Yeshiva University Personalities to Speak Throughout Toronto Community on Shabbat, March 9-10

The Toronto and Thornhill Jewish communities will host Yeshiva University scholars over Shabbat, March 9-10.

Sponsored by the Jesselson Family Community Grant, the Shabbaton—organized by YU’s Center for the Jewish Future (CJF) —will feature renowned Yeshiva personalities including YU President Richard M. Joel; Rabbi Hershel Schachter, RIETS rosh yeshiva; Rabbi Kenneth Brander, David Mitzner Dean of CJF; Rabbi Meir Goldwicht, RIETS rosh yeshiva; Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff, Judaic Studies instructor at Stern College for Women; Dr. Rona Novick, director of the Fanya Gottesfeld Heller Doctoral Program at the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration and senior fellow at the Institute for University-School Partnership; Rabbi Michael Rosensweig, RIETS rosh yeshiva; and Professor Smadar Rosensweig, Judaic studies orofessor at Stern College; and Rabbi Eli Baruch Shulman, RIETS rosh yeshiva.

“We are excited that the ties between the Toronto community and Yeshiva University have been growing over the last few years,” said President Joel. “We are honored to have the Yeshiva University Torah Mitzion Beit Midrash Zichron Dov in Toronto and hope that the number of students attending Yeshiva University from Toronto will only continue to increase. The Toronto community plays an integral role in the future of Jewish education and we are delighted to be able to spend this Shabbaton sharing the ideas and Torah of YU and learning from such an important community.”

Speakers will spend Shabbat rotating between Shaarei Shomayim Congregation, Or Chaim, Beth Avraham Yosef of Toronto, Congregation B’nai Torah, Aish Thornhill Community Shul & Learning Center, Congregation Ayin L’Tzion, Temmy Latner Forest Hill Jewish Centre, The Village Shul Kehillas Mishkan Noach, and Zichron Yisroel Congregation of Associated Hebrew Schools.

For detailed schedule information about the Shabbaton, please visit www.yu.edu/cjf/shabbaton or contact Stuart Haber at stuart.haber@yu.edu. To learn how you can book a YU speaker in your community, please visit www.yu.edu/speakers.

New Application Offers Users Enhanced Cardozo Publication

Cardozo Life, the magazine of YU’s Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, is now available on the iPad.

Cardozo Life reports on the Cardozo’s activities, faculty and alumni, and includes interviews, articles and insights about current issues and compelling legal topics. Rich with media, the application is created especially for the iPad. Users can scroll stories, watch video, share information and connect to Cardozo Law in a full interactive experience.

Publication features include stories on high-profile initiatives like the Innocence Project and WikiLeaks symposium; links to information about cases and issues discussed in the articles; photo galleries and videos featuring accomplished teachers, alumni and students; information about how the school thrives in New York City through internships, programs and courtroom experiences; links to the school’s Web site on related classes and programs; and a Class Notes section for alumni with sharing options.

Download the free app on iTunes today.

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, left, visited Yeshiva University on Feb. 27

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer visited Yeshiva University’s Wilf Campus in Washington Heights on Monday, February 27. Stringer was greeted by YU President Richard M. Joel, Vice President and Chief of Staff Joshua Joseph, Vice President for Legal Affairs and General Counsel Andrew Lauer, and Vice President for Administrative Services Jeffrey Rosengarten. Borough President Stringer toured the campus, including the Glueck Beit Midrash, above, where he and President Joel briefly spoke with a student.  The YU executives also thanked Borough President Stringer for providing $500,000 in support of the University’s Streetscape pedestrian mall project on 185th Street between Amsterdam and Audubon Avenues in Washington Heights, below. Vice President Jeffrey Rosengarten is at left.

Straus Center Presents Pre-Purim Conversation with Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey on March 5

Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey and Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik will discuss “Religion and Ethics in an Age of Terror: A Pre-Purim Conversation” on Monday, March 5, 2012. The event begins at 7 p.m. and will take place in YU’s Schottenstein Cultural Center at 239 East 34th Street in Manhattan. It is free and open to the public.

Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey will speak at the March 5 Straus Center event.

