Sep 29, 2009 — Students and alumni of Yeshiva University, its affiliated Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), and YU’s Center for the Jewish Future (CJF) will enrich the holiday celebrations of Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah in 80 Jewish communities around the world.

As part of the annual Blanche Schreiber Torah Tours, groups of four to eight men and women will visit Orthodox congregations to infuse ruach (Jewish spirit and passion) into the holiday celebrations.

“We were very proud and honored to host representatives of the Torah Tours program who graced our synagogue and community over the Simchat Torah Yom Tov last year,” said Rabbi Daniel Mehlman of the Lido Beach Synagogue. “As an alumnus I was extremely overjoyed that our yeshiva saw fit to reach out to different communities and make their presence felt.”

This year, more than 400 students and alumni have chosen to spend the holidays away from their families to sing, dance, and share Torah ideas with members of other Jewish communities from Palo Alto, CA, to Milwaukee, WI, to Paramus NJ. They will also host activities for youth and deliver lectures on Jewish-themed topics.

“I had the best time ever. The shul was so great and really appreciated us so much. Being there really enhanced my chag,” said Ilana Gadish, a 2011 Stern College graduate.

The Center for the Jewish Future works with YU’s colleges, schools, and affiliates to shape programs that will train Jewish lay and professional leadership, develop initiatives and strengthen existing ones, as well as deliver services to its students and the broader Jewish communities.

“This program engages our student body in what they do best: bringing energy and enthusiasm into communities around the world,” said Rabbi Kenneth Brander, CJF dean.

Torah Tours sponsors more than 125 programs around the world and during the year, including other holidays, winter and summer breaks.

“Torah Tours is a life-changing experience for everyone involved in the program,” said Aliza Abrams, Director of the Aaron and Blanche Schreiber Torah Tours. “Being able to send 400 students out to communities all over North America is an honor.”

To participate in future Tours contact the CJF at 212-960-0041.

Sep 29, 2009 — Yeshiva University’s Sy Syms School of Business will expand the scope of its education beyond undergraduate programming this fall when it launches the Center for Executive and Professional Education. The center will offer post-graduate education and professional development to meet the needs of business professionals, especially in the Jewish community.

“Success in business demands continual updating of our knowledge and skills,” said Dr. Michael Ginzberg, dean of the business school. “This is never more true than at a time of rapid economic change such as we are experiencing today. The center’s professors are experienced practitioners and talented educators who know what is needed to succeed in today’s economic environment and have the skills to communicate it.”

The center launches with two one-day seminars this fall dedicated to entrepreneurship skills and another series in the spring dedicated to family business challenges and not-for-profit leadership. “These are areas where we have great experience,” Ginzberg said.

The certificate-granting seminars will conveniently be held on Sundays to cater to Sabbath-observant participants.

Teaching these seminars will be Syms faculty Dr. Brian Maruffi and Dr. Steven Nissenfeld, both professors of management, and Michael Strauss, adjunct professor and entrepreneur-in-residence, as well as outside industry experts.

The center is working towards offering an Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) in fall 2011, which will be designed for mid-career managers and professionals. It will also hold classes on Sundays for Sabbath observers and those who cannot attend the typical Saturday coursework of many of other EMBA programs.

To learn more or to register for any of the certificate programs visit www.yu.edu/cepe.

Sep 24, 2009 — The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University two grants totaling $3.5 million to study epigenetic changes—chemical modifications of genes caused by stress, diet or other environmental influences—and how they contribute to human diseases and biological processes.

The NIH will award approximately $62 million to medical institutions over the next five years to study the impact of epigenetic changes on a number of diseases and conditions, including tumor development, hardening of the arteries, autism, glaucoma, asthma, aging, and abnormal growth and development. The grants will build on the work of the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research’s Epigenomics Program.

Einstein’s grants will focus on epigenetic modifications related to abnormal fetal growth and to chronic kidney disease, led, respectively, by Francine H. Einstein, MD, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology and women’s health and Katalin Susztak, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine. Their research will illuminate the total repertoire of epigenetic influences— eferred to as the “epigenome”—that characterize each of these conditions.

“The goal of epigenomics research is in part to understand how human diseases are caused and how environmental factors affect them,” said John M. Greally, MB, BCh, PhD, associate professor of genetics and of medicine at Einstein, who directs Einstein’s Center for Epigenomics. “This research is also driven by the fact that epigenetic processes are inherently reversible and could therefore respond to therapies that reverse long-term damage to the cells. These pioneering studies by Drs. Einstein and Susztak are the first steps towards this ultimate goal.”

