Richard M. Joel was inaugurated as Yeshiva University’s fourth president on September 21, 2003. His presidency is the latest chapter in the illustrious tradition of Yeshiva University presidents, beginning with Bernard Revel (1915-1940), Dr. Samuel Belkin (1940-1975), and Dr. Norman Lamm (1976-2003).

Now in its 121st year, Yeshiva University (YU) is America’s oldest and most comprehensive institution combining Jewish scholarship with academic excellence and achievement in the liberal arts, sciences, medicine, law, business, social work, Jewish studies and education, and psychology.

Since assuming the presidency, President Joel has provoked an era of growth at Yeshiva University. He has catalyzed a renewed focus on academic excellence, enriched student life and broadened service to the Jewish and wider communities. President Joel has appointed new deans for Yeshiva College, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Sy Syms School of Business, and the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, added faculty positions throughout the university, and spurred wide-ranging improvements to campus life.

As Yeshiva University president, he motivates undergraduates to excel at liberal arts and business while developing depth and breadth in Jewish learning, thereby engaging students to take responsibility for society’s future. And as president of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), he has spearheaded efforts to reinvigorate professional education for rabbis, continuing education, and rabbinic placement.

President Joel believes in modeling education based on the notion of an integrated life, and speaks of a Yeshiva University education as ennobling and enabling a generation of leadership. In realizing this mission, President Joel established a Presidential Fellowship program that provides training and professional development to recent graduates to further their path toward communal leadership.

President Joel is renowned nationally as a talented leader and gifted speaker. He has traveled the globe giving talks on topics of Jewish leadership and identity at numerous universities and Jewish Federations.

Prior to his appointment, he served as the President and International Director of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life. During his fifteen-year tenure, he was the driving force behind the metamorphosis of the Hillel organization. He decreased marginalization on campuses, raised student involvement, and motivated and invigorated his staff members to not only carry out their job responsibilities but to excel at them.

According to The Forward, which featured President Joel numerous times in their Forward 50, "when people speak of resuscitating organizations that seem to have lost their relevance or passed their prime, they often invoke the metaphor of doing 'what Richard Joel did for Hillel.'"

Richard M. Joel received his BA and JD from New York University where he was a Root-Tilden law scholar, and has received honorary doctorates from Boston Hebrew College and Gratz College. He was an assistant district attorney in New York, and Deputy Chief of Appeals in Bronx, NY. His career continued as Associate Dean and Professor of Law at YU’s Benjamin's Cardozo School of Law.

He received the Julius Bisno Award for Outstanding Professional-Bnai Brith 1992 and was the Millender Fellow at Brandeis University’s Hornstein Program in 1996. He also served as Chair for the campus task force of Birthright Israel. President Joel is an at large member of the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities (CICU) Board of Trustees.

President Joel’s family has a deep connection to the Yeshiva University community. He and his wife, Esther, who holds a Ph.D. from YU’s Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, have six children.