Eldridge Street Synagogue

Apr 26, 2004 — The Lower East Side, one of the most famous neighborhoods of New York City, home to thousands of early immigrants, many of whom were Eastern European Jews who determined the shape of the city during much of the 20th Century.

As part of YU’s ongoing commemoration of the 350th anniversary of Jewish life in America, Jeffrey S. Gurock, PhD, Libby M. Klaperman Professor of Jewish History, took his students on a tour of the Lower East Side, where YU began as a small yeshiva in 1886. Prof. Gurock’s walking tour of the old Jewish quarter stepped off from Straus Square on East Broadway.

The students, from Bernard Revel Graduate School, Stern College for Women, and Yeshiva College, walked down what Prof. Gurock calls the “Avenue of Americanization,” otherwise known as East Broadway. He described the adjustment difficulties of immigrants and their children faced in this new world of America.

The tour also visited the Beth ha-Medrash ha-Gadol of Norfolk Street, the Eldridge Street Synagogue, and other major Jewish houses of worship from the immigrant period while hearing Prof. Gurock describe the ways Jews tried to mediate religiously between two conflicting cultures. Prof. Gurock calls his tour a “walking” lecture and just one of the many ways in which he encourages his students to study the history of our people in this country.

Apr 26, 2004 — Mixing commemoration and celebration, Yeshiva University students, faculty, and alumni yesterday marked Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israel Independence Day) at Wilf Campus with a candlelight vigil to Israel’s fallen soldiers and songs and dancing honoring 56 years of Jewish statehood.

Some 600 people packed Nathan Lamport Auditorium in Zysman Hall for special prayers, speeches, and a PowerPoint presentation illustrating Israel’s battles for survival against Arab aggression and its success in absorbing Jews from more than 100 countries.

The Student Organization of Yeshiva (SOY), the Office of Student Affairs, the undergraduate student councils, and the Israel Clubs of both Yeshiva College and Stern College for Women sponsored the evening, and its representatives spoke of Israel’s centrality to campus life, which, they said, included common commitments to democracy, free expression, and human rights.

That centrality, they said, also manifests itself in student study in Israel, continued aliyah, and social action against anti-Semitism and anti-Israel propaganda.

Despite persistent rain, students sang and danced their way to the Max Stern Athletic Center and Rubin Residence Hall, where they partied to live music, while feasting on falafel, humus, and other Israeli treats.

Apr 22, 2004 — How democracy and theocracy coexist will take center stage at a May 2 lecture sponsored by Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women. The discussion, “Democracy and Religion: Fighting for Israel’s Soul,” will take place at 8 pm at the Teaneck, NJ, home of Leora and Jonathan Kukin.

The event is the third in a seven-part lecture series celebrating Stern College’s 50th anniversary.

Rabbi Seth Farber, a graduate of the YU-affiliated Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary and YU’s Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies, will speak.

Rabbi Farber is the founder of ITIM: The Jewish Life Information Center, an organization that advises unafilliated Israelis on Jewish life cycle rituals, such as marriage, conversion, and burial. He received a PhD from The Hebrew University in Jerusalem and has taught at Maimonides School in Boston and at the graduate schools of Touro College and the Overseas School of The Hebrew University. In 1992, he co-founded Ma’ayan, a Boston-based adult education program for Jewish women. He is the author of An American Orthodox Dreamer: Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik and Boston’s Maimonides School (Brandeis University Press, 2004), a member of the Israel rabbinate, and the spiritual leader of a congregation in Ra’anana, Israel.

The lecture is co-sponsored by Dr. Marcia Robbins-Wilf, founder of Stern College’s Dr. Marcia Robbins-Wilf Scholar-in-Residence Program and a founding SCW board member.

Upcoming lecture topics include medical ethics and Halakhah (Jewish law), and the challenges confronting modern Orthodox families and women.

