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Yeshiva College Scholarship Dinner Honors Four Alumni and Class of ’94

May 11, 2004 By: yunews
May 11, 2004 -- The 2004 Yeshiva College Scholarship Dinner will honor four distinguished alumni of the college and will launch the celebration of YC’s 75th Anniversary. The June 15 reception and dinner at the Marriott New York at the Brooklyn Bridge also features the 10-year reunion of the Class of 1994. The honorees are Rabbi Dr. Jacob Adler, Rabbi Murray Grauer, Dr. Jonathan Halpert, and Rabbi Dr. (Col.) Victor M. Solomon. Each is being recognized for his service to the community at large and to Yeshiva University. The dinner’s venue, on the Brooklyn side of the bridge, is just across the river from where Yeshiva College’s forbearing institution began in 1886 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Yeshiva Eitz Chaim opened at 44 East Broadway and eventually became what are today 17 different educational institutions under Yeshiva University, including Yeshiva College built in 1929.
  • Dr. Adler graduated from Yeshiva University High School in 1942, Yeshiva College in 1946, and received semicha from Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) in 1948. He was in the first class of YC students taught by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveichik, one of the 20th century’s foremost Talmudic scholars. While still a student at YC, Dr. Adler assumed the pulpit of the Bronx’s Young Israel of Kingsbridge. In 1970, Dr. Adler left the rabbinate to pursue a career as a counseling psychologist. He received a doctorate in that field from NYU in 1976 and served as staff psychologist of the Veterans Administration Hospital in Northport, NY.
  • Rabbi Grauer's long and distinguished association with Yeshiva College began at YU's Talmudical Adademy (today the Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy/Yeshiva University High School for Boys), from which he graduated in 1938. He received a BA from YC in 1941 and was ordained at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Seminary (RIETS) in 1945. He was elected rabbi of Congregation Beth El of Miami, FL, in 1946. Five years later, he assumed the pulpit of the Hebrew Institute of White Plains and remained until 1995 when he was elected Rabbi Emeritus.
  • Known today as “Coach,” Jonathan Halpert graduated Magna Cum Laude from YC in 1966. That same year he received a National Defense Fellowship for Special Education. In 1972, he was awarded a Public Law Fellowship for Doctoral Study in Mental Retardation. He earned his PhD from YU’s Ferkauf Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences (today Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology) in 1978. Dr. Halpert has coached the Yeshiva University men’s basketball team since 1972. In 1997, he surpassed the victory total of legendary YU coach Bernard “Red” Sarachek. During the 2002-2003 season, he reached another milestone: amassing 300 career victories. Twice he was voted Coach of the Year by the College Basketball Officials Association. Dr. Halpert is founder of BackDoor Hoops, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to elevating the basketball skills of Yeshiva elementary and high school players and coaches.
  • Dr. Solomon’s career at Yeshiva University began with his admittance as an accelerated student to Talmudical Academy in 1943. He graduated from YC in 1951 and was ordained from RIETS in 1955. Today, Dr. Solomon is founder and director of the Teaneck Counseling and Psychotherapy Center. He has written and published four books (two more await publication) on topic ranging from bereavement psychology to the psychology of terrorism. One of his books, a psychosocial study of the Asian mind is a best seller in Japan having gone through 21 printings. Dr. Solomon is a retired combat chaplain and colonel with the US Air Force with 25 military decorations, including the Japanese Zenkokai medal and scroll for heroism awarded to him for rescuing an endangered Japanese citizen. While a member of Tactical Air Command (TAC), he pioneered the development of a Jewish Lay Leader program, saving the US Government millions of dollars and for which he was cited by the Air Force. The Lay Leader Program Dr. Solomon created at TAC became a standard for the Air Force, the US Army and the US Navy. Arthur M. Luxenberg will serve as general chairman of the dinner. Dinner co-chairmen are: Emanuel J. Adler, Samuel H. Solomon, and Stanley I. Raskas. Honorary chairmen are: Marvin S. Bienenfeld, Jay Schottenstein, and Joshua L. Muss. For further information or to place an ad in the dinner’s commemorative journal, please call Dr. Abraham M. Mann at 212.960.0852.
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