Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary Rosh Yeshiva Rav Hershel Schachter, Nathan and Vivian Fink Distinguished Professorial Chair in Talmud, received a Chaf-Heh Society award at the Orthodox Union Staff Annual Chanukah Chagiga on December 21, 2011. The award, given by OU Executive Vice President Rabbi Steven Weil, acknowledged Schachter’s 25 years of service at the OU,  where he is a posek [Jewish law scholar]. Other awardees included YU graduates, Rabbi Moshe Elefant ’40R and Rabbi Yirsroel Paretzky ’79R.

Bruno Galantucci, assistant professor of psychology at Yeshiva College, recently co-authored an article “Brain-to-brain coupling: a mechanism for creating and sharing a social world” that will soon appear in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

Article synopsis: Despite the central role of other individuals in shaping one’s mind, most studies of cognition and the brain focus on isolated individuals. In this article, the authors call for a shift from a single-brain to a multi-brain frame of reference, arguing that the neural processes in one brain are often coupled to the neural processes in another brain via the transmission of physical signals through the environment. Such brain-to-brain coupling constrains and shapes the actions of each individual in a social network, providing a core mechanism for the creation and the sharing of a social world. In order to substantiate the argument, the authors review research which illustrates the effects of brain-to-brain coupling in a number of contexts, including human and animal communication.

Read the full article here.

Deans David and Pearl Berger with Professor Schacter

On December 19, 2011 the Revel Graduate School sponsored a special reception at the annual conference of the Association for Jewish Studies (AJS) held in Washington, DC marking the publication of a book of collected essays honoring Dean David Berger, Ruth & I. Lewis Gordon Professor of Jewish History. This volume, New Perspectives on Jewish-Christian Relations: In Honor of David Berger (Brill Academic Press) is edited by Elisheva Carlebach, Salo Baron Professor of Jewish History, Culture and Society at Columbia University and Senior Adjunct Professor at Revel, and Jacob J. Schacter, University Professor of Jewish History and Jewish Thought at Yeshiva University.

Presenting the volume to Berger, both Schacter and Carlebach spoke about how he inspired them as undergraduates at Brooklyn College to pursue doctoral work in Jewish History, and of the great impact he had on them, as well as on thousands of his other students throughout the years. Professor Carlebach also spoke about Professor Berger’s impact on the field of Jewish Studies as a whole. The program included remarks by Louis H. Feldman, Abraham Wouk Family Professor of Classics and Literature at Yeshiva University, who described David Berger—his student as an undergraduate in Yeshiva College—as the most stellar student he has known in his entire teaching career of over sixty years. Dean Berger himself offered heartfelt thanks to his colleagues for this meaningful tribute, and expressed boundless gratitude to his wife, Pearl Berger, Dean of the YU Libraries. The AJS conference, at which hundreds of Jewish studies scholars from around the world gather annually to present their latest research, was a fitting venue to honor the profound and multifaceted contributions Berger has made to this field over his scholarly career.