Dr. Nancy Beckerman and Dr. Charles Auerbach, senior Wurzweiler faculty, have partnered with the SLE Lupus Foundation of New York and have developed the largest research study on psychological impact of living with Lupus in the United States. Dr. Beckerman and Dr. Auerbach have completed the first stage of this study and have presented their findings at several hospitals throughout the New York city area. They have expanded the study, working with Rheumatologist Dr. Irene Blanco at Einstein College of Medicine, to study Lupus patients at Einstein, Montefiore and Jacobi hospitals. This study provides essential feedback from patients so that health care providers can respond to their unique needs.

Dr. David Glaser, assistant professor of music at Stern College for Women, will premiere his new work, Catullus Dreams, at the second concert of the Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival 2011. The piece, a psychological portrait of the Roman poet, was written for soprano Linda Larson, and receives its world premiere on Monday, April 4, at the Leonard Nimoy Theater at Symphony Space. Glaser, an award-winning composer, received his doctorate of musical arts from Columbia University and has taught at Stern College for Women since 1996. He is on the boards of the United States section of the League of Composers/ISCM and Parthenia, a consort of viols. He is the recipient of awards and commissions from the Fromm Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Alice M. Ditson Fund, and has been a fellow at the MacDowell Colony and the Wellesley Composers Conference.

Oxford University Press has accepted for publication a manuscript by Dr. Naomi Grunhaus, assistant professor at Stern College for Women. The monograph entitled The Challenge of Received Tradition in Medieval Exegesis: Dilemmas of Interpretation in David Kimhi’s Biblical Commentaries explores the interplay between peshat and derash in Rabbi David Kimhi’s commentaries. The question of how to forge ahead using the new interpretive strategy of peshat, while still taking into consideration the classical literature (derash) was one of the most vexing problems facing medieval Jewish interpreters of the Hebrew Bible. Kimhi (commonly known by the acronym Radak) was a prominent Hebrew grammarian and biblical exegete in Provence. His location at the geographic and intellectual crossroads of France and Spain put him at the heart of these debates. This monograph opens up a new area of academic study. Many scholarly studies consider the relationship between peshat and derash in the works of Rashi (1040-1105). Grunhaus’ book represents the first systematic and comprehensive exploration of those same issues for a later preeminent exegete, from a different medieval Jewish sub-culture. The expected date of publication for the book is summer 2012.

An article by Dr. Emil Prodan, assistant professor, department of physics at Yeshiva University, is featured on the cover of Journal of Physics A: Mathematical & Theoretical, Vol 44, No.11, 18 March 2011. The article, which he was invited to write, is titled “Disordered topological insulators: a non-commutative geometry perspective” and has been the most downloaded article of the review in the last 30 days.

Dr. David Berger, dean of Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies and Ruth and I. Lewis Gordon Professor of Jewish History, will deliver the keynote address titled “The Shifting Dynamic of the Jewish-Christian Encounter from the Middle Ages to the Present” at the 2011 Corcoran Chair Conference which will be held March 28-29 at Boston College. Sponsored by Boston College's Center for Christian-Jewish Learning, the conference, titled "Are Jews and Christians Living in a Post-Polemical World?: Toward a Comparison of Medieval and Modern Christian-Jewish Encounters," covers the history of the Jewish-Christian debate in medieval times, which was marked by both stability and change. In the 19th century, Christians and Jews debated an issue that was entirely peripheral in the Middle Ages but which now moved to center stage: the ethical standing of their respective faiths. And today, in a post-Holocaust age, genuine rapprochement brings its own set of tensions focusing on challenges both old and new: the limits of dialogue, the abiding validity of the covenant with the Jews, the propriety of Christian missionizing, the Church and the Holocaust, the relationship between religion and the political sphere, and the moral, national and religious standing of the State of Israel.

