With Milestone Victory, Jonathan Halpert Joins Elite Group of NYC Basketball Coaches

Yeshiva University’s Dr. Jonathan Halpert became just the seventh men’s basketball coach in New York City history to record his 400th career victory on Thursday night, December 6 at the Max Stern Athletic Center—on the same court dedicated less than one year ago in his honor. The YU Maccabees defeated visiting Skyline Conference opponent Maritime (N.Y.) College 72-50, notching their second win of the early season.

YU received an 18-point, eight-assist effort from senior Gil Bash (Tel Aviv, Israel), as the Maccabees shot 64 percent from the floor. Junior Shlomo Wiissberg (Skokie, Ill.) shot 7-for-9 from the field en route to a 16-point, 12-rebound double-double, while senior Dovie Hoffman (Tarzana, Calif.) and junior Benjy Ritholtz (W. Hempstead, N.Y.) poured in 12 and 11 points, respectively.

With 400 wins, Halpert joins a select group of New York City men’s college basketball coaches who have reached this milestone Read the rest of this entry…

Jeffrey Gurock on New York City’s Ever Changing Jewish Landscape

In the early part of the 20th century, Jewish identity was in the streets and the air of New York City—nearly one in four New Yorkers was Jewish.

After decades of declining numbers, the Jewish population in the city has begun to grow once again—for the first time in 50 years—to nearly 1.1 million. Dr. Jeffrey S. Gurock, Libby M. Klaperman Professor of Jewish History at Yeshiva University, shared his thoughts on New York’s ever changing Jewish landscape in the latest issue of Segula Magazine: Read the rest of this entry…

Eitan Kastner Turns His Interest in Zysman Hall into Academic Pursuit

Turning right off of the George Washington Bridge exit ramp onto Amsterdam Avenue can often lead to a similar query for first-timers: what is that strange green domed building?

Zysman Hall blends modern and historic architecture styles

The building, of course, is Zysman Hall, the oldest structure of Yeshiva University which currently houses the Harry Fischel Bet Midrash, the Nathan Lamport Auditorium and the Yeshiva University High School for Boys. Aesthetically, the building uniquely blends the 1920’s modern style of Art Deco—known for sharp angles, bright metals and the use of terra-cotta—with the historical revival style known as Moorish—exemplified by domes, horseshoe arches and Middle Eastern style ornaments. Read the rest of this entry…

Professor Steven Fine Leads Rome Research into Aftermath of Temple Destruction

From June 5 to 7, 2012 an international team of scholars led by the Yeshiva University Center for Israel Studies in partnership with the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma undertook a pilot study of the Arch of Titus in the Roman Forum, the ancient civic center of Rome, Italy. The focus of attention was the Menorah panel and the relief showing the deification of Titus at the apex of the arch.

The Menorah from the Temple in Jerusalem as depicted on Rome's Arch of Titus

The arch was originally dedicated after the Emperor Titus’ death in 81 CE and celebrates his victory in the Jewish War of 66-74 CE, which climaxed with the destruction of Jerusalem and her Temple in the summer of 70 CE. Read the rest of this entry…

Investigating Landmark Supreme Court Decision, Elie Friedman Publishes Findings on 1967 Academic Freedom Case

It was an issue of academic freedom, cultural change and personal integrity—but Elie Friedman, then a history student at Yeshiva College, needed to know more.

Elie Friedman

He originally came across the January 1967 Supreme Court case while looking through years of The New York Times back issues for Dr. Ellen Schrecker, professor of American history at Yeshiva College. Schrecker was working on the most recent of her many books, The Lost Soul of Higher Education: Corporatization, the Assault on American Freedom, and the End of the American University, and Friedman, who had just finished his freshman year, was her research assistant. His mission: to seek out and analyze articles that tracked the battle for academic freedom in universities across America over the course of months and years during the 60s and 70s.

“It was a first-hand introduction to history, not just reading about it in books,” said Friedman, a native of Teaneck, NJ. “I was reading newspapers from 40 to 50 years ago day by day, the same way I read newspapers today.”

But one front-page Times article stopped him in his tracks. Read the rest of this entry…

Conversation with President Joel and Rabbi Genack Commemorates the 150th Anniversary of Lincoln’s Inaugural Address

To mark this month’s sesquicentennial, or 150th anniversary, of Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural address in 1861, Yeshiva University President Richard M. Joel engaged in a lively conversation at YU’s Rubin Shul with Rabbi Menachem Genack, a noted Lincoln scholar, CEO of the Orthodox Union’s worldwide Kosher Division and a rosh yeshiva [professor of Talmud] at YU’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS). The University’s Rabbi Arthur Schneier Center for International Affairs sponsored the event.

