Graduate Profile: Willie Roth, Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary
A common spirit runs throughout Yeshiva University: the mandate to matter.
Students of all ages and backgrounds come here to pursue a range of professional and personal dreams, from scientific research and medicine to law, Jewish education or public policy. Our students seek to harness their unique talents and YU education to make a lasting impact on the world around them. This spring, when they graduate from YU, these new alumni will hit the ground running.
In the weeks leading up to Commencement, YU News will feature one remarkable graduate from each school, reflecting, in their own words, on their time here, their passions and their dreams for the future.
Meet the Class of 2013.
Following his semikha studies at RIETS, Willie Roth will attend Harvard Law School in the fall.
Name: Willie Roth
School: Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS)
Hometown: Teaneck, NJ
Passion: Halakha and law
What is unique about semikha studies at RIETS?
RIETS is the only place where a rabbinical student can learn from first-rate talmidei chachamim [Torah scholars], poskim [deciders of Jewish law], rabbanim and mental health professionals all under one roof. Whether you’re in rabbanus [rabbinate] or Jewish education, a rabbi’s job entails many different responsibilities. You need training indifferent areas and exposure to many kinds of experts. RIETS offers a comprehensive and holistic approach to a rabbinical career.
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Leading Scholars Present their Work at YU’s Inaugural Dead Sea Scrolls Conference
Yeshiva University hosted its first annual Dead Sea Scrolls Seminar at the Wilf Campus on Sunday, May 19, showcasing the work of four Dead Sea Scrolls scholars from YU and beyond.
Dr. Moshe Bernstein offers opening remarks at YU’s inaugural Dead Sea Scrolls Conference.
“The Dead Sea Scrolls is one of those things that people hear about and talk about, and it’s important that people’s talking about it should be based on real knowledge, rather than rumors and misconceptions,” said Dr. Moshe Bernstein, David A. and Fannie M. Denenberg Chair in Biblical Studies, who organized the seminar along with Dr. Lawrence Schiffman, vice provost for undergraduate education and professor of Judaic studies at YU.
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Graduate Profile: Shira Weiss, Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies
A common spirit runs throughout Yeshiva University: the mandate to matter.
Students of all ages and backgrounds come here to pursue a range of professional and personal dreams, from scientific research and medicine to law, Jewish education or public policy. Our students seek to harness their unique talents and YU education to make a lasting impact on the world around them. This spring, when they graduate from YU, these new alumni will hit the ground running.
In the weeks leading up to Commencement, YU News will feature one remarkable graduate from each school, reflecting, in their own words, on their time here, their passions and their dreams for the future.
Meet the Class of 2013.
Revel’s Shira Weiss left a career in finance to pursue Jewish studies.
Name: Shira Weiss
School: Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies
Hometown: Southfield, Michigan
Passion: Jewish philosophy
At Revel, you earned both a master’s and doctoral degree. What fascinates you about Judaic studies?
An Orthodox upbringing and education had given me a firm religious foundation, but I sought to explore and substantiate my convictions and observance through the study of philosophy.
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Dr. Lawrence Schiffman on the Growing Popularity of the Dead Sea Scrolls
Why are literally hundreds of thousands of people streaming to exhibits of the Dead Sea Scrolls all over the United States and the rest of the world? Why should anyone even care about these remnants of close to 900 scrolls from the second and first centuries BCE and the first century CE? What possesses some of us in academia to devote our professional careers to teaching and research about the Scrolls?
Yeshiva University presents its first annual Dead Sea Scrolls conference on May 19.
The discovery of the first scrolls by Bedouin in 1947 in Cave 1 at Qumran, on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, set off a wave of excitement. But this initial interest was misused by scholars who were intent on understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Second Temple period Jewish sect that gathered them as a precursor of Christianity. To make matters even worse, the long delays in publication that ensued understandably fostered conspiracy theories worthy of Dan Brown and the Da Vinci Code, and served as a great distraction from the Scrolls’ real significance and message. After all, they are Second Temple period texts authored, copied and left for us by Jews who lived and breathed devotion to God’s Torah and its commandments, even if they represented an approach that, from the point of view of the sweep of Jewish history, was sectarian.
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Graduate Profile: Nuttha Udhayanang, Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology
A common spirit runs throughout Yeshiva University: the mandate to matter.
Students of all ages and backgrounds come here to pursue a range of professional and personal dreams, from scientific research and medicine to law, Jewish education or public policy. Our students seek to harness their unique talents and YU education to make a lasting impact on the world around them. This spring, when they graduate from YU, these new alumni will hit the ground running.