The discussion is part of YU’s “Great Conversations on Religion and Democracy” series, convened by the Zahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought. Mukasey’s presentation will mark the third talk in the “Great Conversations” series. Previous guests included Senator Joseph Lieberman and Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, chief rabbi of the British Commonwealth.

“I am honored that such a distinguished jurist and extraordinary public servant has agreed to visit Yeshiva and the Straus Center,” said Soloveichik, director of the Straus Center. “Throughout his career, Judge Mukasey has addressed the most critical national security questions of our age. He is the perfect person to take part in a conversation on religion and democracy, and to help us prepare for Purim, a holiday during which we are called upon to ponder how to deal with enemies who seek destruction. I look forward to an intellectually and religiously invigorating evening.”

Mukasey, who graduated Yale Law School in 1967, served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Criminal Division of the Southern District of New York during the mid-‘70s and then as chief of that office’s official corruption unit from 1975-1976. From 1988 to 2006, he served as a district judge in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, becoming chief judge in 2000. Mukasey served as the 81st attorney general of the United States from November 2007 to January 2009. He oversaw all activities of the Justice Department and advised on critical issues of domestic and international law.

Since February 2009, Mukasey has been a partner in the New York office of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, where he is a member of the litigation department and focuses his practice primarily on internal investigations, independent board reviews and corporate governance. The honors he has received include the Federal Bar Council’s Learned Hand Medal for Excellence in Federal Jurisprudence and an honorary Doctorate of Laws from Brooklyn Law School. He and his wife are members of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on Manhattan’s East Side.

The Straus Center is named in honor of Moshael J. Straus, an investment executive, alumnus and member of YU’s Board of Trustees, and his wife Zahava, a graduate of YU’s Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. The Center’s mission is to help develop Jewish thinkers and wisdom-seeking Jews by deepening their education in the best of the Jewish tradition, by exposing them to the richness of human knowledge and insight from across the ages, and by confronting them with the great moral, philosophical, and theological questions of our age.

Please RSVP to strauscenter@yu.edu. For more information, please visit www.yu.edu/straus.

Competitive Eating Champion Kobayashi Discusses the Science of Eating at Chemistry Club Event

Takeru Kobayashi, world-renowned competitive eating champion, shared tips, tricks and stories from his professional career with Yeshiva University students on the Wilf Campus on February 23.

Competitive eater Kobayashi speaks to students at Feb. 23 Chemistry Club event.

At an event organized by YU’s Stern College for Women Chemistry Club, Kobayashi discussed training techniques and health concerns involved in the competitive eating process. He also emphasized the importance of mindful eating. “I’m a competitive eater but also a foodie,” said Kobayashi. “I enjoy food more than the average person. When I’m not competing, I like to focus on the atmosphere and the taste and texture of food.”

As a college student, Kobayashi stumbled on his unique talent when a local restaurant held a contest to see who could eat the most curry rice. The prize: free curry rice. “I ate 5100 grams,” said Kobayashi, or more than 11 pounds. Not only did he win the free rice, but a friend nominated Kobiyashi for a televised competition in Japan that launched his career. Today, he holds Guinness world records for competitive eating in the hamburger, hot dog, meatball, pasta and Twinkie category, and won the Nathan’s Famous Annual Hot Dog Eating Contest an unprecedented six years in a row.

The night included a question-and-answer session with Kobayashi that covered everything from the champion’s favorite foods (yogurt and tofu) to the cultural differences between Japanese and American eaters (portion sizes). Students also grilled Kobayashi about his greatest challenge (a toss-up between eating cow brains and competing with a bear), his hero(Steven Greenberg, recently deceased manager of restaurant 230 Fifth), and the life lessons he has learned in the competitive eating arena.

“I’ve learned how important it is to enjoy the eating process,” said Kobayashi. “It’s such a natural part of being human. When you see someone who is very hungry finally taking that first bite—that’s a great thing.”

As the event drew to a close, Kobayashi helped students devour a massive hamentasch in honor of the upcoming holiday of Purim. Kobayashi donated his speaking fee from the event to Masbia, a nonprofit soup kitchen network and food pantry in New York City.

Kobayashi enjoys a giant hamantasch

“I’ve always been a huge Kobayashi fan and follow him in competitions,” said Yeshiva College student Yossi Aharon. “Having the opportunity to hear from a celebrity on a global scale about his career is really exciting and fun.”

