Students Present Seforim Sale February 3 to March 3; North America’s Largest Jewish Book Sale will Benefit Victims of Sandy
The students of Yeshiva University will present their annual Seforim Sale, North America’s largest Jewish book sale, from February 3 to March 3 in Belfer Hall, 2495 Amsterdam Ave on YU’s Wilf Campus in Manhattan. The sale—operated entirely by YU students—supports various initiatives, including student activities on campus and undergraduate scholarships.
A portion of the proceeds from this year’s Seforim Sale will benefit a shul or school affected by Sandy.
A portion of the proceeds from this year’s sale will also benefit victims of Hurricane Sandy. As part of their #Seforim4Sandy campaign, sale organizers will help replenish a depleted library of a shul or school affected by the storm. Based on the results of online voting, one participating organization will be selected to receive up to $10,000 worth of books and seforim. Members of the general public will be able to vote at www.facebook.com/seforim. The Seforim Sale website will also provide online registries for contributions to assist additional shuls or schools devastated by Sandy.
“The Seforim Sale has always focused on its charitable responsibilities,” said Yehuda Kaminer, CEO of the Seforim Sale. “This year, we decided nothing was more appropriate than helping rebuild libraries damaged by Sandy. We are incredibly excited to be giving back to the community.” Read the rest of this entry…
Yeshiva Alumnus Rabbi Sidney Kleiman Reflects on 100 Years of Judaism in America
Rabbi Sidney Kleiman has seen a few things in his day.
Rabbi Sidney Kleiman, America’s longest-serving and oldest active congregational rabbi, turns 100 in January.
As he approaches his 100th birthday this January, Kleiman is the longest-serving and oldest active congregational rabbi in the United States. He graduated Yeshiva College in 1935, pursued post-graduate work at YU’s Bernard Revel Graduate School for Jewish Studies and received semikha [rabbinic ordination] from Rabbi Moshe Soloveichik, father of Rav Joseph B. Soloveichik, at YU-affiliated Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, before becoming the rabbi of New York City’s Congregation Adereth El on East 29th Street in 1939.
Kleiman has served as rabbi of the historic synagogue for more than 60 years, through the Depression, World War II, and all of Israel’s wars. He has also welcomed many of YU’s Stern College for Women students into Adereth El to share in its Shabbat services as the college opened more and more dormitories in the Midtown area. Kleiman stepped into his current role of rabbi emeritus in 1999 and continues to advise current shul leader Rabbi Gideon Shloush, who is also an adjunct instructor of Jewish studies at Stern College.
Kleiman sat down with YU News just a few weeks before his milestone birthday—which he will celebrate with his beloved congregation at a dinner in his honor at the Museum of Jewish Heritage on January 6—to share his memories of Yeshiva and his thoughts on how American Jewry has weathered, and even flourished, over the past century. Read the rest of this entry…
Students, Faculty and Alumni Illuminate Yeshiva University Hanukkah Dinner
Students, faculty and alumni who embody the mission of Yeshiva University were recognized as “Points of Light” during the dinner portion of Yeshiva University’s 88th Annual Hanukkah Dinner and Convocation, held at New York City’s Waldorf=Astoria on December 16.
Points of Light Dr. Marina Holz and Helen Unger.
“There are so many lights that shine brightly at Yeshiva University. Tonight, we focus on individuals who serve as exemplars of the past, present and future of Yeshiva University,” said President Richard M. Joel, who invited each Point of Light on stage to light a symbolic candle on a menorah.
The Points of Light included Helen Unger, a senior at Stern College for Women, and Dr. Marina Holz, assistant professor of biology. Unger grew up in Cleveland, Ohio where she attended public school before enrolling in Stern College’s S. Daniel Abraham Honor’s Program.Under Holz’s tutelage, Unger’s research in the breast cancer field has won numerous awards, including the Toby Eagle Memorial Scholarship in Cancer Biology and a position in the highly selective Sloan-Kettering Undergraduate Research Program. Unger is also the first YU student to receive the Thomas Bardos Science Education Award for Undergraduate Students.
“I wanted an environment where being an Orthodox Jew wouldn’t be at odds with my secular education,” Unger said of her decision to attend Yeshiva University. “Moreover I value a small learning environment, and the direct mentorship I received at YU more than speaks to why I chose to come here.” Read the rest of this entry…
Yeshiva College Dramatics Society Celebrates 100th Production by Honoring Longtime Member
On December 2, the Yeshiva College Dramatics Society (YCDS) celebrated one of its most beloved members with a reception and special performance of its 100th production, 12 Angry Men.
The play was originally performed by the founding cohort of YCDS in 1965 and is the first to be repeated in the society’s history. Members of that original cast joined other YCDS alumni for the evening honoring Rabbi Dr. John Krug, who first became involved with YCDS 42 years ago as a student actor and has served as lighting director in both a faculty and volunteer capacity ever since.
Alumni Share Strategies of Success at Career Center Event
Should you wear a yarmulke on a job interview? What do you order at that lunch meeting in a non-Kosher restaurant? How and when should you bring up the subject of Shabbat or Yom Tov? These are just a few of the dilemmas Yeshiva University’s Career Center helped students and alumni navigate together during an interactive conversation on November 26 on how to excel in the workplace while staying true to their religious values.
Rabbi Yona Reiss addresses audience at Career Center event.