“Epigenomics represents the next phase in our understanding of genetic regulation of health and disease,” says NIH Director Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D. “These awards will address the extent to which diet and environmental exposures produce long-lasting effects through changes in DNA regulation.” Dr. Collins notes that the initiative “is expected to profoundly alter the way we understand, diagnose and treat disease.”

The main epigenetic modification being studied in these projects is DNA methylation, the addition of methyl groups to the cytosine bases of DNA, often associated with silencing of nearby genes. DNA methylation is one of a number of epigenetic regulatory mechanisms that control gene expression in normal cells but can become altered in disease. For example, epigenetic changes have been found in every type of cancer that researchers have studied.

The larger of the two grants awarded to Einstein, for $2.03 million over five years, will address the epigenetic changes that influence abnormal fetal growth.

“We know that very small and very large newborns have a higher chance of developing problems like diabetes or cardiovascular disease later in life,” said Dr. Einstein. “So, we are trying to determine the epigenetic changes in these babies that make them more susceptible to chronic disease and premature death.”

The researchers hypothesize that conditions during fetal development alter epigenetic patterns of DNA methylation in stem cells. These changes may be a marker for, or contribute to, susceptibility to type 2 diabetes and other age-related diseases. Dr. Greally and Cristina Montagna, PhD, assistant professor of genetics and of pathology at Einstein, are co-principal investigators on this study.

The second grant, for $1.49 million over four years, will address the epigenetic landscape of chronic kidney disease, which affects some 20 million people in the U.S. and is associated with a three-to-five-fold increase in mortality. The researchers suspect that unfavorable environmental conditions, such as poor nutrition during pregnancy, can imprint abnormal DNA methylation patterns on the fetal kidney.

Epigenetic changes may also explain why diabetes is the leading cause of renal (kidney) failure. “People with diabetes who control blood glucose levels develop fewer complications,” said Dr. Susztak. “But they still face a greater risk for kidney failure and other complications — probably because their bodies remember periods from long ago when their glucose was not well controlled. We want to learn whether this so-called hyperglycemic memory is coded in DNA methylation patterns.”

A total of 22 epigenomics grants were awarded by the NIH in this round of funding. Einstein was one of only two institutions to receive two or more grants.

Dr. Jianfeng Jiang, assistant professor of chemistry

Sep 22, 2009 — Dr. Michael Machczynski and Dr. Jianfeng Jiang, assistant professors of chemistry at Yeshiva University, have each been awarded grants of $50,000 over two years from the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund to investigate means of efficiently storing energy from the sun.

The professors’ complementary research projects involve the development of enzymes as catalysts to convert water to oxygen, which is necessary to store solar energy in a chemical form, such as hydrogen or methanol. The aim is to develop a cost-effective, renewable alternative to expensive platinum-based catalysts.

“We’re certainly doing cutting-edge work,” said Machczynski. “The only energy source that can cover the whole world is solar.”

For the U.S., he added, “This is not just an energy issue. This is a national security issue.”

The grants enable the professors and their students to purchase and share a powerful piece of electronic hardware fundamental to modern electrochemical studies—the potentiostat—as they seek new energy technology.

“Most of our energy source now is fossil fuel, which will only last another hundred years,” said Jiang. “When we burn it, we produce carbon dioxide that causes global warming.

“But hydrogen gas only produces water,” he said. “My research, basically, is in how we are going to make hydrogen more convenient and cheap.”

The sun itself, as the energy source to be exploited, is both free and plentiful. Machczynski said the amount of sunlight that falls on Earth in a single hour produces enough energy to supply power to the entire world for a year.

Of the opportunity provided by the grants, Machczynski said, “It’s fantastic, it’s exciting. This is helping to renew the experimental science program at Yeshiva. The students are going to be able to get their hands on this.”

According to news media accounts, American business leaders at a recent Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy Summit acknowledged that the United States’s investment in clean energy technology lagged behind those of other countries—notably China, Denmark, Japan, South Korea, India, Singapore and Abu Dhabi. But Machczynski and Jiang said the situation changed radically when Barack Obama became president in January, and is progressing in synch with improved profitability in the stock market.

“We’re getting our act together in the U.S.” noted Machczynski, who said Washington has committed $150 billion over the next decade for alternative energy research, about half of which comes from federal economic stimulus funds released this year.

As for YU’s role in the new clean energy paradigm, Jiang said, “We’ve really grown in the past five or six years, when we’ve had almost no external funding.”

