Yeshiva University Students Break Dreidel-Spinning Guinness World Record

618 Yeshiva University students, alumni, faculty, staff, neighbors and friends filled the Max Stern Athletic Center on YU’s Washington Heights campus in Manhattan on Tuesday, November 30—the night before Chanukah—to help break the Guinness World Record for most dreidels spun simultaneously. The previous record of 541 was set at an event at Temple Emanuel in Cherry Hill, NJ in 2005.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g74gbLX0Cq0

The highly anticipated event, dubbed “Dreidel-Palooza” was organized by Students Helping Students, a student-run organization that raises money for undergraduate scholarships, and featured musical entertainment, food and a dreidel tournament sponsored by Major League Dreidel.

“It was incredible to see this crowd tonight,” said Yeshiva College’s Jason Katz, co-president of Students Helping Students. “More than 70 percent of students at Yeshiva University receive some sort of financial aid so this was a great opportunity to build school pride, spread awareness and raise scholarship funds.”

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Saadia Fireman, president of SOY (Student Organization of Yeshiva)—one of several undergraduate student organizations to sponsor the event—felt that “the excitement was not only from breaking a record, but from the fact that this event showed that students at Yeshiva University are a family and care about one another.

“Events like this help fund scholarships so that our peers can continue to learn, to lead and to inspire,” said Fireman.

Dreidels are special four-sided tops used at Chanukah, the Jewish Festival of Lights. Each side features a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet:  Nun, Gimmel, Hay, and Shin; together they help form the phrase “Nes Gadol Haya Sham” or “A Great Miracle Occurred There.”

Read about Dreidel-Palooza in the Wall Street Journal and New York Post .

Student A Cappella Group’s “Candlelight” Video Goes Viral

Just in time for Chanukah, Yeshiva University’s popular student a cappella group, the Maccabeats, have released their latest single, “Candlelight.”

Their music video, edited by YU alumnus and former presidential fellow, Uri Westrich, has quickly gone viral on YouTube, amassing more than 2 million views, and has been featured on CBS, CNN and NBC’s Today Show.

“It’s been really exciting,” said Maccabeat Josh Jay, a Yeshiva College graduate currently enrolled at Einstein Medical School. “Before it came out, we joked about the video going viral, but I don’t think any of us expected it to be quite this popular. It’s great to be able to reach so many people and spread the message of Channukah.”

See articles in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Jerusalem Post and The New York Post.

Open Houses Showcase YU’s Academic Excellence and Vibrant Jewish Atmosphere

Prospective students and their parents had the opportunity to learn about Yeshiva University’s unique dual curriculum of an exceptional Jewish Studies program and a first class liberal arts, sciences or business education, at two undergraduate Open Houses on Nov. 14 for women on the Beren campus and on Nov. 21 for men on the Wilf campus.

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High school seniors interested in Yeshiva College, Stern College for Women or Sy Syms School of Business learned about about the many academic options available in fields ranging from biology, physics and accounting to Jewish studies, philosophy and music. The Open Houses included tours through YU’s  libraries, dormitories and the new Jacob and Dreizel Glueck Center for Jewish Study as well as a chance to meet with deans and faculty.

“I could really sense the energy, both of the faculty, staff and our current students who were participating, as well as the visiting prospective students and parents,” said Dr. Hillel Davis, vice president for university life. ”What is especially nice for me is to have a day when we can see and appreciate Yeshiva through the fresh eyes of newcomers – their reactions to the quality of the students and the product and the campuses – reminds us of how special YU is.”

To arrange a campus tour, learn about financial aid packages available or to apply to Yeshiva University visit www.yu.edu/admissions.

Dr. Jeffrey Pollard Receives American Cancer Society Medal of Honor

Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University researcher Jeffrey Pollard, Ph.D., has received the prestigious Medal of Honor in Basic Science from the American Cancer Society (ACS) in recognition of his research into the critical role the tumor microenvironment plays in modulating cancer behavior, specifically the role that members of the innate immune cells called macrophages play both in normal development and in promoting tumor progression. These macrophages could hold the key to more targeted cancer treatments.