“We want you to start thinking about these issues so you’ll be better prepared to face them if they come up,” said Joel Strauss, chair of YU’s Undergraduate Alumni Council Career Committee and a graduate of Yeshiva College and the Benjamin N. Cardozo Law School. “The bottom line I want you to take away from tonight’s event is that we as Orthodox Jews have a tremendous responsibility to always act in an appropriate manner, never take advantage and never feel entitled—but we also have a tremendous opportunity to be a Kiddush Hashem [sanctification of G-d’s name].”
The evening featured more than 14 alumni in fields ranging from medicine to accounting and management and representing big-name companies, including Citigroup, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Panasonic North America. Read the rest of this entry…
White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew to Keynote December 16 Convocation; Stanley Raskas, Moise Safra and Diane Wassner to be Honored
White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew will be the keynote speaker at Yeshiva University’s 88th Annual Hanukkah Convocation and Dinner on Sunday, December 16, 2012 at 5:30 p.m. at The Waldorf Astoria in New York City. The University will bestow honorary doctorates upon Lew, as well as Stanley Raskas, chairman of Yeshiva College Board of Overseers, Moise Y. Safra,renownedcommunal leader, philanthropist and financier, and Diane Wassner, national vice president of the Yeshiva University Women’s Organization.
Jack Lew will keynote the annual Hanukkah Convocation and Dinner.
The annual Hanukkah Convocation and Dinner draws nearly one thousand of the country’s leading Jewish philanthropists and community leaders. Past speakers at the black tie gala have included Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (then Senator), Senator John McCain, New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Vice President Al Gore, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, and U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.
Jack Lew is currently serving as President Barack Obama’s chief of staff. Prior to this role, he was the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), a position he held from 1998 to 2001. Before joining the Obama Administration, Lew, who began his career in Washington in 1973 as a legislative aide, co-chaired the Advisory Board for City Year New York and was on the boards of the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the Brookings Institution Hamilton Project and the Tobin Project. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the National Academy of Social Insurance and the bar in Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. Read the rest of this entry…
December 2 Performance of “12 Angry Men” Honors Longtime Yeshiva College Dramatics Society Member and Mentor Rabbi Dr. John Krug; President Richard Joel to Cameo
The Yeshiva College Dramatics Society will celebrate one of its most beloved members when it hosts a special performance of “12 Angry Men” on December 2 at 3 p.m. on Yeshiva University’s Wilf Campus, 185th Street between Audubon Ave. and St. Nicholas Ave. The performance—the 100th production by the school’s dramatics society—will honor Rabbi Dr. John Krugfor his 42 years of dedicated service to YCDS.
John Krug will be honored at the Dec. 2 performance.
For first time in its history, YCDS will produce a play that it has performed before, reprising “12 Angry Men,” the play with which it debuted in 1965. Read the rest of this entry…
Donations, Volunteers Needed in Sandy’s Hardest-Hit Regions
Monday’s chilly morning found 20 Yeshiva University students running up and down a 17-story building in Far Rockaway. Accompanied by Shay Schachter, assistant rabbi of Far Rockaway’s White Shul, the students carried hot food, donated by Chap-A-Nosh caterers, up a high-rise for handicapped senior citizens. “These people have been without food for several days,” Schachter explained. “They were sticking out their hands as if they had never seen food.” Others lacked basic medications, he said.
And while New York and its outer-lying regions begin to show signs of life, hard-hit areas like the the Five Towns, the Rockaways, Belle Harbor and Seagate will require a slow recovery period—the extent of the damage is simply shocking. “Most people don’t realize just how devastating this storm was,” said Schachter ’11R, ’11A. “I met with FEMA agents yesterday in Far Rockaway and they themselves were speechless about the amount of damage they saw. And even just in my shul—homes, businesses, hundreds of thousands of dollars, all lost. We’re getting constant calls for emergency medical care and it’s a miracle we’ve been able to respond in time to all.” Read the rest of this entry…
Executives and Entrepreneurs Offer Insight to Israel’s Economic Success at Sy Syms Event
The line is nearly as old as the State of Israel itself: How do you make a small fortune in Israel? Start with a big one.
However today, in an era of widespread global recession, Israel’s soaring economy is no joke. With a low unemployment rate, 10 times more companies being created per capita than the United States, and more businesses traded on NASDAQ stock exchange than any country except the United States and China, Israel offers more opportunities to make a small fortune—or a big one—than ever before. At an October 24 event presented by Yeshiva University’s Sy Syms School of Business titled “Understanding Israeli Entrepreneurial Success,” veteran Israeli CEOs Jonathan Medved and Nadav Kidron offered American Jews an updated perspective on their homeland.
“We see Israel as a place we go to be inspired, to pursue spiritual opportunities we may not find elsewhere,” said Charlie Harary, clinical professor of management and entrepreneurship at Sy Syms and director of the school’s new Leading with Meaning initiative, which organized the event. “Few of us really understand that Israel also plays a big role in the world’s economy.” Read the rest of this entry…
Four Yeshiva University Alumni Share Their Journeys
Daniel Rosen is going places.
More specifically, he’s riding the shuttle from his Cambridge apartment to the Harvard Medical School campus and back every day. It’s a half-hour trip, but Rosen isn’t just looking to pass the time. During his commute, he tunes into an online broadcast of a daily shiur delivered by Rabbi Zvi Sobolofsky, a rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University. Both the shuttle and the shiur bring him a little closer to his dream. “I want to be the best doctor I can possibly be, a strong community leader, someone who is very involved in the Jewish and scientific communities at large, and who will make a lasting contribution,” said Rosen.
Professionally and spiritually, these are journeys he, along with three other new graduates featured in an ad campaign YU launched last week, began as students here. Read the rest of this entry…