Dean Sheldon R. Gelman, the Dorothy and David I. Schachne Dean at Wurzweiler School of Social Work, was recognized by the New York City Latino Social Work Task Force at its 7th Annual Scholarship Awards Dinner on March 10th, 2011, with a “Special Recognition Award for His Dedication and Leadership Over the Last 10 Years.” The award was presented by Maria Elena Girone, president and CEO of the Puerto Rican Family Institute, and Dr. Robert Schachter, executive director of the New York City Chapter of NASW. The Task Force goals are to address both the shortage of Latino social workers in New York City and the importance of preparing culturally and linguistically competent social work professionals to meet the needs of New York’s rapidly growing Latino community. Dean Gelman was introduced by Carmen Ortiz-Hendricks, associate dean at Wurzweiler, and Estaban Ramos, executive director of Fresh Youth Initiatives. Both Hendricks and Ramos, along with Dean Gelman, are members of the task force, which has raised more than $250,000 for scholarships to enable Latino social work students to complete their MSW education at six of the New York City schools of social work.

Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg, associate professor at Yeshiva University and spiritual leader of Congregation Beth-El in Edison, New Jersey, has published the Rosenberg Holocaust Siddur. “Experience has shown that without a framework for commemoration, remembrance will not long endure,” said Rosenberg. “For more than 3000 years, Jews have been reminded every spring of the Exodus from Egypt, at a date firmly implanted on the Jewish calendar that is observed with Seder rituals.  Will the Holocaust, like the Exodus, be remembered beyond the generations of our grandchildren’s grandchildren?  Very likely not – if no halachic agreement is reached on a specific day for remembrance, with prayers, readings and rituals adapted for the occasion.” Rosenberg, who chairs the New York Board of Rabbis Holocaust Education Committee, hopes to fill that void with his new siddur which includes poems, essays, songs and Maariv services. Rosenberg is a graduate of Yeshiva College, RIETS, Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology and Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration. He is the author of Theological and Halachic Reflections on the Holocaust, A Guide for the Jewish Mourner and Contemplating the Holocaust.

The Rosenberg Holocaust Siddur is dedicated to Rosenberg’s parents, who survived the Holocaust, and is available for free download online at http://www.jewishfreeware.org/downloads/YOM%20HASHOAH/.

Pearl Berger, the Benjamin Gottesman Librarian and Dean of Libraries at Yeshiva University, is the 2011 recipient of the Life Membership Award from the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL). The Association of Jewish Libraries promotes Jewish literacy through enhancement of libraries and library resources and through leadership for the profession and practitioners of Judaica librarianship, and fosters access to information, learning, teaching and research relating to Jews, Judaism, the Jewish experience and Israel. Life Membership is granted in recognition of outstanding leadership and professional contributions to the Association and to the profession of Jewish librarianship. The award will be presented at the AJL Annual Convention in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in June 2011.

Dr. Eliezer Schnall, clinical assistant professor of psychology at Yeshiva College, and Dr. David Pelcovitz, professor of education and psychology at Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, lectured at the conference of Nefesh: The International Network of Orthodox Mental Health Professionals, which took place on Sunday, March 6, 2011, at Young Israel of Great Neck. The title of their lecture was "Orthodox Jewish Marriage: An International Study of Satisfaction and Stressors." Nefesh provides an opportunity and vehicle for mental health professionals, Rabbanim, and educators to network and collaborate in meeting a common challenge - to enhance the emotional well being and achdut of Klal Yisroel, by developing timely and effective approaches that are based on widely accepted mental health principles, within a Torah perspective and halachic framework.

Dr. James R. Otteson, joint professor of philosophy and economics at Yeshiva College, is one of three principal professors to have constructed a curriculum for and will teach in a Tikvah-sponsored summer institute for undergraduates. Titled "Economics and the Human Good," the program will take place in August on the campus of Columbia University. The Tikvah-Hertog Summer Institute seeks to understand how the basic facts of economic history and philosophy illuminate historical and current questions about human social life and how these facts can guide our thinking about deep and enduring questions of material well-being, moral virtue and the human good. Among the questions under consideration will be: Do market economies produce societies that are more prosperous than others? Do the social and political costs of markets outweigh their benefits? Can democracy and personal virtue coexist with markets or do they require a powerful state to constrain markets?