YESHIVA UNIVERSITY’S YESHIVA COLLEGE LAUNCHES ITS SEVENTH ANNUAL BOOK PROJECT WITH TIM O’BRIEN’S THE THINGS THEY CARRIED

New York, NY, Sept. 9, 2003 - Terrorism, the war in Iraq, and continued violence in Israel sparked the guiding theme of tolerance and conscience for this year’s Yeshiva College (YC) Book Project: “How to Tell a True War Story: War, Memory, and the Individual.”

In the hope of putting current world events into historical perspective for students, this year’s Book Project committee selected Tim O’Brien’s Vietnam War novel, The Things They Carried. Headed by Dr. Elizabeth Stewart, a lecturer in YC’s English department, the seventh annual Book Project was launched Aug. 26 with a dinner and roundtable discussion and remarks by Yeshiva University President Richard M. Joel and Chancellor Norman Lamm.

The Things They Carried is a fictional novel based on O’Brien’s time as a soldier in Vietnam. The book received the prestigious Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger (France) and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize, and was a finalist for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.

“Our choice of text this year came out of a sense that in a time of war it is appropriate for our students to think genuinely and responsibly about the impact war can have on communities and nations, as well as on the individual who is called upon to fight war,” Dr. Stewart said. “Tim O’Brien’s book approaches many of these questions in a probing but non-aggressive fashion.”

The 2003 Book Project will feature numerous events throughout the academic year. Mr. O’Brien will be on the Wilf Campus Nov. 19 for a discussion and dinner. The program will also feature speaker Jonathan Schell, historian and author of The Unconquerable World, and various YU faculty members who will discuss the history, politics, and representations of the Vietnam War.

Founded in the wake of the assassination of former Israel Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, the Yeshiva College Book Project was initiated by Chancellor Lamm (former YU president) and the Commission on Human Values he established.

Yeshiva College is the undergraduate men’s college of Yeshiva University, the oldest university under Jewish auspices in America. Founded in 1928, Yeshiva College provides young men with a challenging and enriching dual curriculum of secular and Jewish studies.