Yeshiva University has an exceptionally high legacy rate – estimated at around 60% — and that statistic is always apparent at class reunions. This year, among the classes of 1963, 1973, and 1988, there are several legacies celebrating their 25th, 40th, and 50th reunions. The various relationships include parents and children as well as those with children or grandchildren who will graduate in 2013. One special YU family celebrating this year includes Hermine Diament ’63S and Nathan Diament ’88YC.

Hermine grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, and was one of few women who majored in physics and math at Stern College. She chose Stern for its promise of a good education in both Judaic and secular studies.

“I made wonderful friends at Stern and formed lifelong friendships there,” said Hermine. “I also found a mentor in Esther Zuroff, the former Director of Student Services at Stern, who showed such concern for each student and was very helpful whenever we needed guidance.”

After graduating Stern, Hermine attended the Belfer Graduate School of Science (which formerly offered a Master’s degree in Mathematics), and began a career as a math teacher and as a designer of computer software. She has also worked in accounting and management.

Married to Rabbi Louis Diament, they have three children: Nathan, Ann ’93S, a freelance illustrator and author of children’s books (and Marc Koffsky ’91YC, a patent attorney); and Judah ’96YC, ’04RE, senior software engineer at IBM and president of The Torah Web Foundation (and Sarah Wolinsky ’96S, author of Talking to your Children about Intimacy: A Guide for Orthodox Jewish Parents); and several grandchildren. She and her husband live in West Hempstead, NY.

Through the years, Hermine has remained on the pulse of YU, serving on the former Stern College Alumnae Board and participating in past class reunions. “I’m eager to see my former classmates at this year’s Reunion,” she said.

She’ll also undoubtedly run into her son.

Nathan chose to attend YC because, much like his mother, he felt it held a great opportunity for both serious Torah learning and general studies.

“Some of my fondest memories at YU include the great friends I made and the endless dorm room discussion about anything and everything,” recalled Nathan. “I also enjoyed the Saturday night basketball games in the Max Stern Athletic Center, which was built that year, and midnight TV watching on the area outside of Morg. That was done pre-iPads and Netflix, so we had to run an actual string of extension cords out the door to bring out a real TV and VCR.”

Nathan continued shooting hoops at Harvard Law School (HLS) following his graduation from YC and a post-college year studying at YU’s Gruss Kollel in Jerusalem. One of his fellow basketball players at Harvard was none other than fellow law student Barack Obama.

But games on Harvard’s basketball court were not the only occasion where Nathan has met with President Obama. In Nathan’s current position as Director of the Orthodox Union’s Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), based in Washington, D.C., he has met with President Obama several times to advocate for issues related to the Orthodox community.

Before being recruited by the OU, Nathan worked as a lawyer and clerked for Judge I. Leo Glasser at the Federal District Court in Brooklyn, and in private practice in Manhattan.

Nathan has always kept in touch with YU, as he is a close friend of President Richard M. Joel for more than thirty years. “Because of my work on behalf of the Jewish community, I am also in touch with other key YU professionals such as Rabbi Kenneth Brander and Dr. Scott Goldberg,” said Diament. “I’ve also enjoyed attending the CJF ChampionsGate conference the past few summers, as well as the Orthodox Forum conferences, and I taught at Stern College as an adjunct professor in 2011.”

For students who aspire to enter politics, Nathan tells them: “Despite what you might read in the newspapers, politics is an honorable enterprise. It is, in the best sense, “applied philosophy” — where people work to make the world better and advance values in real ways. It is a profession for dedicated and passionate people.”

Nathan is married to Elizabeth, an educator at the National Gallery of Art. They have four children: Amalia, 16, Amitai, 14, Ezra, 11, and Josh, 7.

When Nick Muzin ’97YC, ’01E was growing up in Toronto, few Canadians attended Yeshiva University. But after learning about YU from Admissions Director Michael Kranzler when he went to recruit in Toronto, Muzin decided the opportunity to combine a top-rate college education with Yeshiva learning, in New York City, was just too good to pass up. He had attended Jewish day school and then Ner Israel Yeshiva High School, after which he studied at the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia, and his parents encouraged him to continue his Jewish education at YU.

At Yeshiva College, Muzin’s focus was on pre-med, but many of the classes he found most compelling were in the humanities. “I was especially close with the late Rabbi Walter Wurzburger z”l, with whom I took multiple courses in philosophy,” said Muzin. “I also enjoyed Bible with Dr. Moshe Bernstein, constitutional law with Dr. Michael Hecht and intellectual history with Rabbi Shalom Carmy.” He also fondly remembers the shiurim [lectures] he attended with rebbeim such as Rabbi Herschel Shachter and Rabbi Moshe Tendler.

Muzin also took advantage of the many extracurricular opportunities at YU, including serving as editor in chief of The Commentator, which he said was great fun and good preparation for his job today, which involves dealing with the media. He also founded the Community Literacy Club, in which students served as tutors in a local elementary school.