Sep 16, 2009 — “If Israel and America have such a special relationship why can’t they get along?” asked Daniel Kurtzer, retired U.S. Ambassador to both Israel and Egypt, and professor of Middle East policy studies at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

The challenges of this special relationship and its prospects for helping to build peace were the subject of “U.S.-Israel Relations in the Era of Obama and Netanyahu,” a conference on Sept. 14 at the Geraldine Schottenstein Cultural Center. The conference was co-sponsored by Yeshiva University’s Center for Israel Studies, its Rabbi Arthur Schneier Center for International Affairs and Bar-Ilan University’s Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies and American Friends of Bar-Ilan. About 400 people attended.

“The relationship between YU and the State of Israel is central to our identity as a university,” said Dr. Steven Fine, director of the Center for Israel Studies and chair of the department of Jewish history at Yeshiva College. “Coming together with Bar-Ilan to discuss the U.S.-Israel relationship in all of its complexities was exhilarating.”

Dr. Evan Resnick, assistant professor of political science at Yeshiva University, said that a central challenge for the Obama administration is how to “perpetuate America’s special relationship with Israel as it embarks on a more conciliatory policy towards both countries’ shared adversaries in the region.”

Resnick, who is completing a book on constructive engagement and American foreign policy, suggested that past instances in which the U.S. tried to reform adversaries through engagement “typically foundered on the shoals of domestic opposition to the policy at home, and/or duplicitous behavior by the adversary.”

Dr. Efraim Inbar, professor of political studies at Bar-Ilan, noted that while radicalism is still a conspicuous part of the tapestry of the Middle East, “the decline of the Arab world economically, educationally and democratically” and the extremism that accompanies this decline have led to a chasm where moderate Arabs feel they have no choice but to consider peace with Israel. “Radical Islamists are such a danger to the moderate states that they are willing to do business with Israel” said Inbar, the director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies.

Dr. Shmuel Sandler, dean of the social science faculty at Bar-Ilan and a senior fellow at the Begin-Sadat Center, commented that in Israel, too, “a new realism” has emerged. With the passage of time and losses suffered, Israelis have moderated on issues such as settlement, he said. “There is a realization that we can’t both hold onto all historic lands and attain peace.”

Sep 16, 2009 — A new fellowship offered by Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women this fall, with the partnership and support of the Jewish Foundation for Education of Women (JFEW), will enable high-achieving, incoming sophomores to excel in the sciences.

“Stern College is home to a record number of women enrolled in science programs in preparation for careers in both clinical areas and research,” said Dr. Karen Bacon, The Dr. Monique C. Katz Dean of Stern. “With the support and encouragement of the Jewish Foundation for Education of Women, a select group will now have the benefit of enhanced scholarships, individual mentoring and stipends to conduct research—a combination that will inevitably lead to the highest levels of achievement.”

The 10 recipients of the Jewish Foundation for Education of Women Science Fellowship will receive $10,000 annually in scholarship support for three years. An additional 10 will be awarded the fellowship next year. Each JFEW Fellow will have the opportunity to participate in summer research internships for which they will be offered a work stipend of $2,500.

The fellows will be offered leadership opportunities over the course of their academic career, including attending and presenting research at national and international science conferences.

In addition, they will receive one-on-one mentoring by a member of the Stern science faculty to foster and encourage academic achievement. The mentors will advise the students on course selection, research experience and preparation for graduate school applications.

The students will also participate in lectures and workshops on topics addressing leadership training, career development and academic success. The first year will focus on getting the most from an undergraduate education; the second year will feature workshops on developing research; and the final year will concentrate on transitioning to post-graduate life.

“Since 1880, JFEW has helped women to achieve their educational aspirations and to contribute to society,” said Jill Smith, vice president and chair of the foundation’s Jewish Community Program. “Stern is similarly committed to women’s educational achievement. We are proud to collaborate with Stern on the creation of this exciting and innovative program.”

Sep 14, 2009 — In the two weeks since the Jacob and Dreizel Glueck Center for Jewish Study opened on the Wilf Campus, its walls have vibrated with the hum of students learning in its two-storey beit midrash [study hall]. That “harmonic symphony of Torah study,” to use President Richard M. Joel’s words, erupted into a rousing chorus of celebration as students and their rebbes, alumni and staff danced in the streets at the dedication of the new building on Sunday, Sept. 13.

“Today we celebrate a new chapter in the history of Yeshiva University and the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS),” said President Joel. “The Glueck Center has already revolutionized this campus, adding a proud new space for scholarship and learning that is both timeless and timely, and a convening center for our thriving community.”

Read more about the building here.