President Joel, left, and Rabbi Genack discuss Lincoln at the Schneier Center-sponsored event.

Genack has previously written of Lincoln’s special appeal to Jews: the nation’s 16th president enabled rabbis to serve as chaplains in the Union Army during the Civil War and canceled an order by General Ulysses S. Grant that expelled Jewish traders from several states. But in his YU appearance, Genack spoke of the secular dimensions of what he called America’s “greatest president and greatest politician.”

President Joel prompted Genack by asking, “Was Lincoln larger than life, or was he real?”

“The reason people around the world can relate to Lincoln is that he was dedicated to the idea of the dignity of man,” said Genack. “It wasn’t just a theory for him. What drove Lincoln was a moral conviction—his opposition to slavery. He thought that the founding fathers intended to ultimately abolish slavery. He once said, ‘No man is good enough to earn his living from someone else’s labor.’”

But Lincoln the politician, President Joel noted, could be vacillating, manipulative—even devious. Genack did not disagree. He cited Lincoln’s letter of August 22, 1862, to Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune, assuring the influential editor of the president’s determination to end the Civil War by any means necessary.

“If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it,” Lincoln wrote. “And if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.”

But according to Genack, Lincoln had already drafted the Emancipation Proclamation he would deliver exactly one month later.

Genack, spiritual leader of Congregation Shomrei Emunah in Englewood, NJ, went on to compare Lincoln to Judah, successor in the ancient Davidic line of kings over his seemingly stronger and seemingly preferred rival, Joseph.

“What we look for in a leader is not perfection,” Genack said, repeating a benediction he offered for the 2006 inauguration of Jon Corzine as governor of New Jersey, “but flexibility [and] the ability to admit a mistake, as does Judah.”

As for Lincoln’s humor, Genack recounted two episodes:

• During his time as a lawyer and Illinois legislator, Lincoln cautioned a colleague against trusting the nonviolent reputation of a bulldog kept by a Springfield neighbor. “Now, I know that bulldog won’t bite, and you know that bulldog won’t bite,” Lincoln said. “But does the bulldog know he won’t bite?”

• At one point in the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858, incumbent Illinois State Senator Stephen A. Douglas accused his opponent of being a “two-faced” politician. Lincoln, not famously handsome, retorted, “If I was two-faced, would I be wearing this face?”

The 16th-century Bomberg Talmud, which established the layout of the Talmud page.

Apr 18, 2005 — Printing The Talmud: From Bomberg to Schottenstein opened April 12 at the Yeshiva University Museum.

Photos from Exhibit Gallery

This remarkable exhibit spans five centuries of Jewish history and assembles an unparalleled selection of Talmud texts published throughout the world.

In conjunction with the exhibit, a special symposium “The Vital Talmud: The World That Made It and the World It Made” will take place April 11 at YUM at 6:15 pm.

Printing The Talmud: From Bomberg to Schottenstein succeeds in vividly illustrating how technological advances over time have transformed the ancient discipline of Talmud study by a limited circle of scholarly sages into an accessible pursuit now available to all. The exhibit also examines printing history in the context of larger themes of Jewish history and communal life, highlighting international Jewish cooperation and communication, Christian-Jewish relations, censorship and intellectual property.

As the framework for the entire body of Jewish observance, the Talmud (from the Hebrew term for “study” or “learning”), compiled between the 3rd to 5th centuries, has long been at the center of Jewish learning, and it continues at present to play a vital part in Jewish ritual practice and culture. To this day millions around the world — private individuals, community groups, schools and seminaries — actively engage on a daily basis in the continuing study of this central text of Judaism

The exhibition provides the visitor a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to view outstanding examples of early Talmud manuscripts, such as an exceptionally rare Spanish 13th-century copy of Avodah Zarah (a tractate that was frequently destroyed by Church censors), and rare examples of early printed volumes, including one of the very few extant complete sets of the famed 16th-century Bomberg Talmud, the publication that established the layout of the Talmud page for future generations. Also on display is a rare copy of the Holocaust Survivors’ Talmud, published in 1948 in Heidelberg, Germany with the help of the U.S. Army.

Exhibited alongside these rare manuscripts is a floor mosaic from the ancient synagogue at Rehov in Israel’s Bet Shean Valley. Dating back to the 6th century, this unique mosaic is the oldest preserved copy of a Rabbinic text, and the only example to survive from the time the Talmud was compiled and redacted. Property of the Israeli Antiquities Authority and permanently on exhibit at the Israel Museum Jerusalem, this is the first appearance of the mosaic outside of Israel.

