queens.

“I just really like to help people seek justice and to feel whole again after something awful has happened to them,” said Andre, who was co-president and vice president of Cardozo’s Black Law Students Association is her first and second years, respectively.

The summer internship in Philadelphia, where she became state-certified to present felony preliminary hearings and misdemeanor trials in municipal and juvenile courts, was especially rewarding. “I loved that experience.

I was not a lawyer, but I got to act like one. By the end, I was begging them to hire me!” she said.

And so they did. In August, after taking the Pennsylvania state bar exam, Andre will return to the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office as an assistant district attorney.

The daughter of Haitian immigrants who settled in Queens-her father is a banker, her mother a beautician-Andre earned her BA in strategic and organizational communications from Temple University in 2005. She is the first in her family to attend law school.

A THERAPIST IN THE GREAT OUTDOORS

Angela Schwartz has always incorporated her love of animals into her work and knows that their love can help others too. After graduating from Vassar College, she studied with conservation biologists at Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom and Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo, worked with emotionally disturbed children and animals, and completed a master’s degree in animals and public policy from the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University.

“I enjoy working in a therapeutic milieu and I love the opportunity to work with children in the great outdoors,” said Schwartz.

In June, she completed Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology’s doctoral program, which she chose because of its combined school-clinical program and its connection to Dr. Boris Levinson, who introduced the concept of pet-oriented psychotherapy to the field and headed Ferkauf’s Psychological Center, now the Parnes Clinic, in the late 1950s. Before Ferkauf, Schwartz was an intern and health teacher at Green Chimneys, a therapeutic farm in Brewster, NY, which uses rescued animals that have been injured or abused in its work with emotionally disturbed children.

She worked in its special education school during her first year at Ferkauf and helped lobby for American Psychological Association accreditation of Green Chimneys internships. Schwartz is now a psychologist in its residential treatment facility for older children up to the age of 21.

HELPING THE JEWISH COMMUNITY THRIVE

Working at a Jewish nonprofit was always at the back of Adena Kaplan’s mind, but it wasn’t until Wurzweiler School of Social Work that she crystallized her ambition to become a Jewish communal professional.

She won a Wexner Fellowship to study at Wurzweiler, drawn by its specialized Certificate in Jewish Communal Service Program.

“Ultimately, my parents’ strong commitment to Jewish life and community were the roots of my studies and my professional path,” said Kaplan, a native of Roanoke, VA, who, as an undergraduate, studied community empowerment with a Jewish focus at New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study.

Before coming to Wurzweiler, Kaplan was a program specialist at the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty in New York City.

She did her field work for her master of social work degree at NYU’s Bronfman Center, running the Collegiate Leadership Internship Program and doing community organization work with graduate students at the university’s Hillel.

The work quickly became a full-time job, which Kaplan juggled with part-time classes at school.

The Jewish Communal Service Program enabled her to network with her peers and new colleagues, exposed her to the larger picture through current research about the Jewish communal world, and attend sessions at the United Jewish Communities’ annual General Assembly in Nashville—which all enabled her “to learn in a variety of ways,” she said. In recognition of the high standard of her professional practice, Wurzweiler’s faculty chose Kaplan to receive the National Association of Social Workers Award at graduation. She has now been appointed as a full-time senior associate for leadership development at the Bronfman Center.

SEASONED TEACHER REDISCOVERS JOYS OF LEARNING

Rabbi Franklin (Fischel) Engelberg was in competition with his son to see who would be the first to complete his doctorate. “I beat my son by one year,” said Rabbi Engelberg, who received his degree this May from Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, and spoke on behalf of the doctoral candidates at Azrieli’s graduation.

Rabbi Engelberg has been an educator for almost four decades in both Judaic and general studies. Today, as principal of Yeshiva Toras Emes Kamenitz in Brooklyn, he oversees students in pre-K through high school. He previously served as principal of the Mirrer Yeshiva high school and is an adjunct professor of education at Touro College.

“I wanted to further my education and sharpen my skills and was offered a tremendous amount of guidance from highly professional individuals at Azrieli,” he said. Rabbi Engelberg’s dissertation is a statistical analysis of standardized reading and math scores among fourth graders in yeshivas, public schools, and Catholic parochial schools in the New York City area over five years.

He found that although the yeshiva math scores were highest among the three groups, their language arts scores were not. While he leaves the explanation for the phenomenon to other researchers, he has found through experience that using computers for instruction raised reading scores over that five-year period, and he plans to increase in-service workshops for his teachers to address standards and methods of curriculum delivery.

A CATALYST OF POSITIVE CHANGE

Throughout his studies at Yeshiva College, psychology major Ayol Samuels supplemented his academic pursuits with experiential learning that would enable him to make a difference in people’s lives.

While conducting summer research on schizophrenia at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Samuels worked with people suffering from the disorder at a home for those with developmental disabilities.

He developed an interest in adolescent mental health while participating in the Center for the Jewish Future’s Zusman Family Counterpoint Israel Program in Yerucham, Israel, in 2006. Samuels ran sessions about self-confidence and positive thinking for disadvantaged youth in the development town.

“The experience showed me the power that we have to influence youth and break down barriers in just a few weeks through informal education and role modeling,” said Samuels, who grew up in Riverdale, NY.

He also tried to make a difference to student life on campus by taking an interest in shaping undergraduate academics as a member of the YC Academic Standards Committee and the Honors Program Committee, and founded a forum for students to discuss issues in Orthodox Judaism that he felt were not being adequately addressed.

“The faculty and administration have been exceptionally supportive,” he said. “Yeshiva University gave me the opportunity to focus on serious intellectual pursuits, including meaningful contact with my professors, and to devote my time to causes that I deemed important.”

Samuels is moving to Beer-Sheva, Israel, in the summer to study medicine with a specialization in child and adolescent psychiatry at Ben Gurion University of the Negev Medical School for International Health.

A FINANCE WHIZ WHOSE RISKS PAID OFF

Yishai Pliner didn’t follow the well-traveled route to his graduation from Sy Syms School of Business—but then Pliner rarely takes the well-traveled path.

Prior to his final year of college, the Pittsburgh, PA, native left school to pursue a career in the financial industry. He worked for Allen Partners, a boutique investment firm in New York, until April 2005. After deciding that he gained all that was possible from the job, he quit to explore other options.

Taking a chance, Pliner contacted a top-level executive at Bear Stearns. He guessed the executive’s email address and requested a meeting regarding a potential employment opportunity. Pliner and his contact spoke on the phone that day, scheduled an interview, and two weeks later, Pliner was working on a sales desk at Bear Stearns.

“I think that my experience at Yeshiva University and my exposure to different kinds of people made me feel comfortable and confident contacting senior executives during my job search,” said Pliner. “I appreciate the help I received and always go out of my way to assist YU students whenever I can.”

Last September, Pliner returned to Yeshiva University as a full-time student to finish his education. He now works in media sales for Yahoo! and is planning to become chartered as a financial analyst.