Co-chairs of the lecture series are Stern College alumnae Debbie Niderberg ’86 and Cali Orenbuch ’85. Sharon Herzfeld, MD, ’88 and Susan Ungar-Mero, MD, ’87, also Stern graduates, are co-chairing the college’s yearlong celebration.

For more information on future lectures and other Stern-at-50 events, call 212-340-7862, or e-mail rentas@yu.edu. Admission to the lectures is free, although advance reservations are required. Online registration is also available at www.yu.edu/sternjubilee.

L-R: Esther Joel, Morton Lowengrub, and Lawrence Siegel.

Apr 22, 2004 — Research papers on how adult children cope with divorce, together with aspects of adolescent behavior and obesity and myths about marriage, highlighted Yeshiva University’s first annual conference on behavioral sciences hosted by the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology on April 22.

Morton Lowengrub, PhD, and YU’s vice president for academic affairs, called the conference “an historic day for Yeshiva University.”

“This is the first time we’ve brought together the graduate and undergraduate schools and formed a community of scholars, which is what a university is all about.”

The studies showcased 56 research projects conducted by students and graduates primarily from the Ferkauf, but also from Wurzweiler Graduate School of Social Work, Stern College for Women, and Yeshiva College.

Ferkauf’s Oshra Cohen, studying for her PhD in clinical health, used the April 22 gathering at YU’s Jack and Pearl Resnick Campus in the Bronx to shed light on the growing obesity epidemic among many American teenagers.

“We joined with health professionals to learn why many obese adolescents were not succeeding in losing weight,” said Ms. Cohen, referring to her project, “Teenways: A Motivational Program for Overweight Adolescents.”

She pointed to poor diet, lack of exercise, and inadequate funding as factors contributing to a problem that, say experts, threatens to wipe out improvements in children’s health and safety over the past three decades. She said her goal was to identify ways to treat overweight kids to avoid type-II diabetes and other weight-related ailments.

The Teenways project brings together students and faculty of Ferkauf along with doctors nutritionists, social workers, and dieticians.

In another study, Ferkauf graduate Wanda Edwards, PsyD, focused on young, mostly unmarried, African-American fathers and determined that many are responsible, caring parents, despite the negative stereotypes that television and other media often portray.

Dr. Lowengrub, Lawrence Siegel, dean of Ferkauf, and Esther Joel, PhD, a 1983 Ferkauf alumna, received honorary awards for their contributions to Ferkauf and the research conference. Also recognized were Karen Bacon, the Monique C. Katz Dean of Stern College, Norman Adler, dean of Yeshiva College, and Sheldon Gelman, dean of Wurzweiler.

L-R: Valedictorians Justin Klein, Tara Rabinowitz and Jeremy Bodek-Rosenbaum

Apr 21, 2004 — Organized and run by students, the Annual Awards Dinner of the Sy Syms School of Business honoring the 2004 graduates, was held at the Marriott Marquis Hotel. Ari Spodek, a junior, led the festivities as MC and Sy Syms, founder of the school and Bernard Madoff, chairman of the board, greeted students and guests.

The first award was presented by Syms Dean, Dr. Charles Snow, to Jeremy Bodek-Rosenbaum who delivered a valedictory address. Stressing Jewish values taught at YU Mr. Rosenbaum said, “It’s incumbent upon us to carry on the traditions that came before us and to incorporate Judaism into the totality of our lives.” Ethics in business was a theme expressed in many of the remarks offered by faculty and students. Fellow valedictorians Tara Rabinowitz and Justin Klein were also recognized.

Prof. David C. Kahn received the Lillian F. & William Z. Silber Professor of the Year Award and Dr. Peter Lencsis was given the Sy Syms School of Business Student Council Professor of the Year Award. These awards are determined by a vote of the Syms student body.

Other highlights included cash prizes for winners of the Dr. William Schwartz Business Plan Competition. Gideon Shiffman was first prizewinner, receiving $5,000; Rosa Aspir and Liana Biniashvili shared second prize of $3,000 and Reuben Kerben received $2,000 for third prize.