Linking past and present through conceptual artwork, the exhibition features a video installation capturing the excitement and energy of Talmud study with live footage from five continents, including countries from Iran to Peru and from Moscow to Glasgow. It demonstrates the living, breathing human interactions of argument and counterargument that are still the defining characteristics of the study of the Talmud into the 21st century.

Apr 21, 2004 — A tailor from Czechoslovakia arrives in America before World War I, leaving his wife and five children behind until he finds work.

A bookbinder artist from Poland settles in New York City’s Lower East Side in 1947, just after World War II, and teaches himself English.

And a Hungarian family escapes to America via Vienna and Rome in 1980, eventually reaching Queens, where they share an apartment with 11 people.

These and other historical and literary readings of poems, short stories, and skits brought Jewish American history to life in “Bundles Hopes and Dreams: Jewish Immigrant Stories,” organized by Peninnah Schram, professor of speech and drama at Stern College for Women, and Pearl Berger, Yeshiva University dean of libraries.

The April 20 program, held at the Geraldine Schottenstein Cultural Center on the Israel Henry Beren Campus, commemorated 350 years of Jewish immigration to America, when 23 Jews from Brazil arrived in the town called New Amsterdam in 1654.

Each reading depicted the hopes and struggles of Jewish immigrants: from learning English to adapting to a foreign culture while preserving their own native traditions amid America’s melting pot.

YU President Richard M. Joel set the evening’s tone, reading “The New Colossus,” Emma Lazarus’s classic poem inscribed on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. He used Lazarus’s words as a backdrop to champion American ideals of freedom, opportunity, and hope for the oppressed.

Other readings performed by faculty, alumni, and students were:

•“Out of the Strong, Sweetness” by Charles Reznikoff
•“On America” by Sholom Aleichem
•“Letters from A Bintel Brief: Sixty Years of Letters from the Lower East Side to the Jewish Daily Forward” edited by Isaac Metzker
•“My Own People” by Anzia Yezierska
•“The Promised Land” by Mary Antin
•“The Education of Hyman Kaplan” by Benjamin Bernard Zavin (based on the stories of Leo Rosten)
•“The Lie” by Mary Antin
•“Call It Sleep” by Henry Roth
•“The Greater Yeshiva” by Dr. Bernard Revel
•“The Golden Watch” by Peninnah Schram

Peninnah Schram

Mar 31, 2004 — Yeshiva University students, alumni, and faculty will mark 350 years of Jewish life in America at a celebration April 20 that features historical and literary readings.

Bundles, Hopes, and Dreams: Jewish Immigrant Stories, with education as the theme, begins at 7:30 pm at YU’s Geraldine Schottenstein Cultural Center, 239 East 34th Street. The program is part of a yearlong series of celebratory events across the United States and in Israel.

Award-winning author and storyteller Peninnah Schram, associate professor of speech and drama at YU’s Stern College for Women, will lead participants through readings from poems, short stories, and autobiographical excerpts, as well as a scene from The Education of Hyman Kaplan, Leo C. Rosten’s 1937 fictional work of Jewish integration in 20th century America.

The readings will trace the saga of Jewish immigrants to America that began in 1654 when 23 Sephardic refugees from Brazil were granted asylum in New Amsterdam despite the opposition of Gov. Peter Stuyvesant.

Prof. Schram points out that the selections’ prime focus will be on the new Americans and their children’s encounter with the culture of their new country. They also reflect the struggle to educate their youngsters while preserving their traditions in a new environment.

Bundles, Hopes, and Dreams: Jewish Immigrant Stories is open to the public. For reservations, contact the YU Alumni Office at 212-960-5373 or alumdesk@yu.edu.

Jan 26, 2004 — Ellen Schrecker, professor of history at YU, will speak at a social research conference in New York City on Saturday, Feb. 7, as part of a three-day conference entitled, “Fear: Its Political Uses and Abuses.” Vice President Al Gore will open the conference on Feb. 5 with a keynote address.

During the conference, Prof. Schrecker will discuss “McCarthyism: Political Repression and the Fear of Communism.” Her talk will focus on the early years of the Cold War and how American policy makers used “scare tactics” to invoke a fear of communism in order to generate support for US foreign policy.

Prof. Schrecker will be joined by E. Valentine Daniel, professor of anthropology at Columbia University, and Jessica Stern, lecturer of public policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and author of Terror in the Name of God (2003). The session will be moderated by Aristide Zolberg, Eberstadt Professor and University in Exile Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the New School University.

The conference will take place at Tishman Auditorium at the New School University, 66 West 12th Street. Full-time students with valid identification are admitted free.

For further information and to register, call (212) 229-2488 or visit the conference’s Web site at www.socres.org/fear.