Dr. Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India, gave the keynote address.

Sep 25, 2007 — Yeshiva University brought the public health systems of India and the United States closer together last week when President Richard M. Joel signed a historic memo of understanding with his counterpart from the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) at a conference, “Diversity and Disparity in Health,” sponsored by YU’s Institute of Public Health Sciences. The newly created institute is a joint project of Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology.

Read President Joel’s Condolences for Mumbai Tragedy

The agreement—the first of its kind between the PHFI and a New York institution—will provide world-class educational opportunities for both entities through interdisciplinary and cross-cultural study and will create unique perspectives on health and well-being to catalyze change in both nations’ public health systems.

More than 150 medical and psychology professionals, students, and faculty gathered for the two-day conference at the Geraldine Schottenstein Center on YU’s Beren Campus.

“Science discovers, medicine develops, and public health delivers,” said Dr. Srinath Reddy, president of PHFI, before signing the memo. “This trinity will be evident in our collaboration.”

Dr. Reddy discussed India’s major public health challenges in his keynote address at the conference. He focused on cardiovascular disease and pointed out that the disease’s prevalence in India varies along socioeconomic, geographic, and gender gradients. Dr. Reddy urged the country’s medical community to influence government to address these disparities by enacting effective policy changes.

“The conference was about empowering diverse people living in disparate circumstances toward optimal health and well-being,” said Sonia Suchday, PhD, assistant professor at Ferkauf and co-director of the Institute of Public Health Sciences with Dr. Paul Marantz, associate dean for clinical research education and professor of clinical epidemiology and population health at Einstein. “The institute’s activities will focus on innovative research and education to inform public health.”

Other speakers at the conference discussed health disparities in the United States. Dr. David G. Schlundt of Vanderbilt University discussed the risk of diabetes and obesity in a predominantly African-American urban area of Nashville, TN. Dr. Olajide Williams of Columbia University described the success of his stroke intervention program aimed at teaching young Harlem children the warning signs of stroke so that they, in turn, could inform their parents.

Trudy Spencer, a Hunter College graduate student, said she came to the conference to add to her professional knowledge. “As a home care nurse, I see how differently patients are treated if they don’t have insurance versus those that do,” Ms. Spencer said. “I came to this conference to broaden my knowledge of disparities that I see every day as a registered nurse.”

The Institute of Public Health Sciences sponsors conferences, conducts research, issues papers, and searches for viable answers to global health problems. This conference, which celebrated the 50th anniversary of Ferkauf Graduate School, was the institute’s inaugural conference and was cosponsored by the American Psychological Association and the Center for Ethics at Yeshiva University.

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Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein (right) and Rabbi Perry Tirschwell (left)

Mar 15, 2007 — More than 120 professional and lay leaders from across North America gathered in New Jersey in March for the annual Leadership Shabbaton of the Association of Modern Orthodox Day Schools and Yeshiva High Schools (AMODS), a division of Yeshiva University’s (YU) Center for the Jewish Future (CJF).

Addressing “Professional Development in Action” over the course of three days, participants devised strategies to incorporate the numerous resources available through AMODS, YU’s Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, and throughout the University to support the educational efforts of participating institutions. Among the many critical issues discussed was the impact that their educators’ serious professional growth might have on their schools and local communities.

In addition to hearing innovative speakers offer creative ideas and tackle numerous educational challenges, attendees had the opportunity to converse with prominent rabbis and leaders,including Rav Aharon Lichtenstein, Rosh Kollel of YU’s Gruss Kollel in Jerusalem and Rosh Yeshiva at Yeshivat Har Etzion. Rav Lichtenstein addressed questions about the value of a secular education as well as hashkafa-related questions.

Rather than render any definitive and binding Jewish legal decisions (responsa), Rav Lichtenstein chose to offer guidelines that would allow the questioners to arrive at their own determinations.

When asked about secular reading materials for day school students, Rav Lichtenstein noted that “the kind of spiritual diet you want to present [students] cannot be dealt with without some consideration of who you’re feeding.” In general, he avoided using categories such as permitted and prohibited. Rav Lichtenstein suggested that high-quality literature, such as that published in the Great Books series, has value because it is “inspirational, deals with fundamental issues of human nature, human destiny, of one’s relationship to the world, the Ribono Shel Olam and oneself.”

On the subject of Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik’s view of high school coeducation, Rav Lichtenstein said “it would be foolish of me to discuss its permissibility.” Instead, he recommended that each community determine for itself which approach would yield the best results in terms of students attaining greater spirituality and a deeper level of Torah learning: “When a community is confronted with [the issue of] having a co-ed school or no school at all because of financial constraints, the fiscal viability of the sponsoring community warrants careful consideration.”

He also stated that the “decision to have separate-gender education should not disenfranchise one or the other of the genders, and that “there is a lot of good work being done within [coeducational schools] and a lot of good students coming out of them and I appreciate and admire all that’s being done by the mekhankhim and administration in those schools.”

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