FORGING A CAREER PATH IN PHYSICS

As a math major, a member of the S. Daniel Abraham Honors Program, and one of only three graduates completing the first full cycle of a physics major at Stern College for Women, Leah Kanner is a pioneer, and her dedication has paid off with handsome dividends.

This fall, the Lawrence, NY, native will attend Columbia University’s PhD Program in Physics as a faculty fellow. The program has accepted 22 students, three of whom are women. “Leah is outstanding academically,” said Anatoly Frenkel, PhD, professor of physics at Stern College. “She could have succeeded at anything she chose.”

After working last summer in an investment management firm learning how science and math are applied to financial modeling, Kanner realized that although it was a valuable experience, her passion lay in the pure sciences.

While many science students choose to pursue a more conventional career, Kanner’s experience working on the cutting-edge of scientific research with Dr. Frenkel, studying novel nanomaterials and consequently co-authoring a paper in the prestigious Physical Review Letters, cemented her desire to face the challenges of physics hands on.

Since working as a teaching assistant at Stern, Kanner is committed to continuing in the path of her professors. She plans to communicate the excitement of physics to the next generation of students through a combination of teaching and advanced research.

As to Stern’s recent and significant commitment to physics, said Kanner, “it is an honor to have been a part of what will hopefully be the beginning of a trend.”

President Richard M. Joel mingled with Chicago alumni, from L-R, Ira Perlman '85Y, Dr. David Spindel YH '58, '62Y, and David Polster '91Y at Congregation Or Torah in Skokie.

The Orthodox Jewish community in Chicago got a taste of things to come at a Shabbaton weekend introducing its members to Yeshiva University’s rabbinic scholars and the new YU Torah Mitzion Chicago Kollel, a project of the Center for the Jewish Future (CJF)-Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), which will begin offering in-depth Torah learning in the Windy City this fall.

President Richard M. Joel spent Shabbat in the West Rogers Park area, while Rabbi Kenneth Brander, CJF dean, and Rabbi Reuven Brand, rosh kollel [head] of the forthcoming YU Torah Mitzion Kollel, were scholars-in-residence in Skokie. Rabbi Zvi Sobolofsky, a RIETS rosh yeshiva [professor of Talmud], was a scholar-in-residence in Lincolnwood. They joined alumni, parents, and friends in celebrating YU’s new partnership with the Chicago Jewish community, which has the largest number of out-of-town students at YU.

The celebration also featured a Melave Malka at Congregation Or Torah featuring “Jewpardy,” a spoof on the popular program “Jeopardy,” on Motzei Shabbat. On Sunday, almost 100 people attended the first YU Kollel Yom Rishon and Midreshet Yom Rishon in Chicago. The learning sessions are an extension of the hugely popular Sunday learning programs held on YU’s Wilf Campus in Manhattan.

The visit also highlighted the formation of the Yeshiva University Torah Mitzion Kollel, which “will consist of a permanent cadre of Torah scholars who will reside in Chicago and enrich the entire local Jewish community with exciting learning programs for men, women and youth,” said President Joel.

“The kollel will foster a transformational experience in Chicago and be an incubator for klei kodesh [lay leaders], by attracting young couples to move to Chicago, seeding the community with educators and rabbis to lead and inspire local synagogues and schools,” he said.

Students on YU’s float handed out T-shirts at the annual Salute to Israel Parade in June. Hundreds of YU students, alumni, leaders, faculty, and friends marched up Fifth Avenue cheering and greeting the crowds as they celebrated Israel’s 60th anniversary of statehood.

(L-R) Dr. Steven Fine, director of the Center for Israel Studies, talks to conference participants Rabbi David Horwitz, of YU, and Dr. Gary Anderson, of the University of Notre Dame.

The Temple of Jerusalem, the center of the Jewish universe since biblical times, has inspired thinkers, artists, and poets for thousands of years. So it is little surprise that the sacred site was the subject of the inaugural conference in May of the university’s new Center for Israel Studies, directed by Steven Fine, PhD, professor of Jewish history. “The Temple of Jerusalem: From Moses to the Messiah” brought together leading scholars from institutions as diverse as the University of Notre Dame, Bar-Ilan University, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Jewish Theological Seminary, New York University, and, of course, YU. The conference honored Louis H. Feldman, PhD, Abraham Wouk Family Professor of Classics and Literature, a beloved teacher at the university since 1955 and a leading scholar of the Second Temple period.
Lecture topics ranged from the centralization of worship in the First Temple to the significance of the Temple to Jews, Christians, and Muslims, and from the challenges of archeological excavation on the Temple Mount during political and sectarian conflict to recent archeological discoveries.
“Jerusalem is such a contentious issue in today’s politics,” said Rabbi David Horwitz, YH,’81Y,B,R, a rosh yeshiva at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, who chaired a session on “From the Tabernacle to the Dead Sea Scrolls.” “It’s important to emphasize the centrality of the Temple and Jerusalem.”
A related exhibition at the Yeshiva University Museum, where the conference was held, of five scale models of the Tabernacle and both Jerusalem Temples by archeological architect Leen Ritmeyer, lent a visual reference to the conference.

The interdisciplinary nature of the conference reflected the wide-ranging mandate of the Center for Israel Studies, established in 2007, to support research, conferences, publications, museum exhibitions, and public programs that examine Israel from ancient to modern times. It seeks to be a national and international forum for engagement of the political, economic, social, historical, religious, and cultural significance of Israel in the world community, said Fine.
In addition to academics, the conference attracted over 600 students, alumni and members of the public, all drawn by what Fine described as “a deep cultural attachment and appreciation of the complexity of world issues demonstrated by the huge interest in this one little place in the Middle East.”

Onora O’Neill

Eminent political philosopher and ethicist Dr. Onora O’Neill shone a spotlight on the ethics of public and global health when she spoke as the second Leonard and Tobee Kaplan Scholar-in-Residence of the Center for Ethics at Yeshiva University in April. Traditionally a neglected area within the field of bioethics, public and global health concerns have been overshadowed by an emphasis on medical ethics and the dilemmas arising in clinical settings, said O’Neill.

The professor of philosophy at Cambridge University, who is also president of the British Academy, spoke on “Broadening Bioethics: Clinical Ethics, Public Health, and Global Health” and said that the focus of bioethics on medical ethics and the treatment of individual patients excludes broader global health issues of great urgency.
“[Bioethics’] central focus has been on the relationships between patients and those who deliver health care, in particular physicians,” said O’Neill. “It has been preoccupied [...] all too often with clinical ethics in rich societies. It has much less to say about [...] the health problems of poorer societies, which suffer a high share of the global disease burden,” she said.

The measures that bioethicists have traditionally advocated, such as the informed consent of patients or research subjects, are implemented on an individual rather than shared or public basis. O’Neill explored the ethics of public health measures that do not require individual consent, for example setting safety standards for medicines and adding fluoride to water.