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Insights into how normal body cells support tumor growth have led the way to a new wave of research and the development of therapeutics specifically targeting the support cells in the body that can aid in tumor development. Dr. Pollard’s research has found that when macrophages are removed from the tumor microenvironment, the risk of cancer progressing to malignancy is reduced and its spread from the primary tumor site to distant sites lessens.

“I think that one of the major components of the therapeutic arsenal as we go forward will be to combine chemo-therapeutic drugs with drugs that target macrophages so that they can no longer support the tumor’s ability to be malignant,” said Dr. Pollard. “Further it gives another opportunity for therapy by using vaccination against tumor antigens combined with altering macrophages from tumor promoting to tumor rejecting. It gives us another prong in the attack on cancer.”

Dr. Pollard is deputy director of the Albert Einstein Cancer Center, director of the Center for Study of Reproductive Biology and Women’s Health and the Louis Goldstein Swan Chair in Women’s Cancer Research at Einstein. He is also professor in the departments of developmental and molecular biology and obstetrics & gynecology and women’s health at Einstein and Montefiore Medical Center.

This award from the American Cancer Society, the nation’s leading voluntary health organization and largest non-governmental investor in cancer research, represents the Society’s highest honor in recognition of outstanding contributions to fighting cancer.

The award was presented at the American Cancer Society’s annual meeting in Atlanta, GA. In addition to Dr. Pollard, the ACS recognized Joseph Fraumeni, M.D., M.Sc., for Cancer Control, and Patricia Ganz, M.D., for Clinical Research.

This is the second ACS Medal of Honor awarded to a researcher at the Albert Einstein Cancer Center. Susan Band Horwitz, Ph.D., received the Medal of Honor in 2008 for Clinical Research.

YU Launches First-Ever Dynamic Hebrew Literacy Assessment in North America

A research team from the Institute for University-School Partnership, a division of the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, has launched MaDYK the first-ever standardized dynamic assessment of early Hebrew literacy. The development and implementation of this assessment tool represents a significant step forward for Jewish education, as it allows educators to identify students who may be struggling with Hebrew reading in the early grades.

MaDYK, which is a Hebrew acronym for Mivchan Dinami shel Y’cholot Kriah [Dynamic Test of Reading Skills], promotes a proactive approach to screening, assessment and intervention for Hebrew reading difficulties, allowing Jewish day schools to move away from approaches that rely solely on remediation.

“Students are tested at minimum three times per year and receive an oral reading fluency score,” explained Elana Weinberger, PhD, research fellow at the Institute. “These scores can assist educators in making decisions about further assessment and intervention needs.”

MaDYK will be implemented in ten pilot schools during the 2010-11 academic year.

“Never before have teachers, administrators and parents been able to compare student performance to national and local norms on a dynamic measure of Hebrew reading,” said Scott J. Goldberg, PhD, director of the Institute and one of MaDYK’s lead developers. “The measure is a product of our strong partnership between schools and the university.”

MaDYK is currently available for use with first and second grade students learning Hebrew in Jewish day schools. Additional measures for kindergarten and the third grade are in development as well. For more information about MaDYK and the Institute for University-School Partnership visit www.yu.edu/schoolpartnership.

Google Employee and Yeshiva Alumnus Speaks about Career Path at Computer Science Club Event

On November 16, more than 150 Yeshiva University students flocked to Furst Hall to get the scoop on robotics, software development and how Google features like G-chat and spam filters work from Dr. Chanoch Goldfeder, a software engineer at Google. Goldfeder, a graduate of Yeshiva College, delivered a presentation entitled “From Email to Gmail (with a detour through robotics),” outlining the history of email, Google’s role in the modern software world and the basics about robotics. He also spoke about the academic and professional path that led him to Google.

“I wanted to have an event that would appeal to the whole student body, not just computer science majors,” said Toviah Moldwin, president of YU’s Computer Science Club, which organized the event. When co-president Ita Goldfeder suggested her brother speak about his career, “I and the rest of the staff of the computer science club immediately jumped on the idea.”