Alumni award recipients were Bruce K. Taragin and Naema Henley. Mr. Taragin is a partner at Blumberg Capital and Ms. Henley is an account executive at Accessory Network Group.

More than 300 people attended the lively event including Sy Syms board members and prominent corporate leaders representing major accounting, real estate, banking and investment firms.

Apr 21, 2004 — A tailor from Czechoslovakia arrives in America before World War I, leaving his wife and five children behind until he finds work.

A bookbinder artist from Poland settles in New York City’s Lower East Side in 1947, just after World War II, and teaches himself English.

And a Hungarian family escapes to America via Vienna and Rome in 1980, eventually reaching Queens, where they share an apartment with 11 people.

These and other historical and literary readings of poems, short stories, and skits brought Jewish American history to life in “Bundles Hopes and Dreams: Jewish Immigrant Stories,” organized by Peninnah Schram, professor of speech and drama at Stern College for Women, and Pearl Berger, Yeshiva University dean of libraries.

The April 20 program, held at the Geraldine Schottenstein Cultural Center on the Israel Henry Beren Campus, commemorated 350 years of Jewish immigration to America, when 23 Jews from Brazil arrived in the town called New Amsterdam in 1654.

Each reading depicted the hopes and struggles of Jewish immigrants: from learning English to adapting to a foreign culture while preserving their own native traditions amid America’s melting pot.

YU President Richard M. Joel set the evening’s tone, reading “The New Colossus,” Emma Lazarus’s classic poem inscribed on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. He used Lazarus’s words as a backdrop to champion American ideals of freedom, opportunity, and hope for the oppressed.

Other readings performed by faculty, alumni, and students were:

•“Out of the Strong, Sweetness” by Charles Reznikoff
•“On America” by Sholom Aleichem
•“Letters from A Bintel Brief: Sixty Years of Letters from the Lower East Side to the Jewish Daily Forward” edited by Isaac Metzker
•“My Own People” by Anzia Yezierska
•“The Promised Land” by Mary Antin
•“The Education of Hyman Kaplan” by Benjamin Bernard Zavin (based on the stories of Leo Rosten)
•“The Lie” by Mary Antin
•“Call It Sleep” by Henry Roth
•“The Greater Yeshiva” by Dr. Bernard Revel
•“The Golden Watch” by Peninnah Schram

Apr 20, 2004 — The alumni associations of Yeshiva University’s undergraduate colleges will join together to honor eight graduates who have made significant contributions to religious, educational, scholarly, communal, and professional life.

The May 4 ceremony will present the Stern College for Women Alumnae Association’s 21st annual Samuel Belkin Memorial Awards; the Yeshiva College Alumni Association’s 47th annual Bernard Revel Memorial Awards and its 13th Samuel Belkin Literary Award; and the Sy Syms School of Business Alumni Association’s 8th annual Norman Lamm Award.

The Revel, Belkin, and Lamm awards are named for the university’s first, second, and third presidents, respectively. Yeshiva and Stern Colleges are the undergraduate schools of liberal arts and sciences; the Sy Syms School is the undergraduate business school.

This year’s recipients of the Belkin Award are:

•Shirley Hus ’73S, of New York, NY, for Jewish education
•Toby Hilsenrad Weiss ’65S, of Bronx, NY, for community relations
•Judith Frankel Schwarzberg ’81S, of Highland Park, NJ, for Jewish education

Recipients of the Revel Award are:

•Moses Feuerstein ’36Y, of Brookline, MA, for community service leadership
•Rabbi Kenneth Brander ’84Y, ’86R, of Boca Raton, FL, for religious education
•Rabbi Maurice Lamm ’51Y, ’54R, of Woodmere, NY, for professional achievement

David Berger ’64Y, ’67R of Flushing, NY, will receive the Samuel Belkin Literary Award, and Joseph Weilgus ’99SSSB of New York, NY, will receive the Lamm Award for business leadership.