The subject was new for O’Neill, who has written extensively on ethics and philosophy with a focus on international justice, the work of 18th-century philosopher Immanuel Kant, and bioethics.

An academic of considerable standing in the UK, she is a baroness and a Life Peer in the British House of Lords where she has served on its Select Committees on Stem Cell Research and BBC Charter Review. O’Neill chairs the Nuffield Foundation and previously chaired the Nuffield Council on Bioethics and the Human Genetics Advisory Commission. Her presentation to a packed house at the YU Museum was co-sponsored by the New York University Center for Bioethics. O’Neil also spoke on “Dissecting Informed Consent” at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in May.

Lay leaders of Jewish prayer services anywhere in the world can learn the precise melodies and traditional format of the Shabbat prayers from a new MP3 CD, Be a Ba’al Tefillah, produced by Cantor Sherwood Goffin ‘63Y, ‘66BZ, a faculty member of the Belz School of Jewish Music and cantor of Lincoln Square Synagogue in New York City.

The MP3 CD, published by Judaic software developer Davka, includes the prayers for Kabbalat Shabbat [the start of Shabbat] through Ma’ariv [evening prayers] on Friday night to Shacharit [morning prayers] and Mussaf [additional prayers] on Shabbat morning, totaling 268 tracks and five and half hours of music.

It is based on the curriculum of the Belz School, compiled and composed by Cantor Bernard Beer YH, ‘65BZ, the school’s director, edited by Cantor Goffin, and with piano accompaniment by Cantor Eric Freeman ‘99Y, assistant to the director of Belz.

“I hope the project will engender a new generation who know how to lead prayers properly,” Cantor Goffin said. “We are trying to foster a resurgence of interest in our rich and time-honored liturgy.”

The MP3 CD encompasses the prayers and melodies exactly as they are meant to be recited in synagogues. Rabbi Hershel Schachter, Nathan and Vivian Fink Distinguished Professor of Talmud at YU’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary and Rosh Kollel in its Marcos and Adina Katz Kollel, permitted the use of God’s full name in the MP3 CD (Jewish law usually only permits the use of God’s name during prayers), so as to avoid confusion for those learning to lead the prayers.

Be a Ba’al Tefillah includes both Ashkenazic and Sephardic pronunciation of the prayers, as well as a manual written by Cantor Goffin and downloadable as a PDF. The MP3 CD has received positive reviews from The Jerusalem Post, Washington Jewish Week, and the New York Jewish Week. The MP3 CD can be purchased for $39.95 at local Hebrew bookstores, or by emailing belzschool@aol.com

Honorary degree recipients (back row, L-R) Rosenak, Halevy, Brovender, and (front row, L-R) Hammer with President Joel.

Yeshiva University celebrated the central role that the State of Israel plays in its mission during the Second Yeshiva University Colloquium in Israel in March. The week’s events highlighted the educational, religious, and cultural strands that weave the university and the Israeli people together.

The celebration, which coincided with Israel’s 60th anniversary, was part of a tradition that began two years ago when the inaugural colloquium was held. This year, YU honored four Israelis who embody the institution’s philosophy of Torah Umadda [the synthesis of Torah learning with secular studies] at a special academic convocation ceremony attended by more than 450 people at the Renaissance Jerusalem Hotel.

Honorary doctoral degrees were awarded to: Rabbi Dr. Chaim Brovender ’62Y, ’65B, ’65R, president of the Academy for Torah Initiatives and Directions in Jewish Education, who President Richard M. Joel called “a visionary architect whose pioneering work for both men and women has brought us into a modern era”; Professor Jonathan Halevy, MD, director general of the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, who President Joel said applies “the values borne of Torah and the wisdom of scientific research for the welfare of humanity”; Clara Chaya Hammer, founder of the Chicken Fund that helps 250 needy Israeli families a week with food and basic necessities, who, at age 97, was praised as “the stuff of legend” by President Joel; and Professor Michael Rosenak ’54Y, PhD, the Mandel Professor Emeritus of Jewish Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem who “defined and shaped the discipline of Jewish education.”

President Joel also honored the memory of Moshe Pearlstein ’46Y, a Palmach guard who died in the massacre of the Lamed Hey at Gush Etzion in 1948 while under attack by the Jordanian Legion, with a special certificate presented to Gush Etzion Mayor Shaul Goldstein.

The convocation address, delivered by Dr. Karen Bacon, The Dr. Monique C. Katz Dean of Stern College for Women, set the tone for the Colloquium’s subsequent events.

“Passion sets our university apart,” Dean Bacon said. “No other student body in America debates, dissects, and revisits time and again the nature of the university’s mission in the way that Yeshiva University students do.”

That mission of Torah Umadda was the topic of conversation between President Joel and Rabbi Dr. Aharon Lichtenstein, the Rabbi Henoch and Sarah D. Berman Professor of Talmud and rosh kollel and director of the RIETS YU Israel Kollel, at a discussion about “Contemplating Torah Umadda: Bedieved or Lechatchila” at the Jerusalem Great Synagogue.

And a scion of Torah Umadda—the late Rabbi Israel Miller, who nurtured the founding of YU’s campus in Jerusalem and devoted 60 years of his life to YU as a student and an administrator— was the inspiration at the dedication of the beit midrash [study hall] at the Yeshiva University Israel Campus in his memory. Now named the Rabbi Israel Miller Beit Midrash/Beit Midrash Heichel Azriel, the space is at the heart of the Israel campus and was where Rabbi Miller studied during his many trips to Israel.

“This makom [place] bears his name because it bears the fruits of his life’s work,” said President Joel at the dedication, which was attended by several hundred family, friends, and admirers of the late Rabbi Miller.

The beit midrash is used by students in the RIETS YU Israel Kollel, rabbis, scholars, and laymen from throughout Israel and abroad under the direction of Rabbi Dovid Miller YH, ‘68Y, 71R, ‘72B, eldest son of Rabbi Miller. The younger Rabbi Miller, together with his siblings Rabbi Michael Miller YH, ‘71Y, ‘75R, 76B, Deborah Kram, and Judy Kalish YH, ‘80S, also dedicated the Office of the Rosh Kollel in memory of their mother, Ruth.

The colloquium concluded with an alumni Shabbaton where the 250 gathered at the Renaissance Jerusalem Hotel heard inspiring shiurim [lectures] from YU rabbis and professors, learned about the latest developments at their alma mater, and reminisced about their years at YU.

“[This was a] nice opportunity to get back in touch with the YU family. I look forward to further involvement of YU with their Israeli alumni,” said Yechiel Corn ’83Y, who attended with his family.

Debra Kaplan was voted 2007 Professor of the Year by her students.

What was it like to be a Jew 500 years ago? Ask Dr. Debra Kaplan, assistant professor of Jewish history at Yeshiva College and Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies. She teaches her students about Jewish life in the early modern period—from 1450, just after the medieval period, to 1750—through the words of the actual people who lived it. It was a time of major change for Jews as well as the rest of the world.