Focusing on the conception of Gmail, Google’s email service, Goldfeder highlighted the qualities that distinguished it from standard email services at the time. Many aspects of the service, such as its huge storage capacity, threaded views, fast searches, spam filters and g-chat, were all revolutionary when introduced and immediately ensured the service’s massive popularity. “We first launched Gmail on April 1, 2004,” recalled Goldfeder, “which was a mistake. People just thought it was a joke.”

Goldfeder sprinkled his energetic presentation with fun facts about Google (“Did you know that Israel is the only country outside the United States in which Google has more than one location?”) and its subsidiaries (“Every minute, twenty-four hours of video are uploaded to YouTube”). He also encouraged current students to consider the field of software development, citing the constant energy and excitement that pervades companies like Google. “Billions of emails are sent every day with Gmail,” said Goldfeder, “so we see one-in-a-million issues every few hours. Not a day goes by that we don’t find something we’ve never seen before.”

Those who could answer trivia questions about petabytes and checksums were rewarded with Google-sponsored paraphernalia, including Google t-shirts, water bottles, notebooks and stuffed animals.

After his general presentation, Goldfeder spent some time describing his own path from Yeshiva to Google, and how current students could replicate his success. “How do you get from YU to Google, or Microsoft, or IBM or another software company?” he asked. “Major in math. Or computer science. Or better, both.” Goldfeder concluded with a question-and-answer session, discussing issues raised by the audience and through a Web site which allowed students to submit questions beforehand.

“Dr. Goldfeder was a polished and entertaining speaker and he did a brilliant job of making his speech equally interesting and accessible to computer science majors and to those with no particular background,” said Chaim Yehuda Hollander, YC ’10.

“We plan to hold more of these types of events in the future, hopefully with similar success,” said Moldwin. “We are also considering inviting people to speak on topics like computer security, digital music and all sorts of cool stuff.”

Learn more about mathematics and computer science at YU here.

The Tradition of the Chanukah Dinner in Building Yeshiva University

(By Shulamit Berger)

Large Hebrew letters boldly crowned Yeshiva’s advertisement in the New York Times on November 8, 1928, an early instance of Hebrew characters gracing that venerable publication:
“זה היום עשה ד’ נגילה ונשמחה בו”

‘”This is the day that the Lord hath made: let us be glad and rejoice thereon.’—Psalms 118:24.” A similar ad in the Yiddish press proclaimed:

“והבית הזה יהיה עליון…”

And this House shall be elevated – Kings I, 9:8.

Both ads announced the Chanukat HaBayit, the dedication, of the new Yeshiva College building, the first step in the creation of the Washington Heights campus. The dedication ceremonies were scheduled for December 9, 1928, followed by a Chanukah banquet four days later. The ads, and the Biblical verses they quote, invoke the Temple, the ancient Bet Mikdash in Jerusalem, in describing the new building. The choice of Chanukah for the dedication ceremonies and dinner was deliberate and symbolic.  As the ad states, “Chanukah, the Feast of Lights, when the Maccabees rededicated the Temple after the historic victory over their Greek adversaries, will witness the dedication of a new Temple devoted to the service of God, the study of the Torah, Jewish philosophy, the sciences and American institutions.”

The inauguration of the magnificent new edifice marked the move uptown from the impoverished, overcrowded, immigrant neighborhood of the Lower East Side to the then bucolic Washington Heights.  It also launched a new era in the life of the institution – the addition of a new college of liberal arts and sciences to the Yeshiva. Read full article at the YU Libraries blog.

Jewish Day School Principals Take Part in On Campus Chinuch Recruitment at Yeshiva University

Jewish day school principals and administrators from across North America convened at Yeshiva University on November 15 for a day of On Campus Chinuch [education] Recruitment. The event, organized by YU’s Institute for University-School Partnership, a division of the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, in conjunction with the Center for the Jewish Future, was generously funded by the Jim Joseph Foundation as part of the Jim Joseph Foundation Education Initiative.