Emily Levine, president of the Chemistry Club and an organizer of the event, felt that Kobayashi offered students an unusual look at the applications of food science. “We brought Kobayashi in to speak because hearing from him is a unique, exciting way to introduce students to food science,” she said.

Sarah Noble, a junior majoring in art history and biochemistry who also helped organize the event, agreed. “It’s something you don’t see every day and the scientific aspect of what he does is just an incredible phenomenon,” she said.

Noble has another connection to the competitive eating champion, though.

“My dog is named after him,” she said.

Learn more about the Stern College Chemistry Club and their upcoming events here.

Alumni Day at the Seforim Sale Features Panel of Accomplished Alumni Authors

Visitors to this year’s Alumni Day at the Seforim Sale, North America’s largest annual three-week Jewish book sale, were provided with a unique opportunity to hear from Yeshiva University alumni who are also accomplished authors. A panel discussion moderated by Dr. Ann Peters, assistant professor of English at Stern College for Women, elicited thought-provoking perspectives on the writing process as well as insights into the risks and rewards of writing about controversial issues.

Alumni authors (L-R): Landa, Koffsky, Diament and Blech.

But, most of all, the writers—which included longtime Yeshiva College professor Rabbi Benjamin Blech ’54YC, ’56R; health education specialist Sara Diament ’96S, ’98BR; children’s writer and illustrator Ann D. Koffsky ’93S; and photographer/dentist Dr. Saul Landa ’65YUHS, ’69YC—relished being able to return to their roots at YU.

“I remember being one of the girls [working] at the Seforim Sale,” said Diament.  “It’s a very warm feeling coming back.” Koffsky, who read aloud from her book Noah’s Swim-A-Thon at the sale, has been back to Stern several times as a guest speaker.  “I come back and relive my youth,” she said.  “It’s cool to be here at the Seforim Sale.”

Although Landa has traveled the world, including climbing to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, he still found it hard to believe that he was a featured speaker at Yeshiva University. His book is A Timeless People: Photo Albums of American Jewish Life. “[Participating on this panel] is a tremendous honor,” he said. “I’ve been coming to the Seforim Sale for 25 years and never thought I’d have a book here.”

As for controversy, Diament lamented that her book, Talking to Your Children about Intimacy: A Guide for Orthodox Jewish Parents wasn’t controversial enough. “My husband said if I’m really lucky I’ll get put in cherem [excommunicated] like Salmon Rushdie and then sell a million copies,” she joked. “I wasn’t that lucky. The overall response was very positive.”

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Blech’s book, Sistine Secrets: Michelangelo’s Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican, however, has elicited much controversy. “Michelangelo hated the pope of his time and incorporated anti-Catholic, even Jewish themes into his Sistine Chapel,” said Blech.

The Seforim Sale is always a prime opportunity for alumni to mingle and share memories of their time at YU, and this year was no different for many visitors. Mordechai Plotsker ’98YC, came with his wife, mother and six daughters. “It was great to show my daughters where I attended school and to reminisce that in this very same room I took my finals. It was also wonderful to see all the enhancements on campus.”

Rabbi Pinky Shapiro ’01YC, a former student council president and editor-in-chief of the Commentator, looks forward to the event every year. “It is an amazing, student-run operation that benefits the entire community. This year’s selections were fantastic and it was a pleasure seeing generations of YU family all in one place. Best of all, you never know which friends you’ll happen to see.”

Kid-friendly activities allowed the littlest participants to get involved. An interactive a capella session with members of the Y-Studs was followed by an arts-and-crafts project led by educators from the Yeshiva University Museum.  The workshops concluded with a storytelling session by noted author Peninnah Schram, professor of speech and drama at Stern College.

The author, Chana Mayefsky, graduated Summa Cum Laude from Stern College in 2001 and earned her master’s degree from YU’s Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies in 2008. She currently freelances as a writer and editor and is a regular contributor to Publishers Weekly. Mayefsky lives in Hillside, NJ with her husband and two daughters.