One of the first professors at YU to focus on the period, Kaplan reconstructs Jewish life during that time through the letters of the common men and women who lived then, poetry, intellectual writings, artwork, and architecture of the period.

These primary sources, she says, give her students an opportunity to “see for themselves what’s going on” and how scholars used these kinds of materials to write history.

“The early modern period is when the printing press was invented, new countries were being discovered, and new ways of warfare were being developed. Jews then were establishing new communities in different places. Primary sources give students insight into what it was like to be Jewish during that time,” said Kaplan.

It’s an approach that has resonated with her students, who voted her the Lillian F. and William L. Silber Professor of the Year at Yeshiva College last spring.

Her students have “a lot of reasons to be interested in Jewish history,” she said. They come with deep analytical skills in reading Hebrew texts that students at other universities may not be able to read.

“They’re extremely engaged, so I encourage discussion that focuses a great deal on how to think about a text critically and from the historical perspective,” the professor said.

Kaplan came on board Yeshiva in 2005 and was named occupant of the Dr. Pinkhos Churgin Memorial Chair in Jewish History last September. Her appointment marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Churgin, a renowned scholar of Jewish history and an influential leader during YU’s early years.

Dr. Morton Lowengrub, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, said Kaplan was “the perfect choice” for the chair in Jewish history.

“Her strong commitment to teaching and mentoring exemplifies the life of the late Dr. Churgin, who devoted more than 30 years to the field of Jewish history and to the university,” Lowengrub said.

“As a Jewish historian, I’m interested in the ways religion and history impact each other—how Jews interacted with their neighbors, what boundaries they drew between themselves and the people they lived with,” said Kaplan, a summa cum laude graduate of Barnard College at Columbia University who earned her PhD at the University of Pennsylvania. Since then, she has been invited by institutions worldwide to speak on topics in early modern Jewish history.

One theme that interests Kaplan is Jewish-Christian relations during the early modern period, which is the subject of her forthcoming book, whose working title is Beyond Expulsion: Jews, Christians, and Early Modern Strasbourg. Now in France, Strasbourg was part of the Holy Roman Empire during her period of interest.

“Jews living there were expelled in 1391, scattered to the countryside. During the 400 years they were forbidden to return, the Jews nevertheless continued doing business with their former Christian neighbors and also found ways to fulfill their religious obligations while living in places that lacked communal institutions such as synagogues, mikvahs, and schools,” said Kaplan. “Reconstructing the lives of these Jews reveals a social history that would otherwise have remained concealed.”

This August, Kaplan is organizing the Fifth Annual Early Modern Workshop cosponsored by YU’s Center for Jewish Law and Contemporary Civilization at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. The gathering will allow scholars of early modern Jewish history from Israel, Europe, and across the United States to share with one another the work they are doing with texts from that period.

Yeshiva College Dean David Srolovitz said of Kaplan, “She represents the best the college has to offer—a truly compelling instructor, an up-and-coming scholar, and a wonderful colleague. She makes Jewish history come alive for students and, as a result, is already one of their’ favorite professors.”

Marilyn and Stanley Katz are longtime benefactors at Einstein.

Albert Einstein College of Medicine will establish a major research program within its Cancer Center, thanks to a $7 million gift from longtime benefactors Marilyn and Stanley M. Katz.

The Marilyn and Stanley M. Katz Comprehensive Cancer Prevention and Control Program will bring together Einstein scientists to design new methods for promoting the health of Bronx residents. It will include population studies to identify lifestyle and environmental factors that cause cancer, as well as cancer prevention initiatives focusing on smoking cessation, exercise, healthy nutrition, and preventing obesity.

“The program created by their gift will expand the scope of population-based research at the center and lead to new approaches to the prevention and early detection of cancer,” said Dr. I. David Goldman, director of the Cancer Center and the Susan Resnick Fisher Professor of Brain Cancer Research at Einstein. “This program will benefit not just our community, but will contribute to cancer control efforts throughout the US.”

Marilyn and Stanley M. Katz are members of Einstein’s Board of Overseers. As founding chairperson of the Einstein Cancer Center’s Cancer Research Advisory Board, Mrs. Katz has fostered many of the center’s research programs over the past 10 years.

In announcing her gift, Mrs. Katz noted that she had a sister who died from cancer. “I’ve dedicated my life to honoring the memory of someone I loved dearly by doing all I can to help find a cure,” Mrs. Katz said.

“Stan and I have such wonderful memories of growing up in the Bronx, so it’s especially gratifying to be able to give back to the community in this way,” she said. “I know that our involvement in this important program would make my parents very proud.”

Jennie Rosenfeld oversaw piloting of curriculum

Tzelem, a special project of the Center for the Jewish Future that builds awareness of relationship and sexuality issues in the Orthodox Jewish community, is taking its mission into Jewish day schools.

Tzelem has introduced the Life Values and Intimacy Education Program—a curriculum situating sexual education within a broad interpersonal context and from a Torah point of view—to students in grades 3–12 at two schools.

“Today’s child growing up in the Orthodox Jewish community receives lots of mixed messages,” said Tzelem’s director, Jennie Rosenfeld YH, ‘01S, ‘04AG, PhD. “Schools need to be there to give the Jewish message. They can’t have the media message on one hand and silence on the other.”

The curriculum was authored by Yocheved Debow, an educator with a background in child psychology, in collaboration with Anna Woloski- Wruble, EdD, a sexual health educator at Hadassah Hospital and assistant professor in its Nursing School.

“Sexual education is not discussed in isolation,” said Rosenfeld. “Rather, it is seen within the larger context of interpersonal relationships and personal development.”

Particularly, for the younger grades, actual “sex ed” plays a very small role and most lessons are geared toward life values, interpersonal relationships, self-esteem, appropriate assertiveness, healthy decision- making, and the Jewish values that inform those areas.

The curriculum taps several resources—including the federal government’s 1991 sex-ed guidelines for schools—and allows for adaptation to individual class requirements.

The curriculum is being piloted in two middle schools: SAR Academy in the Bronx and Yeshivat Noam in Paramus, NJ.

“The goal is to develop a healthy understanding of what it means to grow up,” said Rabbi Menachem Linzer, associate principal of SAR Academy who oversees the program at the school.

The program has been a resounding success in both schools, with overwhelmingly positive feedback from students and parents. Rosenfeld expects to release the curriculum in book form this summer. “Today more than ever, we need to create a safe space for kids and teenagers to learn and ask questions about issues of sexuality and Judaism that are so often on their minds— these include questions about puberty, how to talk and behave with the opposite sex, as well as issues of body image,” said Rosenfeld. “It is critical to start educating children at a young age in a holistic, Torahoriented way before they get the wrong ideas.”

“This curriculum presents basic values related to sexuality in a way that is sensitive to the development of the child,” said David Pelcovitz, PhD, the Gwendolyn and Joseph Straus Professor of Jewish Education at Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, who sits on Tzelem’s Advisory Board. “It fills an important need at an age where research shows that children often are exposed to conflicting values regarding sex from the Internet and the media.”