After graduating, Muzin pursued his interest in medicine at YU’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he received a full four-year scholarship; however, he soon discovered he had another interest. “When I started working in hospitals such as Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, I saw firsthand many of the challenges facing physicians and patients, and started to think about how these might be addressed at the public policy level,” he said. “I always had a passion for politics and figured that as a physician, I had a lot to contribute to this discussion.” Following a year as an internal medicine intern and getting certified as a physician, Muzin decided to attend Yale Law School.

After Muzin married Andrea Zucker, they spent a few years living in Charleston, SC. It was there that he met Tim Scott, the first black Republican elected to the state legislature in South Carolina since Reconstruction, and, according to Muzin, a man of tremendous charisma and political talent. They became friends and Muzin, together with others, helped convince Scott to run for Congress, serving as his policy director and deputy campaign manager.

When Scott won—defeating the son of the legendary Senator Strom Thurmond in the primary—Muzin moved to Washington, D.C., to serve as chief of staff. They also founded a PAC together with the goal of broadening their efforts and helping Republican candidates around the country. The PAC played a role in over 100 congressional and Senate races around the country, including the Romney campaign.

“Tim and I are aligned on the policy issues that are most important to us—Israel, health care and tax reform,” said Muzin. “He is a good friend, and we trust each other, something that is difficult to find in Washington.”

But being an Orthodox Jew on the Hill is not easy. “Of all the jobs I’ve had, politics is the one in which it is most challenging to be frum [Orthodox],” said Muzin. “Saturday is the busiest day of the week for campaign activities, and Friday night votes in Congress are not unusual. In addition, much of the culture and lifestyle on Capitol Hill—which idolizes power—is antithetical to a Torah perspective.”

As an evangelical Christian, Scott has great respect for Judaism, making sure Muzin gets out of the office in time for Shabbat and that he has kosher food to eat when they travel. “He even makes sure I keep up with Daf Yomi, asking me after a particularly long day on the campaign trail, ‘Did you read your page today?’”

For Muzin, the sacrifices are worthwhile, because politics offers an unmatched opportunity to do good—whether it’s for individuals who need help with the federal government or in advancing policies that strengthen America. Muzin is proud to say that his office played a lead role in securing foreign aid funding for Israel, including for the Iron Dome missile shield, and in passing economic sanctions on Iran.

The end of 2012 saw promotions for both Scott and Muzin. Scott was appointed to the U.S. Senate by South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, filling the vacancy left by the retirement of Senator Jim DeMint. Muzin’s work was recognized by Republican congressional leadership, who named him director of strategy and coalitions for the 113th Congress. In his new role, Muzin will oversee communications and outreach for all 234 Republican members of Congress. Scott and Muzin continue to work together through their PAC and other national political activities.

Last year, Muzin reconnected with YU and hosted an alumni reception in his home in Silver Spring, MD, where he lives with his wife and their three children: Stella, age 5; Daisy Fay, 3; and Jerry, 1. He davens [prays] at the Yeshiva of Greater Washington, and he and his family are members of Kemp Mill Synagogue.

He and Andrea also attended the YU ChampionsGate conference this past summer. “It was a great opportunity to catch up with friends, relive the YU experience through the shiurim and ruach [spirit], and get a sense of the challenges facing Modern Orthodoxy and how YU is meeting those challenges,” he said.

Last fall, Muzin joined the Yeshiva College Board of Overseers. “I have a lot of hakaras hatov [gratitude] to YU, having benefited from scholarships both as an undergraduate and while in medical school,” he said. “I loved my time there and hope my children will attend one day. But more important, I think that YU embodies who I am—a Torah Jew who is trying to make an impact in the modern world. I hope that by joining the board I can help influence the direction of the school so that other students will have the opportunities I had.”

Of his time at YU, Muzin said it is hard to fully appreciate YU while you are there as a student, because you are so busy all the time—studying for an exam, running to shiurim or catching a shuttle to Stern College for a date. But he praises YU students, saying, “I don’t think you can find a more accomplished or finer group of peers than the students at YU. No place I have been since can really compare.”

He advises current students to take in as much as they can. “The Gemarah in Brachos (5b) teaches that ‘Lo Kol Adam Zocheh LeShnei Shulchanos’—‘Not every person merits to eat from two tables’—the table of the material world and the table of the spiritual world. The students at YU are privileged to feast from both.”

We all know of the old joke involving two Jews and three opinions, making Jewish communal work – which involves negotiating the opinions of many different Jews – anything but for the faint of heart. It requires a level head, a good-natured disposition and strong interpersonal skills. After nearly 40 years of working on behalf of the Jewish community, and many high-level positions with various Jewish organizations and institutions, Paul Glasser ’73YC, of Teaneck, NJ, is something of an expert.

Jewish communal work wasn’t always a career Glasser planned to pursue, but as a public school student from a non-observant background growing up in Queens, NY, his involvement with NCSY, the youth movement of the Orthodox Union (OU), instilled in him a love for making a difference in the Jewish community. His growing observance led him to attend Yeshiva University’s James Striar School of General Jewish Studies (JSS), which is now more commonly known as the Mechina Program. He continued with NCSY, serving as a national advisor, throughout his years at YC/JSS.