See a photo gallery from the event here

“RIETS was the first yeshiva to wave the flag of Yavneh on American soil,” he said. “From an inaugural class of only a dozen students meeting in a small room on the Lower East Side, RIETS can now proudly boast of this wonderful state-of-the-art beit midrash, which serves as just one of many under its auspices.”

Vivian Glueck Rosenberg, the daughter of donor Jacob Glueck, said that her parents’ survival of the Holocaust motivated them to devote themselves to supporting Jewish community institutions. Rosenberg, together with her husband, Henry, was instrumental in realizing her father’s vision for a new beit midrash at YU that began under the administration of Dr. Norman Lamm in 1997.

“My parents believed in the primacy of education,” said Rosenberg, a member of the Boards of YU and Stern College for Women. “Our dedication of this building to YU is a statement of our belief in the importance of limud haTorah [the study of Torah] and the need for the vast majority of our youth to have the opportunity to earn a parnasa [a living].”

Addressing the students in the crowd, she said, “We pray you use to the fullest the opportunity put in front of you and thus assure the continuity of our people and our traditions.”

Special guests at the dedication included Sheldon Silver ’65YC, Speaker of the NY State Assembly and recipient of an honorary degree from YU, and NY State Representative Herman “Denny” Farrell, Jr.

Silver, who President Joel welcomed as “a ben Torah [son of Torah],” wished his alma mater congratulations. “I am proud to see YU expand in its size and prestige,” said Silver, whose three children are also alumni. “As it grows, YU invigorates the city and the state and especially this Washington Heights community.”

President Joel paid tribute to the many supporters whose gifts made the building possible, including the Nagel family, after whom the Jack and Gitta Nagel Family Atrium and Student Commons in the adjoining Mendel Gottesman Library is named.

The new stone and glass structure, he said, is a “tangible symbol of our absolute optimism in the future of our yeshiva and our University.”

“We must fill this space with the best of our community,” added President Joel. “A YU education must be both aspirational and non-negotiable. This is where our children will learn and grow into proud leaders of a proud and purposeful people of our nation.”

Sep 10, 2009 — This Point of View is written by Ruth Macklin, PhD, a professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Population Medicine and the Dr. Shoshanah Trachtenberg Frackman Faculty Scholar in Biomedical Ethics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. She serves on the advisory board of the Center for Ethics at Yeshiva University and is the author of “Against Relativism: Cultural Diversity and the Search for Ethical Universals in Medicine” (Oxford University Press, 1999).

In his speech to a joint session of Congress and to the nation on Wednesday, Sept. 9, President Obama quoted from a letter the late Senator Ted Kennedy had sent to him. Kennedy had written that health care is “above all a moral issue; at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country.”

Kennedy got that right, and President Obama was wise to cite the moral necessity of ensuring that all Americans are guaranteed an adequate level of health care by some mechanism or other. What that mechanism will be is a matter to be hammered out in the political process. However, the President was also wise to insist that he “will not waste time with those who have made the calculation that it’s better politics to kill this plan than improve it.”

Health care reform means different things to different people—lowering costs, ensuring universal coverage, limiting the power of insurance companies to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions, reining in medical malpractice lawsuits.

President Obama mentioned all of these in his speech—a politically necessary maneuver if he is to obtain the needed support from Congress. But it is chiefly the universal coverage that is the moral issue, along with making sure that insurance companies do not deny coverage for certain conditions, refuse to renew a policy or place a lifetime cap on an individual’s insurance costs.

Unlike every other industrialized nation, the United States has never recognized a “right to health care.” Although a single-payer system would almost certainly be less costly and administratively simpler than the unwieldy array of multiple insurers, the key ethical issue remains that of guaranteeing that everyone in this wealthy nation receives needed preventive and therapeutic medical care.

Yeshiva University is not responsible for the content of this article. The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and should not be attributed to Yeshiva University.

Want to learn more about the ethics of health care reform? Attend the Center for Ethics’ panel discussion on “Health Care Reform: Ethics of Public Policy, Ethics of Public Debate” on Oct. 25 at 6:30 p.m.

Sep 10, 2009 — A group of 16 Yeshiva University (YU) graduates from the class of 2009 have decided to extend their stay on campus for another year to experience the University from another perspective: as Presidential Fellows.

The top graduates will build their professional skills while assisting in programmatic and organizational roles at various schools and departments across the institution. Since its establishment in 2004 by President Richard M. Joel, the Presidential Fellowship in University and Community Leadership has played a major role in transforming YU into a leadership laboratory for the Jewish community.

“The program has motivated its participants to reflect on the positive experiences they have had at Yeshiva University and examine the opportunities in the Jewish community––in both lay and professional capacities—in light of their interests and skills,” said President Joel. “The fellowship inspires them to reach for the nobility and responsibility that comes with leadership.”