“We are working diligently and sensitively to invite singles to a host of social opportunities where they can feel comfortable connecting and mingling with others,” Efrat Sobolofsky ‘95W, ‘06W, PhD, mental health advisor of YUConnects, said at the program’s launch, which drew over 200 professional alumni to the YU Museum in January.

A group of married men and women, most of whom are alumni, play a key role in facilitating and networking. These “connectors” meet with members to better understand the qualities they are searching for in a spouse and to facilitate their introduction to other compatible people.

The program distinguishes itself from other dating services that are conducted solely online or over the phone. “The personal, face-to-face interaction will create more opportunities for on-target matches,” Rabbi Yosef Kalinsky, the program’s administrator, said. “Our goal and projected success is in the quality of the interactions.”

Dr. David Pelcovitz, the Gwendolyn and Joseph Straus Professor of Jewish Education at Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, plays an instrumental role in training the connectors and is an active advisor to the program.

Activities include interactive events, educational lectures, Shabbat meals, chesed projects, and BBQs.

“YUConnects does a great service to the Jewish community,” said an alumnus who attended the launch. “I have been to various singles events before, and my experience with YUConnects thus far has exceeded my expectations.” YUConnects has the support of the roshei yeshiva (professors of Talmud) at YU’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, a contingent of whom make up an advisory board for the program.

The YUConnects online system was developed in partnership with SawYouAtSinai.com to offer YU singles the opportunity to select an online connector who will develop a relationship with and perform searches for them. Becoming a member of the YUConnects online system enables undergraduates and alumni to network with other YU singles and provides the option of interacting with the greater SawYouAtSinai.com network.

“In today’s large Jewish world, we are striving to provide a personalized service using the benefits of a technologically advanced and premier online system to link people together,” Dr. Sobolofsky said.

Go to www.yu.edu/cjf/yuconnects for more info or to sign up.

Erica Jesselson

Yeshiva University deeply mourns the loss of Erica Jesselson, a benefactor of Yeshiva University who devoted her long life to philanthropy, the arts, and Jewish education. Mrs. Jesselson was 86 and died of natural causes on March 12, 2008, at her home in Riverdale, NY.

Mrs. Jesselson was the driving force behind the establishment of the YU Museum. She and her late husband, Ludwig, founded and endowed the museum and she served as the chair of the Board of the museum from 1973 until her death.

“Erica Jesselson was quite simply a magnificent woman of extraordinary intellect and unwavering devotion who was involved in every phase of Jewish education, art, and culture throughout the United States and Israel,” said President Richard M. Joel. “The university has lost a cherished friend and matriarch.”

Born Erica Pappenheim in Vienna in 1922, when World War II broke out, Mrs. Jesselson and her younger sister, Lucy Lang, were sent to England on the Kindertransport. The sisters were reunited with their family in 1940 when the Pappenheims moved to Brooklyn, NY.

Mrs. Jesselson and her sister, who became a prominent businesswoman and, later, the treasurer of the Friends of the Yeshiva University Museum, were never separated.

Ludwig Jesselson, a legend in the commodities and trading community, was a stalwart fixture at the university where he served as chairman of the Board of Trustees from 1989 until he died in 1993, as treasurer from 1977 to 1989, and as a Board member for more than 30 years, from 1961 until his death.

Together, the Jesselsons made an indelible mark on the Jewish community and the arts and culture of America and Israel through decades of gifts. The couple provided key support for the university’s undergraduates through gifts to scholarships and Jewish education.

They were renowned collectors and connoisseurs of Judaica and Hebraica. Through gifts from the Jesselsons and the Jesselson Family Trust, YU was able to acquire a number of rare materials (including Judaica Americana), publish a catalog of its incunabula, and make its Judaica collections more accessible to students and scholars.

In 1983, Mrs. Jesselson was presented with the Distinguished Service Award at Yeshiva University’s 59th Annual Hanukkah Dinner and Convocation, and received an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters at the May 1998 commencement.

The Jesselson family remained close to Yeshiva University for more than four decades. To honor her husband’s memory, Mrs. Jesselson joined with other family members to establish the Ludwig Jesselson Kollel Chaverim (Institute of Advanced Talmudic Study) at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS). Mrs. Jesselson was presented with the Eitz Chaim (Tree of Life) Award, the highest honor conferred by RIETS.

Mrs. Jesselson is survived by three sons—Michael (married to Linda) and Daniel (married to Yael), both residents of New York, and Benjamin (married to Phyllis), who lives in Israel—by numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and by her sister, Lucy Lang. Michael Jesselson has served on the Yeshiva University Board of Trustees since 1993 and received an honorary doctoral degree from YU in 2002. He is a member of the Boards of Albert Einstein College of Medicine, RIETS, and the Yeshiva University High Schools, and vice chair of the museum’s Board.

Writing about Mrs. Jesselson in 2000, Kenneth Bialkin, president of the American Jewish Historical Society, noted that “she has spent her life attempting to make the world more beautiful.”

“Environmentalists look to the academic community to lead this effort because they don’t see it happening in Washington, DC,” said Michael Winkler, energy manager in the Procurement Services Office. “This is the right time for YU to create a more environmentally responsible culture on campus. It’s good stewardship for us.”

Winkler sits on the task force, which is chaired by Jack Zencheck, chief procurement officer, and whose members come from the President’s Office, the Yeshiva College Board, faculty, students, and staff from the offices of Procurement, Facilities, Plant Operations, and Project Planning.

President Richard M. Joel— who called for the formation of the task force after Yeshiva University experienced record energy costs in 2006—recently joined 473 other college and university leaders in signing the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment. The pledge lays out a number of far-reaching and multi-faceted goals to achieve sustainability.

Within one year of signing the document, a complete inventory of greenhouse gas emissions will be conducted, and, within two years, an action plan for how to reduce those emissions, especially carbon, will be developed. “This will be a road map for sustainability,” said Zencheck. “It will include energy conservation, energy efficiency, purchasing renewable energy, and carbon offsets.”

The university has adopted a policy to purchase only Energy Star-rated appliances and equipment, such as heaters, air conditioners, lighting systems, and computers. To this end, Albert Einstein College of Medicine has almost completed a $20 million upgrade to its central steam plant. Undergraduate students also played their part to promote recycling on campus by competing in RecycleMania, a 10-week nationwide recycling competition. The YU Environmental and Energy Club and the Office of University Housing and Residence Life instituted an internal competition between dorm floors and the two campuses to encourage participation. The Beren campus won with a total recycled weight of 4,815 pounds.

Zencheck is also working on President Joel’s mandate to replace all existing vehicles in the executive fleet with hybrid models. “The university is not sitting by,” Zencheck said. “We are working to increase people’s energy IQ across the organization.”

Zachary Gordon and Tova Laufer were honored for their standout performances.