“All the students in JSS were from similar backgrounds, so there was an immediate connection and we all formed very close bonds,” recalls Glasser. “Many of those friendships continue to this day.” Glasser majored in music, and upon graduation in 1973, he was immediately recruited by YU to serve as the assistant to the director of admissions. After assuming the top post in 1979, he created (with the assistance of senior vice president Rabbi Dr. Israel Miller, z”l) one of YU’s most well-known programs: the S. Daniel Abraham Israel Program, which formed an official, legal relationship between YU and many different yeshivot and seminaries in Israel that yeshiva high school graduates commonly attend before coming to YU. “That was my most exciting contribution to the Jewish community during my time as YU’s admissions director,” says Glasser.

While working at YU, Glasser spent some time living on the Beren Campus in midtown Manhattan with his wife, Rachel ’74S, who served as the director of the residence halls at Stern College for Women. This officially made the Glassers one of the first “campus couples” who live on campus – albeit, now, only on the weekends – to provide Shabbat student programming. (The current campus couple is Jonathan Schwab ’11YC, Assistant Director of Communications and Recruitment for the Admissions office, and his wife, Esti Rollhaus ’10S, a student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai). In 1982, Glasser was recruited to become the executive vice president of Beth Jacob Congregation in Los Angeles, one of the largest Modern Orthodox synagogues in Southern California. In 1988, he founded his own small event planning and PR firm, Creative Resource Group, and ran major events and marketing projects on behalf of various Jewish communal organizations and institutions. One of the company’s projects was sponsoring a Passover program in Phoenix, which is know today by the name VIP Passover and takes place at the Arizona Biltmore. It has become one of the most popular Pesach programs and has welcomed many YU scholars, personalities and well-known alumni to deliver shiurim to the guests. (This year’s roster includes President Richard M. Joel; Rabbi Dr. Jacob J. Schacter, University Professor of Jewish History and Jewish Thought and Senior Scholar for the Center for the Jewish Future; and YC/RIETS alumnus Rabbi Steven Weil, executive vice president of the Orthodox Union.) In 1996, Glasser experienced a homecoming when he was invited back to New York to serve as the national executive director of NCSY, where he worked until 2001 before becoming the executive vice president of the American Committee for Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. In the 10 years that Glasser was responsible for fundraising in the United States for Shaare Zedek, he and his professional team raised more than $180 million. Finally, in 2011, Glasser returned to the OU, this time as the senior director for institutional advancement, where he has responsibilities in development, communications, the supervision and management of various administrative tasks, and the mentoring of the younger staff members. In addition, Glasser serves as a professional cantor, and regularly leads Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services at the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills.

As his Yeshiva College 40th reunion is this year (the celebration takes place on May 25th), Glasser has added one more role to his portfolio; member of the Reunion Committee. “I am excited to attend the reunion and catch up with old friends,” he says.

Inspired by their father’s example, Glasser’s children, all YU graduates, each hold a position in the Jewish community: his son, Rabbi Yaakov Glasser ’99YC, ’01RE, ’05AZ, is married to Dr. Ruth Glasser, and serves as Regional Director for New Jersey NCSY and rabbi of the Young Israel of Passaic-Clifton; his son, Moshe ’05YC, ’07AZ, is Department Chair of English at Mesivta Yesodei Yeshurun and is married to Elizabeth Ravkin, ’07S, a member of the science faculty at Stern College; and his daughter, Shana ’01S, ’02W, was until recently the Stern College Associate Director of University Housing and Residence Life and just celebrated her marriage to Howie Beigelman ’91YUHS, ’94YC. Glasser’s wife, Rachel, is currently the school librarian at Yavneh Academy in Paramus, NJ, a position she has held for the past 16 years.

Glasser is also a longtime friend of President Joel, as the two were involved in YU’s Torah Leadership Seminars at the same time in the early 70’s.

President Joel states, “Paul Glasser is an extraordinary son of Yeshiva, who, through his long career of service to the Jewish people, has always had YU in his heart and in his mind. His work as Director of Undergraduate Admissions at Yeshiva was stellar, and he has gone on to positively affect thousands of people in New York, Los Angeles and globally in his work for the Jewish people. The most important gift that Paul has given is that all of his children are Yeshiva educated and continue in the fields of Jewish education and community work. The family continues to make their alma mater proud.”

Reflecting on his career thus far, Glasser suggests that one of the main challenges in Jewish communal service is striking the right balance between the professional and lay leadership. “The partnership between the two is essential to helping an organization flourish,” he explains. “It’s not always simple, as there are many different personalities at play, but as long as everyone remembers to work for the goal of the team, rather than the individual, it’s easy to stay on course.” Glasser also lists strategic planning and effective communication as key components of success in running a Jewish organization.

He continues, “Of the many benefits in working for the community, my favorite has been meeting the most wonderful people in the world, who are generous with both their time and money, and who are deeply committed to our way of life and making a difference for the Jewish people.”