Israel Advocacy

Israel's rebirth was a great sweep of historical continuity and an integral component of Jewish identity. Centrality with Israel is a key Yeshiva University focus, fostering student solidarity with that country's people and advocating for their security. The goal is to support efforts to mobilize the largest pro-Israel student body outside Israel. That effort is further strengthened through the more than 2,000 YU alumni who are productive Israelis citizens, as well as the 600 students who annually spend their freshmen year in Israel in YU affiliated yeshivot.

Israel in Practice

Advocating for Israel's well-being means nurturing its lifeblood-aliyah, or ascension to Zion, and standing side-by-side with its citizens in difficult times. Solidarity flourishes through aliyah programs such as Nefesh B' Nefesh, student missions supporting Israel's right to self-defense, and academic assistance aimed at improving social welfare among Israel's citizens.

US Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer Discusses Lebanese War

The title of a talk by former United States Ambassador Daniel C. Kurtzer, “The ‘Summer Vacation’ War: Implications for Israeli Security and Diplomacy,” at Yeshiva University on Oct. 24, was not chosen frivolously, the former emissary to Egypt and Israel told his audience at Weissberg Commons.

It derives from a quote by an Israeli child who told a reporter that he lost his summer vacation because the recent war with Lebanon began just after school ended and ended just before school began. The quip, Amb. Kurtzer said, is a reminder that “even as we engage in a discussion of significant national, international, regional, strategic, political, and military views, that there is a human dimension” to the conflict.

Amb. Kurtzer currently holds the S. Daniel Abraham Chair in Middle East Policy studies at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. His talk was sponsored by YU’s Rabbi Arthur Schneier Center for International Affairs.

Amb. Kurtzer reminded his listeners of Hizbullah’s kidnapping and murder of three Israeli soldiers in October 2000, five months after Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon. Hizbullah claimed it was exercising its right to self defense against Israeli overflights, but according to the ambassador, Hizbullah’s true intent was to negotiate the release of terrorist Samir Kuntar, who was imprisoned in Israel for 27 years for a heinous attack that resulted in the deaths of several Israelis. They included a child smothered by her mother during her desperate attempts to avoid being discovered. Kuntar’s release was also the impetus behind this summer’s murder and kidnapping of Israeli soldiers stationed on the Lebanese border.

To explain Israel’s unexpected reaction to these provocations, the ambassador posited that the Israelis hoped that a large-scale action—as opposed to the minimized reaction to similar incidents during the past six years—would precipitate a short-term confrontation and then a long-term resolution that would involve other Arab nations.

Amb. Kurtzer also said that even though the Arab “street” regards Hizbullah as the victor in its recent confrontation with Israel, there are other ways of looking at who won: a significant number of Hizbullah’s best forces were killed; it is evident that Israel destroyed the long-range missiles that threatened Tel Aviv and beyond; and the war demonstrated that Israelis are still prepared to fight and die for their country—a deterrence that Hizbullah had misjudged and that, according to the ambassador, would serve to persuade other Arab nations that the cost of fighting Israel would be too great to sustain.

On the Gaza front, the ambassador called this summer’s Palestinian troublemakers “rogue groups,” who at best are loosely aligned with the Palestinian resistance, and who are interested in creating problems within Palestinian decision-making circles.

As for the full implications of this summer’s conflict in Lebanon, Amb. Kurtzer said it was too soon to know, though some of the issues intrinsic to the conflict—such as how to deal effectively with Iran and Iraq—are now front and center on the international agenda. “If we have a role to play in the Middle East peace process,” he said referring to the United States, “then we ought to act out that role for the betterment of peace in the region, as well as for the safety and security of our friends in Israel.”  

Mitzner Family Establishes Chair at YU's Jerusalem Campus

David Mitzner of Houston, TX, and his son and daughter-in-law, Ira and Mindy, have made a gift of $1 million to Yeshiva University (YU). The gift will establish the Ruth Buchbinder Mitzner Chair in Talmud and Jewish Law at YU’s Jerusalem campus. Each year approximately 40 rabbinical students study at the YU-Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary Kollel and 700 students study at YU affiliated yeshivot in Israel.

Holocaust survivor, David and his late wife, Ruth, for whom the Chair is named, have been long-time supporters of Jewish causes and in particular, of Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem.

“The gift honors my mother who came from a family of lifelong Zionists steeped in Torah learning,” said Ira Mitzner. “She lived in Israel in the 1930s and her father served on the staff of Rav Kook, chief rabbi of Israel at the time. Talmud Torah and love of Israel were cornerstones of her life mission.”

The Mitzner Chair will be occupied by Rabbi Assaf Bednarsh, an inspirational educator who is a former Beren Kollel and Wexner Graduate Fellow at Yeshiva University in New York. He was ordained at YU’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) and is a Maggid Shiur (lecturer in Talmud) at YU’s RIETS Israel Kollel.