It was a bumper season for Yeshiva University basketball. The YU men’s basketball team clinched the Sportsmanship Award at the Skyline Conference—the New York City intercollegiate athletics championship that competes in the NCAA’s Division III—in March. Freshman Zachary Gordon was named both First Team All-Conference and the Skyline Conference Rookie of the Year, the first YU men’s basketball player to earn the title.

Moreover, women’s basketball junior Tova Laufer was named to the Hudson Valley Women’s Athletic Conference (HVWAC) All-Conference team for an outstanding effort during the 2007–08 season, when she led Yeshiva to the conference’s semifinals.

Gordon, a guard/forward, led Yeshiva in almost every major statistical category at the Skyline Conference and finished among the Skyline Conference leaders in four categories.

“He completed one of the finest individual seasons in the history of the Yeshiva University men’s basketball program for a player of any year, let alone a freshman,” said Joe Bednarsh, director of athletics.

Gordon earned Skyline Conference Rookie of the Week five times, was named to the PrestoSports/MBWA Honor Roll four times, and was named to the D3Hoops.com Team of the Week twice for his outstanding season, which included seven double-doubles, 20 games during which he scored 15 points or more, and 13 games during which he broke the 20-point plateau.

The Maccabees advanced to the Skyline Conference Semifinals for the first time since the 2001–02 season, and for the second time in the team’s history.

Laufer, a student at Stern College for Women, finished the season among the Yeshiva leaders in scoring, rebounding, assists, and steals. She emerged this season as one of the best two-way players in the conference, finishing the season averaging 7.7 points, 7.6 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 3.5 steals per game and leading the Maccabees in the final three categories.

She was perhaps the team’s most consistent scoring threat as she reached double figures in 11 games, and recorded four double-doubles. She was an HVWAC Honorable Mention pick for the conference’s weekly awards three times, and averaged seven points, eight rebounds, three assists, and 3.5 steals per game against HVWAC competition.

Yeshiva finished the 2007–08 season with a 4–21 overall record, including a 1–3 mark in HVWAC play. The Maccabees advanced to the HVWAC Semifinals with a 65–33 win over the College of New Rochelle on Feb. 14 and lost to eventual champion Mount Saint Vincent in the semifinals.

Ida Crown beat Hebrew Academy of Nassau County in the finals.

Basketball players from 18 Jewish high schools across the country, and their family members and friends, descended on the Wilf campus for the 17th Annual Red Sarachek Basketball Tournament in March. Fans stormed the court for the third game in a row following Ida Crown Jewish Academy’s victory over top-seeded Hebrew Academy of Nassau County in the finals of the tournament, named after Bernie “Red” Sarachek, YU’s team coach for 25 years and a legend in the basketball world.

Ida Crown head coach Howard Braun pinpointed the key to his team’s success. “This entire team is one team,” Braun said. “For the entire season that’s the way we played.” Students at Ida Crown Jewish Academy gathered in the school gym to hear the MacsLive broadcast of the final game. Started by students Adam Cohen ’02Y and Avi Bloom ’02Y in 2001, MacsLive has become a main feature of the championships. Its Web site registered more than 300,000 hits over the five-day competition.

“MacsLive brings the excitement of the tournament to everyone who could not make the trip to New York,” said Cohen, now a lawyer at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, who used his vacation time to help out at the event. The student-run operation, led by Asher Goldberg and Danny Cohn, has grown into a 30-person staff with three mixers and 10 microphones. This year, MacsLive launched the live scoreboard with a real-time box score for all games at the Max Stern Athletic Center. It also added a new feature that allowed users to visit a special site designed to work better on mobile devices.

For the many fans who joined the teams in New York City, the spirit was palpable. “We came from California, for our second year in a row, to watch our son play,” said Cathy Hoffman, mother of Valley Shaarey Zedek star Dovie Hoffman. “It is an amazing opportunity to bring Orthodox kids together in this setting.”

Marc Goldman

Marc J. Goldman has been appointed executive director of the Career Development Center at Yeshiva University. Goldman, who was previously associate director of New York University’s Wasserman Center for Career Development, heads a team of 10 staff in the center, formerly the Office of Career Services.

Goldman and his team bring a new philosophy to the center, which serves undergraduate students from Yeshiva College, Stern College for Women, and Sy Syms School of Business on both the Beren and Wilf campuses.

“As is the case at the vast majority of college career centers throughout the country, our center no longer emphasizes placement services,” he said. “The focus is on early intervention and the education and empowerment of students to make their own career decisions and plan a career for themselves.

“We provide them with the tools, resources, and support to search out, apply, and interview for jobs so that when they move on to the working world or grad schools they continue to succeed and develop as professionals.”

Goldman has overseen the creation of a new Web site, www.yu.edu/cdc, and added an array of online tools to facilitate students’ job search. The center recently launched YU CareerLink, a 24-hour accessible database of job listings, where students can upload their résumés and send them directly to employers.

Goldman is overseeing the rollout of other Web functions, including online mentoring and a mock-interview program called InterviewStream.

The Career Development Center occupies a new space on the 12th floor of 215 Lexington Avenue on the Beren campus, and a new office at 90 Laurel Hill Terrace on the Wilf campus is scheduled to open in fall 2008 (the center is presently based on the 4th floor of Belfer Hall).

Prior to YU, Goldman worked as a career counselor in various capacities at NYU since 1994, including assistant director of liberal arts. Goldman was also a career, education, and life planning course instructor and test preparation instructor at NYU’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies. “Being a GMAT instructor exposed me to the business school admissions process and to people from many walks of life and career paths,” he said.

Goldman holds an MA and Advanced Graduate Certificate in Community/Career Counseling from the University of Maryland.

He worked as a career counselor, academic advisor, and psychology instructor at Suffolk County Community College after receiving his graduate degree.

For more information about the Career Development Center, go to www.yu.edu/cdc

Andrew Lauer

Yeshiva University has appointed Andrew “Avi” J. Lauer as vice president for legal affairs and general counsel.

“Avi Lauer combines the skills of a topflight attorney with a profound commitment to advancing our ideals and values,” President Richard M. Joel said. “He will be a worthy successor to Marty Bockstein, who built the General Counsel’s Office into an important and well-regarded resource for our institution.”

Lauer was most recently a partner at Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner LLP, a large international law firm. He managed a large volumeof client matters in all areas of the law, and helped expand and supervise the firm’s Israel practice.

He served for almost a decade as senior counsel at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and as assistant general counsel at Deloitte & Touche USA LLP. Prior to Deloitte, Lauer served as assistant district attorney in Kings County (Brooklyn) for several years, including working within the Trial Cadre of the Homicide Bureau.

He earned his JD at Brooklyn Law School and holds an LLM in labor and employment law from the New York University School of Law.

A resident of Woodmere, NY, he has been an active lay leader within the Five Towns (Long Island) and the Greater Jewish community for many years. His many board positions include chairman of the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway and president of the Young Israel of Woodmere, the largest Young Israel in the United States.