Educators spent the day networking with their peers, touring the YU Manhattan campuses and interviewing both Yeshiva College and Stern College for Women students interested in exploring careers in Jewish education.

“This is one of several efforts to professionalize the field of Jewish education,” said Scott J. Goldberg, PhD, director of the Institute for University-School Partnership. “Our best and brightest students should not only be recruited by the top accounting and business firms on campus but also by the day schools that are at the center of Jewish communities around North America.”

The day also included a professional development workshop with Dr. Jeffrey Glanz, Raine and Stanley Silverstein Chair in Professional Ethics and Values at YU, on “Cutting Edge Strategies for School Wide Improvement” and a Chinuch Job Fair, attended by more than 100 students.

“These students are on the cutting edge of how kids learn today,” said Dr. Roni Raab, head of school at Miami Beach’s RASG Hebrew Academy. “They are hungry for, and excited to, educate and inspire the next generation of Jewish children.”

Rabbi Avery Joel, dean of students at Cleveland’s Fuchs Mizrachi School, was equally impressed. “It was inspiring to see some of the future stars of Jewish education. YU students represent the values that we seek to inculcate in our students. They serve as wonderful role models for our students as to how to live lives full of kedusha [sanctity] while engaged in, and positively influencing, the rest of the world.”

To learn more about the Institute for University-School Partnership visit www.yu.edu/schoolpartnership.

Faculty Book Party Celebrates 29 Books Published in 2009-2010

Faculty authors mingled with colleagues, students, alumni and others at a celebration honoring 29 newly-published books by 26 full-time undergraduate professors, held in Stern College for Women’s Jerome and Geraldine Schottenstein Residence Hall on November 15.

“When Dr. John Fousek and I embarked on this project with the collaboration of Deans Eichler and Ginzberg, we knew the list of publications would be of great substance, but thought it would be relatively small, reflecting the size of our three undergraduate schools,” said Dr. Karen Bacon, The Dr. Monique C. Katz Dean of Stern College. “But we were very wrong. Twenty-six book authors is truly remarkable.

“It’s also noteworthy that in teaching undergraduates, our faculty members have committed themselves to instilling within the next generation the very same skills that lead to their own creative scholarship,” added Bacon.

More than 80 people attended the event, where faculty books ranging in subject from business to bible, mathematics to poetry, and Judaic studies to contemporary politics were on display and available for purchase. All books were published in the last two years.

“It was a very special occasion, really demonstrating what makes Yeshiva University a special place,” said Dr. Fousek, an academic advisor at Stern College, who coordinated the event along with the undergraduate deans. “The range of fields, both in the books and in the gathering, was extraordinary by any measure.”

See the full list of publications here.

On November 15, Dr. Michael Berenbaum addressed students at both Yeshiva University High Schools (YUHS) in connection with Names, Not Numbers, an oral history project and curriculum in which students research, interview and film Holocaust survivors. Berenbaum is the author and editor of 18 books and co-produced One Survivor Remembers: The  Gerda  Weissmann  Klein Story, a film which was recognized with an Academy award, an Emmy Award and the Cable Ace Award. He was the chief historical consultant for Last Days, which also won an Academy Award in 1998.  Berenbaum is perhaps best known for his work as research deputy director of the President’s Commission on the Holocaust, project director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and director of the USHMM’s Holocaust Research Institute.

[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/16892459[/vimeo]

Created in 2003 by Tova Rosenberg, director of Hebrew language studies at YUHS, Names, Not Numbers teaches students the skills they need to interview and film an oral history of Holocaust survivors, resulting in a documentary film, Names, Not Numbers, and a second, “making of” film, Names, Not Numbers: A Movie in the Making. Previous years have featured training sessions from journalists such as Joseph Berger from The New York Times, Gary Rosenblatt from The Jewish Week and CBS news producer, Stephanie Cassell.

To date, over 360 students and 160 survivors and World War II veterans throughout North America have participated in the program, for which Rosenberg was awarded the Baumel Award for Excellence in Jewish Studies in 2004.