Hareni Club FAQs

Hareni is an undergraduate club to support students who are striving to live authentic uncompromising halachic lives.

The guidelines of Hareni were approved by the administration and senior Roshei Yeshiva in October 2022 as Kol Yisrael Areivim. Hareni will adhere to the same guidelines, and with Rabbinic approval on all activities, symbols and flyers – just like any other undergraduate club.

For over 130 years, Yeshiva has been committed to educating our undergraduate students in strict accordance with Orthodox teachings.

The undergraduate experience at Yeshiva is intentionally designed to be an intensely religious one during the formative years of our students’ lives. Its foundational purpose is to faithfully transmit our multi-millennial biblical and halachic tradition to enable our students to integrate their faith and practice in lives of contribution, impact and personal meaning. Every undergraduate student who makes the personal decision to come to Yeshiva is selecting this religiously driven environment and curriculum, instead of other college experiences. While each of our students choose their own path in their private lives, we will never fail to elucidate for them the ways of the Torah on all matters. 

The Yeshiva has always conveyed that a Pride club carries implications that conflict with our religious undergraduate program in which the traditional view of marriage and gender are transmitted. The Yeshiva never could and never would sanction such an undergraduate club and it is due to this that we entered litigation. 

Our care and concern for the emotional and spiritual wellbeing for all our students, has motivated us to envision a club to support their strivings to live authentic, uncompromising halachic lives and find lifelong nourishment and guidance in the Torah. This club was approved in October 2022, and was provisionally named the Kol Yisrael Areivim club.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit fully accepted to run Hareni, according to the guidelines that were approved and adopted in 2022 as Kol Yisrael Areivim. This is in stark contrast to a Pride Alliance club that the plaintiffs originally sought. In turn, the litigation was dismissed. As part of dismissing the lawsuit, current students asked to rename the club Hareni, from what had been Kol Yisrael Areivim in 2022.

Hareni will function in accordance with the rabbinic guidelines as established in October 2022. The guidelines have been posted since that time and can be found here.

Rabbi Yaakov Neuburger, one of YU’s Roshei Yeshiva, is the halachic posek for undergraduate student life and student clubs, and all activities have been and will be presented to him for his consideration and determination.

There’s been media speculation that has caused confusion.

Hareni is a successor to Kol Yisrael Areivim which was approved in 2022. Plaintiffs in the litigation had sought a Pride Alliance club, though YU had and continues to make clear that such a club runs counter to its religious undergraduate program. Over time, the Plaintiffs came to an understanding and worked collaboratively with YU on the establishment of Hareni according to the same guidelines as Kol Yisrael Areivim which already assumed the usage of the term LGBTQ and that it would be run like all other clubs in respect to email listservs, campus spaces, posting public communications and the like. It is the same club as Kol Yisrael Areivim, with a different name, and spelled out in greater detail.

These protocols, which will be retained in a non-confidential document by YU’s Office of Student Life, to be accessed by Hareni club leaders for future reference as of April 2, 2025, include the details of the club like its name, its mission and the types of events that are pre-approved, i.e., Mishloach Manot project, a panel discussion with pre-approved readings and poems, a professional networking/career development event and the type of pre-holiday events that have met these past couple of years.

The agreement, which is in effect for five years, clearly states that Hareni’s “Approved Guidelines” are those as set forth in the October 2022 announcement of Kol Yisrael Areivim.

Hareni will be permitted to operate as long as it meets the requirements for student organizations as set forth in the Student Constitutions, approved guidelines, and any other Office of Student Life guidelines for all student clubs. This naturally precludes activities that promote violations of the Torah.