“This position provides the best of all possibilities: the ability to practice law, assist a growing and vibrant institution, and serve the Jewish and greater community,” Lauer said.

Alison Malmon and Dr. Chaim Nissel emphasized the importance of professional help.

With rising national attention to the problem of depression on college campuses, Yeshiva University has taken a preventive and proactive stance toward students’ mental health.

“We take a multi-faceted approach, which includes increasing public awareness about depression and mental illness and providing quality mental health services on campus,” said Dr. Chaim Nissel, director of the Yeshiva University Counseling Center. “We also train others in the Yeshiva community and beyond to be aware of the warning signs and refer students to the appropriate services.”

Now, students are getting involved. Yeshiva College junior Asher Morris established a local chapter of Active Minds on Campus, a student-run mental health education organization on college campuses, last November.

“We hope to empower students to speak out about the mental health issues they face either through personal experience or through someone close to them,” Morris said. “We want everyone on our campuses to feel comfortable discussing mental illness from whatever angle they know it.”

Active Minds hosted the organization’s founder and executive director, Alison Malmon, for an educational event, “Perspective on Suicide: Mental Illness on College Campuses,” in February. In a panel discussion with Dr. Victor Schwartz, dean of students, and Dr. Nissel, Malmon said, “You have responsibility as a friend not to counsel others out of their issues, but to bring your friend to a professional.”

Malmon created Active Minds on Campus in 2001 after her brother, Brian, committed suicide. Active Minds now has over 100 chapters across the country.

“It is reassuring that our community is seriously addressing an issue that has been swept under the carpet for far too long,” said Yeshiva College senior Noah Chesis, who attended the panel discussion.

High school student Mordechai Tiefenbrunn surveys the remnants of a Jewish cemetery in Volozhin, Belarus.

Moshe Wasserman, a student at the Yeshiva University High School for Boys/Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy (YUHSB), found the house that his grandmother grew up on in Pinsk. Principal Ya’akov Sklar found headstones bearing his family’s name at the site of the Jewish cemetery in Grozhov. Eleventh-grader Eric Suss heard the long-gone echoes of Torah learning at the Volozhin Yeshiva, now crumbling and empty.

Although they had never visited Lithuania and Belarus before, the high school students and staff on the inaugural Julius Wrubel, zt’’l International Service Mission felt like they were reclaiming a piece of their memories during their winter intersession trip. “We could feel the holiness of the place at the Volozhin Yeshiva,” said Suss. “We sang and danced in memory of the learning that took place there. It was the most powerful part of the trip for me.”

Six students—accompanied by Principal Sklar and Daniel Schuval, director of special programs—explored the region through its Jewish, historical, and political lenses. The program was run in conjunction with Yeshiva and University Students for the Spiritual Revival of Soviet Jewry (YUSSR), an organization based on YU’s campus that aims to foster a sense of identity among Jews of the former Soviet Union.

The group visited Vilna, Minsk, Pinsk, Radin, and Volozhin, where they ran educational programs for youth groups, met with Jewish community leaders to learn more about the challenges confronting Eastern European communities, and visited local synagogues for daily prayers and additional learning programs. They also visited yeshivot in Radin and Pinsk.

“The program gave the boys an opportunity to spread their knowledge and commitment to Judaism and chesed by impacting the world around them, educating other Jews through their knowledge, and fulfilling the mitzvah of tikkun olam [healing the world],” Schuval said.

Despite the language barrier, the students interacted with the youth at the YUSSR Lauder Lech Lecha Youth Center in Minsk. “We didn’t know if we’d be able to communicate with them,” Ari Schaffer said. But the 11th-grader took out his guitar and soon the two groups were singing Hebrew and Russian songs together.

“It was touching to see so many kids learning about Judaism in a place that was devoid of Judaism only 50 years ago,” Schaffer said.

The trip was funded by YUHSB Board member Harvey Wrubel, in memory of his father, Julius. “My father studied at a yeshiva, but because of financial circumstances during the Depression, he had to go out to work,” Wrubel said. “He would have loved to have remained at the yeshiva. This gift, which is an opportunity to impart the values of Torah Umadda, is a blessing to his memory and others.”

The Julius Wrubel, z”l International Service Mission will be held annually to various countries around the world. For more information, please contact Mindy Schachtman at 212-960-5279.

To see a gallery of photos from the trip, go to www.yu.edu/news/belarusphotos

'Zoo Rabbi' Natan Slifkin

What do dragons, unicorns, and mermaids have to do with Torah? According to Rabbi Natan Slifkin, affectionately known as the “Zoo Rabbi,” these strange creatures have all appeared in ancient Jewish texts. “All the famous creatures of myth and legend are to be found in the Torah, Talmud and Midrash,” said Rabbi Slifkin, one of three scientists who addressed students during Stern College for Women’s first Torah Umadda Week in February.

“But what are we to make of them? Do they really exist? Did the Torah scholars of old believe in their existence? And if not, why did they describe these creatures?”

Torah Umadda Week was co-sponsored by the biology department at Stern College for Women and the Yeshiva University Center for Israel Studies, and organized by Harvey Babich, PhD, professor of biology at Stern.

Rabbi Slifkin’s lecture on “Sacred Monsters: The Fabulous Jewish Creatures of Harry Potter” was based on his recent book Sacred Monsters. Rabbi Slifkin investigated the bizarre animals that are mentioned in Torah literature, such as dragons, phoenixes, griffins, fireproof salamanders, and mermaids.

In his lecture titled “On Contradictions Between Torah and Science: The Creation of the Universe,” Dr. Nathan Aviezer, professor of physics at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, showed that the big bang theory of cosmology, accepted by all cosmologists and buttressed by a wealth of scientific evidence, “agrees in every detail with the Genesis account of the origin and development of the universe.”

“Recent discoveries show that the first chapter of the book of Genesis records the events that actually occurred in the past,” Dr. Aviezer said.

Edward I. Reichman, MD, professorz at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and associate professor of emergency medicine at Montefiore Medical Center, addressed “The Halakhic Approach to New Frontiers in Ovarian Preservation and Transplantation.”

He drew on medical history, medical Halakhah, and modern medicine in addressing the preservation and transplantation of the human ovary.

“Since the field of assisted reproduction began a few decades ago, advances are being made at an astounding pace,” he said. “This field of research poses unique challenges for the Torah-observant Jew.”

Professor Giancarlo Elia Valori (above center), an eminent Italian economist and businessman, was the guest of honor at a cocktail gathering hosted by Yeshiva University and its Rabbi Arthur Schneier Center for International Affairs on the Beren campus in March. The gathering celebrated Professor Valori’s recent gift to the university and highlighted the ties between YU and the Italian Jewish community, many of whom attended the event. A non-Jew, Professor Valori attributes his support of Jewish causes to the inspiration of his mother, Emilia, who helped save the lives of Italian Jews during the Holocaust. He has written widely about anti-Semitism and the Middle East conflict. He holds a number of positions at institutions around the world, including the Chair of Peace Studies and Regional Cooperation at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and director of Beijing University’s Chinese-European Center for International Relations. Seen at the event were (above, L–R) Abe Foxman, national chairman and director of the Anti-Defamation League; Giovanni Castellaneta, Italian Ambassador to the US; Valori; Francesco Maria Talò, Consul General of Italy in New York; and Rabbi Arthur Schneier.