In the weeks leading up to Commencement, YU News will feature one remarkable graduate from each school, reflecting, in their own words, on their time here, their passions and their dreams for the future.
Meet the Class of 2013.
Ferkauf’s Nuttha Udhayanang hopes to assist those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder in her native Thailand.
Name: Nuttha Udhayanang
School: Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology
Hometown: Bangkok, Thailand
Research Focus: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
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Interdisciplinary Behavioral and Social Sciences Student Research Conference Highlights Diverse Fields of Study at YU
On May 10, Yeshiva University’s Ferkauf Graduate School for Psychology and Center for Public Health Sciences hosted their 10th annual Behavioral and Social Sciences Student Research Conference Program. Known as YU Research Day, the interdisciplinary event highlights the work of students at Stern College for Women, Yeshiva College and the Sy Syms School of Business alongside presentations from students at YU’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Wurzweiler School of Social Work and Ferkauf.
“I am constantly reminded that people go into the field of psychology because they want to build civilization, they want to explore ideas and they’re wise enough to know that they don’t want to live in an enclosed bubble,” said YU President Richard M. Joel in his opening remarks to students. “They want to break down silos, bring their disciplines to play with other disciplines and inspire young people to explore their dreams and make those dreams come true.”
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Yeshiva Wins Conference Sportsmanship Trophy for Fourth Time in Six-Year History of Award
For the second consecutive year, Yeshiva University has captured the Skyline Conference’s Sportsmanship Trophy for displaying outstanding team sportsmanship during the 2012-13 academic year. The Skyline Conference instituted the Sportsmanship Trophy in 2007-08 to gauge team sportsmanship among its member schools.
YU has been awarded the conference sportsmanship trophy for the second straight year, its fourth overall.
“At Yeshiva we believe that proper sportsmanship is a cornerstone of competition,” said Joe Bednarsh, YU director of athletics, physical education and recreation. ”It’s important to our student-athletes that they be seen as fiercely competitive, determined and tough, all while keeping to a high standard of fair play. It says volumes that our teams can be successful and also be recognized as good sportsmen.”
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Four-Year $720,000 Grant will Enable Stern College’s Marina Holz to Investigate Breast Cancer Cell Growth
The American Cancer Society, the largest non-government, not-for-profit funding source of cancer research in the United States, has awarded Dr. Marina Holz, assistant professor of biology at Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women, a $720,000 Research Scholar Grant. The four-year grant will be used to continue her work researching how the mTOR pathway affects the growth of estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer.
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Chani Wiesman Berliant on the Need for Genetic Education and Testing
In my role as genetic counselor, I meet with men, women and families who have personal or family histories of cancer. I take a detailed medical and family history, assess the chance for an hereditary risk for cancer, and recommend appropriate genetic testing. Genetic testing can help identify what that “hereditary factor” is. When the results come back, I interpret them in the context of the family history and help make screening and management recommendations.
Chani Wiesman Berliant is a genetic counselor at YU’s Program for Jewish Genetic Health
Inevitably, the following statement would come up in discussion:
“…and if you carry one of these BRCA mutations, it means that there’s a 50/50 chance that you could have passed it on to your kids…”
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Graduate Profile: Eli Shapiro, Azrieli Graduate School for Jewish Education and Administration
A common spirit runs throughout Yeshiva University: the mandate to matter.
Students of all ages and backgrounds come here to pursue a range of professional and personal dreams, from scientific research and medicine to law, Jewish education or public policy. Our students seek to harness their unique talents and YU education to make a lasting impact on the world around them. This spring, when they graduate from YU, these new alumni will hit the ground running.
In the weeks leading up to Commencement, YU News will feature one remarkable graduate from each school, reflecting, in their own words, on their time here, their passions and their dreams for the future.
Meet the Class of 2013.
Azrieli’s Eli Shapiro hopes to professionalize the Jewish education landscape.
Name: Eli Shapiro
Hometown: Far Rockaway, NY
School: Azrieli Graduate School for Jewish Education and Administration
Passion: Professionalizing Jewish education
Why Jewish education?
Jewish education is the foundation of our community and the basis of our future, but we often approach it in a “this is what’s done” fashion that causes us to miss out on best practices. I feel very strongly that if in some way I can effect a positive change and bring more deliberate practices to such a significant component of Jewish life, I have an obligation to do so. To quote Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
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