Wittenberg Tournament Draws Hundreds for Competition and Camaraderie at YU

The basketball court of Yeshiva University’s Max Stern Athletic Center witnessed a transformation over Presidents Weekend as three regulation wrestling mats cordoned off with velvet rope dominated the floor. Excited crowds of high school students, parents and eager fans filled the room as they looked on during the annual Yeshiva University Henry Wittenberg Wrestling Tournament.

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This year’s tournament included 200 wrestlers from the wrestling teams of the Davis Renov Stahler High School, the Frisch School, Fuchs Mizrachi of Cleveland, Ida Crown Jewish Academy of Chicago (ICJA), Kushner Yeshiva High School, Maimonides School of Boston, The Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy/Yeshiva University High School for Boys (YUHSB), the New Community Jewish High School of Los Angeles, North Shore Hebrew Academy, JEC, SAR, Torah Academy of Bergen County (TABC), Yeshiva Atlanta and Yeshiva Derech Hatorah.

ICJA enjoyed a repeat tournament win, earning the Chicago school victories in four of the last five tournaments. The Dominator Award and Most Outstanding Wrestler Award went to Yoni Sunshine from Fuchs Mizrachi. The Champion of Champions Award went to Dovid Greenfield of TABC and the Rookie Team Award went to SAR Coach Roni Simchi.

Now in its 17th year, the Wittenberg tournament has become a highlight for many yeshiva high school students around the country, not just for wrestling matches held over two days but also for the weekend-long festivities. All of the wrestlers participated in a Shabbaton officiated by Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff, instructor of Jewish studies at Stern College for Women.

Yonah Stromer, a junior at YUHSB and winner of the best in weight class, voiced the sentiments of many of his fellow athletes. “I think it’s great that Yeshiva University sponsors the Wittenberg Tournament,” said Stromer. “I love the intensity, competition and the camaraderie. The Shabbaton was a wonderful way to meet people from all over the country.”

Eitan Redlich, an ICJA senior, echoed the sentiment. “I love getting to know the other teams over Shabbat and then competing with them on the mat in a friendly way,” he said. “It is a great incentive to wrestle hard and test yourself to see how far you have come over the year.”

Ben Botwonick, a senior from Yeshiva Atlanta, especially appreciated the work that goes into the tournament. “It is an awesome weekend full of wrestling,” he said. “We do not have that opportunity otherwise. All of the tournaments in our area are on Shabbat so this gives us the opportunity to compete and see what we are really made of.”

It was not just the athletes who found value in the tournament; many parents exclaimed their pride in their children and schools for participating. Deva Zwelling came to New York from Chicago to see her son Jacob take part in winning ICJA’s championship. “It is unbelievable seeing so many Jewish kids so into wrestling,” she said. “This has been a great experience.”

Renee Freund was watching her son, Andy, wrestle. She was pleased that he took up the sport, saying that “he has never been more fit in his life.”

Melanie Santoriello of Riverdale saw another benefit in YU’s promoting wrestling among high school students. Her son, Gabriel, competed on the SAR team and after only one season of wrestling she has noticed that “the sport teaches about focusing and being in the moment. It has really helped my son focus in class,” she said.

Expanded Edition of Bestselling Book to be Released at Yeshiva University

Edwin Black, the award-winning author of IBM and the Holocaust, will release a new expanded edition of his 2001 bestselling book at a special live global streaming event at Yeshiva University’s Furst Hall, 500 West 185th Street, New York City on February 26 at 3 p.m.

Edwin Black will release an expanded edition of IBM and the Holocaust at YU on Feb 26.

The book details the business dealings of the American-based multinational corporation International Business Machines (IBM) and its German subsidiaries with the German government of Adolf Hitler during the 1930s and World War II and how IBM’s technology helped facilitate Nazi genocide against the Jewish people.

The new edition includes some 32 pages of never-before-published internal IBM correspondence, State and Justice Department memos and concentration camp documents that graphically chronicle exactly what IBM did and what they knew during the 12-year Hitler regime. IBM has never denied any of the information in the book and for years has claimed that it has no information about its Hitler-era activities involving the Third Reich.

