Rev. Freddy Streets

Jan 30, 2008 — Reverend Frederick Streets, PhD, the Carl and Dorothy Bennet Professor of Pastoral Counseling at Wurzweiler School of Social Work, received a Fulbright Fellowship to conduct research in Pretoria, South Africa. He will travel to the University of Pretoria and work in its department of practical theology for the spring semester.

Dr. Streets will study how the HIV/AIDS crisis is affecting South Africa. He hopes to gain a deeper understanding of faith-based communities’ collaboration with public health organizations to address the crisis, as well as the challenges such partnerships present to both religious and nonsectarian communities.

As an ordained Baptist minister and licensed social worker, Dr. Streets is accustomed to bridging the divide between religious and secular organizations. “The department of practical theology’s interdisciplinary approach to dealing with children and families coping with HIV and AIDS is consistent with my experience of pastoral care research and teaching courses in professional schools of theology, social work, and counseling,” said Dr. Streets.

“I want to leave with a better understanding of how South Africa’s response to HIV/AIDS can contribute to our world community’s efforts to address this pandemic,” he said.

Sheldon R. Gelman, PhD, Dorothy and David I. Schachne Dean of Wurzweiler, said: “We at Wurzweiler are immensely proud of Jerry’s accomplishment and look forward to his return in the summer when we will all benefit from his research in South Africa.”

Other Faculty News

Rabbi Benjamin Blech, assistant professor of Talmud, had two articles included in “The Top Ten Articles of 2007” on the aish.com Website: “The Secret Revealed” and “A Flawed Mighty Heart.” The articles were selected by the site’s editors as the most popular articles of the year. Rabbi Blech published a total of eight articles on aish.com in 2007.

Sergey V. Buldyrev, PhD, professor of physics at Yeshiva College, was the lead author of “Water-like solvation thermodynamics in a spherically symmetric solvent model with two characteristic lengths,” published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on December 12. He conducted the research, funded by the National Science Foundation, with a team of scientists from Princeton University, Boston University, and University of Texas. The article is available online here.

Ira Saiger, PhD, visiting assistant professor at Yeshiva College, was a featured speaker at ‘From Generation to Generation and Back Again,’ a conference on intergenerational perspectives held by the Mid Atlantic Group Psychotherapy Society in fall 2007. Saiger, a 2003 graduate of Ferkauf, and his father, George Max Saiger, MD, a 1967 graduate of Einstein, led the conference.

Victor Schwartz, MD, university dean of students, gave a grand rounds talk at Beth Israel Medical Center’s psychiatry department on January 24.

Joshua Zimmerman, PhD, associate professor of history, spoke on “The Attitude of the Polish Home Army (AK) to the Jewish Question During the Holocaust: The Case of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising” at the UCLA Center for Jewish Studies conference, ‘From Past to Present: The State of Research in Polish Jewish Relations,’ on January 13.

For previous faculty achievements, please click here.

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Jan 30, 2008 — In the combative, spirited world of high school competitions, Yeshiva University is well known for its basketball tournaments and model United Nations debates. A new program under the aegis of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) is now encouraging students to show their intellectual prowess in learning Talmud.

Some 250 students from grades nine through 12 at yeshivot across North America are participating in the Bronka Weintraub Bekius Program, which involves students in fast-paced study aimed at mastering significant amounts of Gemara (Talmud).

“Participating students have an opportunity to broaden their Torah horizons and forge a lifelong love of learning,” says Rabbi Ezra Schwartz, who created the program. Rabbi Schwartz is associate bochein (examiner of incoming students) at RIETS, and teaches Talmud in the Irving I. Stone Beit Midrash Program. “We’re hoping that they will come to see YU as the home for this kind of serious Gemara learning.”

Students take five exams a year, for which they will be given cash prizes, based on their performance. A grand prize of $5,000 will be awarded to the student from each division with the highest scores. At the end of the year, a siyum (a celebration of the completion of a Talmudic tractate) will be held on YU’s campus. Students completing the program will receive a certificate outlining their accomplishments that will be sent to the yeshiva they choose to attend in Israel.

Schools are customizing the program to fit their needs. “At a yeshiva in Toronto, the principal is teaching a bekius class before and after shacharit (morning prayers) and during lunch,” Rabbi Schwartz says. “Some schools in the New York area are devoting class time to this program.” At most schools, however, the material is studied on an extracurricular basis, supplementing regular Gemara classes.

Rabbi Schwartz is confident the number of yeshivot participating in the program—now being piloted in 21 schools—will at least double in the near future.

The goal of the program is to instill an appreciation of knowledge for its own sake. “This creative program, under the knowing guidance of Rabbi Schwartz, continues our original and ongoing thrust to intensify Torah learning in our Yeshiva and everywhere,” said Rabbi Zevulun Charlop, the Max and Marion Grill dean of RIETS. “We aspire to bring the best and brightest to our beit midrash (study hall).”

The program has been named for Bronka Weintraub, z”l, a generous donor to Yeshiva University who endowed the Bronka Weintraub Chair in Talmud at RIETS, which is currently occupied by Rabbi Hershel Reichman. She was also a founder and benefactor of YU’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

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