The free program and reception takes place at 7:30 pm at the Yeshiva University Museum at the Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, in Manhattan. For more information, contact the Office of Alumni Affairs at 212-960-5373 or at alumdesk@yu.edu.

Apr 20, 2004 — Moody’s Investors Services recently upgraded Yeshiva University’s bond rating to Aa2 from Aa3 (upper-medium grade to high grade), citing its strong financial resources, solid investment returns during a difficult environment, established student market presence, as well as substantial growth in philanthropic gifts, and a new President committed to strategic planning and fundraising.

Yeshiva University will now be included with ten such other institutions as John Hopkins University, Emory University, Vassar College, and Vanderbilt University, also rated Aa2 by Moody’s. Only 37 universities and colleges are rated Aa2 or higher by Moody’s.

The credit enhancement evidenced by the Aa2 rating should impact favorably the interest rate on future bonds sought by the University, and will also reduce the cost of bond insurance.

While an upgraded bond rating results in lower interest rates on the funds the University borrows—creating substantial savings over time, it also represents significant recognition of fiscal strength, strong performance over time of the endowment, and sustained demand in the educational marketplace of our colleges and schools.

“Fiscal strength and the proven ability to repay debt are contributing factors,” said President Richard M. Joel, “but many other elements such as reputation and commitment to strategic and fiscal planning come into play as well.

Our Trustees should be pleased, knowing that the institution to which they have devoted time, energy, and resources has been well served. Much has been achieved, and much remains to be done—as we all continue to work together for the benefit of the University as it enters a new era of growth and development.”

Rivkah Lubitch speaks about her work as a Toenet Rabbinit.

Apr 19, 2004 — Jewish law and how it affects women and their religious obligations were topics discussed at an April 18 lecture celebrating for Stern College for Women’s jubilee.

The lecture, “Breaking New Ground: Orthodox Women in the 21st Century,” was held at YU’s Geraldine Schottenstein Cultural Center on the Israel Henry Beren Campus in Manhattan. Rivkah Lubitch, a Toenet Rabbinit (legal advocate for women seeking a religious divorce writ), and Shani Taragin, a Yoetzet Halakhah (religious advisor in matters of family purity) were the guest speakers.

Ms. Lubitch works at Yad L’isha, an organization that represents agunot in the Bet Din. She also teaches at Midreshet Oranim and Bet Midrash Nigun for women. She has been active in women’s groups in Israel and South Africa including Kolech – the Religious Women’s Forum.

Ms. Taragin was accepted by the Israeli Rabbinate and is a lecturer at MATAN, the Women’s Institute for Torah Studies in Jerusalem, and RaM, Midreshet.

The lecture, the second in a seven-part series, was co-sponsored by Dr. Marcia Robbins-Wilf, founder of Stern College’s Dr. Marcia Robbins-Wilf Scholar-in-Residence Program and a founding SCW board member.

Apr 18, 2004 — Yeshiva University’s (YU) inaugural Behavioral Sciences Research Conference will take place Thursday, April 22 from 1-4 pm at the University’s Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, Louis E. and Dora Rousso Building, 1st floor, 1165 Morris Park Ave. on the Jack and Pearl Resnick Campus in the Bronx.

About 50 YU graduate and undergraduate students will discuss their original research projects, literature reviews, and research proposals. Poster presentations will highlight the students’ work. Esther Joel, a 1983 alumna of Ferkauf and wife of YU President Richard M. Joel, will open the conference.

In addition to Ferkauf, the conference is sponsored by YU’s Wurzweiler School of Social Work, the psychology departments of Stern College for Women and Yeshiva College, and the office of the vice president for academic affairs.

“The conference provides a venue for students to highlight some of the impressive research they are doing,” said Sonia Suchday, PhD, assistant professor of psychology at Ferkauf and conference coordinator. “The collaboration between the graduate and the undergraduate schools is a way to maximize our resources and bridge communication between graduate and undergraduate students and faculty.”

For more information, contact Dr. Suchday at 718-430-3856 or ssuchday@aecom.yu.edu.