The event is sponsored by the American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, and co-sponsored by Yeshiva University’s Office of Pre-Law Advisement, Jacob Hecht Pre-Law Society, Beren and Wilf campuses, in partnership with StandWithUs in association with NAHOS—National Association of Jewish Child Holocaust Survivors, Generations of the Shoah International, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, the State of California Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, Human Rights and Tolerance, The Auto Channel, History Network News, The Cutting Edge News, Spero Forum, the Jewish Virtual Library, and many other groups.

At the Live Global Streaming Launch for the IBM and the Holocaust Expanded Edition, Black will take questions for an international audience that has both submitted them in advance or will submit them live during the event. The event can be seen at www.ibmandtheholocaust.com.

Yeshiva Faculty Lead Alumni on Private Tour of Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit

On February 15, more than 60 Yeshiva University alumni traveled back in time to the shores of the Dead Sea, circa second century BCE.

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The group gathered at Discovery Times Square’s “Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Biblical Times,” a traveling exhibit featuring artifacts from Second Temple-era Jerusalem and the Dead Sea Scrolls sect, for a guided tour led by world Scroll authority and YU Vice Provost Dr. Lawrence Schiffman and noted scholars Dr. Moshe Bernstein and Dr. Joseph Angel, professor of Jewish history and bible and assistant professor of bible, respectively. As alumni peered at reconstructions of ancient Israelite homes and studied royal seals from the Davidic dynasty on jar handles, Schiffman, Bernstein and Angel answered individual questions about the artifacts and shared insight from their own research into the origins and impact of the exhibit’s findings.

Bedouins first discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 inside caves near the Dead Sea bordering what are now Israel, the West Bank and Jordan. Written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, the tens of thousands of broken pieces of parchment make up some 900 scrolls dating as far back as the third century BCE. YU boasts several of the world’s leading scholars in Dead Sea Scrolls studies, including Schiffman, who has authored nine books and some 150 scholarly articles on the topic.

For Anne Senter ’58S and her daughter-in-law Jodi ’89S, the night offered a unique insider perspective on a critical period of Jewish history. “I like to take my children and my grandchildren out to events like this to learn things together,” said Anne. “Being led by experts who are so close to the sources on this tour was important to us because the Scrolls are so important to our history as a people.”

For Jodi, the faculty was a big part of the night’s drBack aw: “I had Dr. Bernstein for a Tehillim class in Stern and absolutely loved it,” she said.

The tour concluded with a dessert reception, remarks by Schiffman and question-and-answer session with Bernstein and Angel.  As the night wound down, Schiffman contextualized the significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the larger frame of Jewish and Israeli history.

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“The finding of these scrolls stimulated an awakening to the wealth and breadth of Jewish thought during the Second Temple period,” said Schiffman. “There is an unbelievable variety in the development of thought at that time, yet we also see the continuity in things like tefillin and sifrei Torah [Torah scrolls], which are still part of our tradition today. We can show these discoveries to our children and to school groups and it really hits home that the Israel we talk about in this period is real.”

For Dr. Bernstein, that continuity is an easily missed but critical lesson of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

“We spend a lot of time talking about the differences between Qumran Judaism and Rabbinic Judaism,” said Bernstein. “What we don’t always spend enough time talking about—this is something Schiffman has stressed in a lot of his writing—is the pan-Jewish aspect of so much that we find at Qumran. We spend a lot of time talking about the differences, but if we think about what is the same, such as the notion of saying kedushah with the angels or the interpreting of the bible in certain ways, we really get a much better picture of the things that unified Judaism in the late Second Temple and pre-rabbinic period.”

To learn about upcoming alumni events including the monthly lecture series—featuring a March 20 lecture with Dr. Ari Mirmelstein on “The Pesach Seder and Rabbinic Responses to the Destruction of the Second Temple” —visit www.yu.edu/alumnievents.

From New Master’s Programs to a Certificate in Experiential Jewish Education, Yeshiva University Expands its Offerings

Graduate education at Yeshiva University continues to thrive—and grow. A new Executive MBA program and master’s programs in arts and education join an academic landscape already home to one of the nation’s top medical schools, one of the finest law schools, and leading graduate schools for social work, psychology, Jewish studies and Jewish education and administration.

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In the past year, the University has introduced a variety of new master’s and certificate programs and expanded existing ones, in response to student demand and interest.

Learn more about all of YU’s graduate schools by visiting www.yu.edu/academics/graduate-schools/.