IDT Chief Howard Jonas

Howard Jonas (left), chairman of IDT Corporation, spoke candidly about his career as a leading entrepreneur and founder of the global telecommunications company to Sy Syms School of Business (SSSB) students in March as part of the Kukin Entrepreneurial Lecture Series. Jonas described some of the challenges along the way to becoming a successful entrepreneur. IDT, which has established a customer service center in Jerusalem, is one of the city’s largest employers. Jonas said he opened the center to support job growth in Israel. He advised the students to stay true to their values and to foster an environment of integrity in the workplace. “There simply is no substitute for hard work,” he said. The Kukin Series is a unique opportunity for SSSB students to have direct contact with outstanding entrepreneurs and executives.

Dr. Frederick Streets

Reverend Dr. Frederick “Jerry” Streets ’81W, ’97W, the Carl and Dorothy Bennet Professor of Pastoral Counseling at Wurzweiler School of Social Work, was recently awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to conduct research at the University of Pretoria in South Africa.

Streets is spending the spring semester in the university’s department of practical theology studying how the HIV/AIDS crisis is affecting South Africa. He hopes to gain a deeper understanding of faith-based communities’ collaboration with public health organizations to address the crisis, as well as the challenges such partnerships present to both religious and nonsectarian communities.

As an ordained Baptist minister and licensed social worker, Streets is accustomed to bridging the divide between religious and secular organizations. “The University of Pretoria’s department of practical theology’s interdisciplinary approach to dealing with children and families coping with HIV and AIDS is consistent with my experience of pastoral care research and teaching courses in professional schools of theology, social work, and counseling,” said Streets, who received his MSW and PhD from Wurzweiler.

“I want to leave here with a better understanding of how South Africa’s response to HIV/ AIDS can contribute to our world community’s efforts to address this pandemic,” he said.

Sheldon R. Gelman, PhD, Dorothy and David I. Schachne Dean of Wurzweiler, said, “We are immensely proud of Jerry’s accomplishment and look forward to his return in the summer when we will all benefit from the research he conducted in South Africa.”

Dr. Greta Doctoroff

If Dr. Greta L. Doctoroff has her way, the children of the Archdiocese Head Start program will be learning faster, behaving better, and—most important— smiling wider than ever.

Thanks to funding from the New York City Council, Doctoroff, assistant professor at Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, and her graduate students, along with the Early Childhood Center at the Rose F. Kennedy Center at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, are developing a project to provide additional staff training and mental health consultation services to the Head Start program.

The project—the Supportive Partnership for Child, Family, and Staff Wellness—aims to enhance Head Start’s existing support for mental health. Among its goals: to improve Head Start staff’s understanding of children’s emotional and behavioral development and to support teachers and parents as they guide children in developing their self-regulation skills.

Doctoroff and her students will conduct classroom observations to assess the children’s needs and help teachers and family workers become “behavior detectives” in order to understand the challenges the children face.

Doctoroff describes her approach to supporting staff training as “strength-based.” Because most of the children come from backgrounds burdened by poverty and social disadvantages, she insists that the program “be very positive” and consider their strengths as well as their challenges. Furthermore, the focus is on what the staff is doing right, adding to their toolbox of strategies to promote mental health and coaching them to experiment with new techniques.

Doctoroff has done extensive research in the development of preschool-age children. For example, she and her colleagues have found that parent involvement correlates with children’s reading success, regardless of the family’s socioeconomic status.

Doctoroff hopes that the new project will lead to future programs that build socialemotional competence in children, families, and staff at Head Start. She also looks forward to conducting research into strengthening the resilience of children and families facing multiple risks.

Two Yeshiva College professors were recently named editors of two distinct journals. Steven Fine, PhD, professor of Jewish history and director of the Center for Israel Studies, is one of four editors of Images: A Journal of Jewish Art and Visual Culture, while Lauren Fitzgerald, PhD, associate professor of English and director of the Yeshiva College Writing Center, was appointed co-editor of The Writing Center Journal.

Images is a scholarly journal on Jewish visual culture in all disciplines—including architecture, painting, sculpture, graphics, textiles, and photography— from Greco-Roman antiquity to the present.

Published by Brill Academic Publishers, it also contains reviews of books and exhibitions, and notices of scholarly conferences or symposia on Jewish art.

The Writing Center Journal is an official, peer-reviewed publication of the International Writing Centers Association. It is a bi-annual journal publishing articles, reviews, and announcements that explore issues or theories related to writing center dynamics and administration. Fitzgerald was chosen by a selection committee for her broad understanding of writing center scholarship, her experience with writing center administration, and her publication and editorial experience.

A longtime writing professional, Fitzgerald was recently elected to the executive committee of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, a professional organization for researching and teaching composition.

Students on the West Coast winter break mission served breakfast to the homeless

Dimona is a hardscrabble town in the Negev desert, home to emigrants from Russia and Africa, many of whom are unemployed. It was a quiet place until Feb. 4, when a Palestinian terrorist blew himself up at a mall, killing one woman and injuring 38. This summer, it will be the destination for a group of YU students hoping to make a difference in the lives of Dimona’s residents. The YU Student Service Corps trip will be made possible by a grant from the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation.

“The Student Service Corps educates students for leadership and service by providing opportunities to deepen their commitment to the enduring Jewish value of tikkun olam [healing the world],” said Rabbi Kenneth Brander, dean of the Center for the Jewish Future, which develops the programs.

“The trips supported by the Schusterman Foundation set up an exchange between our students and other Jews with a variety of views and practices, as well as with the community at large.”

The grant enables YU to increase the number of students it can send on service-focused travel programs by more than 30 percent.

The grant funded winter break trips to the West Coast and Israel. Students on both trips interacted with a broad population of people and lent a hand to the needy, from painting a classroom for disadvantaged teenagers in Los Angeles to working at a soup kitchen serving struggling Israelis.

In Dimona, the students will team up with Israeli counselors to run a summer camp for Jewish youth from various backgrounds. Using YU’s Zusman Family Counterpoint Israel Program held last year in the nearby town of Yerucham as a model, the students will run activities to build the children’s self-esteem and will teach English language and computer skills.

They will also perform hands-on volunteer work in Dimona, helping to clean up and beautify the town.

“Many students want an alternative to typical winter and summer break activities,” said Lynn Schusterman, chair of the Schusterman Family Foundation. “Whether here in the United States or overseas, these volunteer opportunities can transform the lives of those served, as well as those who serve.”