This year’s Presidential Fellows are Avi Amsalem, Abigail Schoenfeld, David Eckstein, Nava Billet, Esther Goldstein, Daniel Neiss, Avital Gozhenko, Adira Katlowitz, Steven A. Loterstein, Aviva Miller, Allison Liebman, Uri Westrich, Ephraim Shoshani, Annie Wasserman, Osnat Rabinowich and Perel Skier.

The fellows were chosen after an intensive screening process based on academic performance, campus leadership and involvement with the Jewish community. For the duration of the year, each fellow is mentored by a senior administrator within their assigned department. They work on projects of importance to the University and attend a graduate-level weekly leadership seminar covering key topics in university administration and Jewish communal leadership.

After speaking to previous fellows about their experiences, Avital Gozhenko of Volograd, Russia decided to apply for the fellowship. “This was an opportunity to contribute to the University as a show of gratitude for the best four years of my life,” said Gozhenko, who will be working with J. Michael Gower, YU vice president for business affairs and chief financial officer.

Some of this year’s Presidential Fellows are considering careers in Jewish communal service and see their participation as a good way to test the waters. Others will use their new skills and experiences as future lay leaders in the Jewish community.

“The fusion of traditional Jewish values with a progressive workplace environment made YU the ideal setting for the beginning of my career,” said Ephraim Shoshani of Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Shoshani will serve in the Office of Communications and Public Affairs under the mentorship of its vice president, Georgia Pollak.

Perel Skier of Milwaukee, Wisconsin will be working in familiar territory under her former Stern College for Women dean, Dr. Karen Bacon, as the Beatrice Diener Presidential Fellow. “I loved my experience as a student and wanted to stay connected to the University,” explained Skier. “I also wanted to widen my range of skills so that I could be more useful to any organization I may end up with.”

Previous years’ fellows have also taken positions in the corporate sector as well as in Jewish communal organizations such as the American Jewish World Service, Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, the UJA-Federation of New York and various Jewish day schools. Others have gone on to graduate study in public service, psychology, law, dentistry, medicine and the rabbinate.

For some, the fellowship can lead to more permanent work within the University’s administration.

“Working in the offices of Academic Affairs and Institutional Research under both Provost Morton Lowengrub and Dr. Ariel Fishman was both a rewarding and challenging experience,” said Mati Sved ’08YC, a 2008 Presidential Fellow who now serves as an analyst for Institutional Research. “The mentoring and learning through the fellowship—while giving back to the institution—has been truly gratifying.”

The program is directed by Rabbi Josh Joseph, chief of staff and deputy to the President, and coordinated by Elysia Stein ’04S, herself a former Presidential Fellow.

Sep 9, 2009 — Rabbi Jeremy Wieder (left) and Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein will be the featured speakers at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary’s (RIETS) 25th Annual Hausman/Stern Kinus Teshuva Lectures. The lectures will take place in New York City and Jerusalem on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009 at 8 p.m. The annual lecture series occurs every year between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and is run by Yeshiva University’s Center for the Jewish Future (CJF).

Rabbi Wieder, the Gwendolyn and Joseph Straus Professor of Talmud at RIETS, will deliver a lecture entitled “Ethics and Our Community: A Time for Introspection.” Ordained at RIETS, Rabbi Wieder is an adjunct professor of Bible at Yeshiva College and holds a PhD in Judaic studies from New York University. He will be introduced by Rabbi Yona Reiss, The Max and Marion Grill Dean of RIETS.

Rabbi Lichtenstein, the Rabbi Henoch and Sarah D. Berman Professor of Talmud and rosh kollel and director of the Caroline and Joseph S. Gruss Institute in Jerusalem, will discuss “Teshuva: Root and Branch” at Yeshiva University’s Israel campus on 40 Duvdevani Street, Bayit Vegan, Jerusalem. The son-in-law of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Rabbi Lichtenstein holds a doctoral degree in English from Harvard University. He currently serves as co-rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion in Alon Shvut, Israel.

The Hausman/Stern Kinus Teshuva lecture series was established by philanthropist Judy Hausman and the late Gerson Hausman, supporters of YU and RIETS, to honor the memory of Elias J. and Mary Stern and Moshe and Chava Hausman.

Both lectures will be in English and the New York lecture will be webcast at www.yutorah.org. Light refreshments will be served at both events and parking will be available at the New York component. For more information on the lectures please contact the CJF offices at 212-960-5400, ext. 6014 or e-mail YUTorah@YUTorah.org.