Menachem Begin Heritage Center Grant Supports YU Programming Honoring Former Prime Minister’s Legacy
Yeshiva University’s Zahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought received a $100,000 grant from the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem to sponsor a series of programs on Zionism and the Begin Legacy in honor of the former prime minister’s 100th birthday, which was commemorated in August.
Hart Hasten, right, with Menachem Begin
Hart Hasten, president of US Friends of the Menachem Begin Heritage Foundation was instrumental in securing the grant for YU. Phil Rosen, vice chairman of the Yeshiva College Board, and Hasten’s son Bernard, a member of the Yeshiva College Board, also played significant roles.
“Menachem Begin became my hero and my mentor, a role model and an icon,” said Hasten, who along with his wife, Simona, were close friends of Begin for 25 years. Read the rest of this entry…
Stern College for Women Course Places Art and Jewish Thought in Conversation
In some ways, a recent meeting of “The Image and the Idea,” a new course offered at Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women this fall, looked like many other art history classrooms across the country.
Dr. Jacob Wisse, left, speaks to students in the course about the Sistine Chapel.
Projected on the whiteboard was “The Creation of Adam,” the classic fresco painting by Michelangelo that graces the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Dr. Jacob Wisse, associate professor of art history and director of the Yeshiva University Museum, discussed the religious and historical context of the painting, Michelangelo’s sculptural style and his goals as an artist. Then, pausing for comments, he took one—from Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik, assistant professor of Judaic studies and director of the Zahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought, sitting at a desk near the front of the room.
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and Renowned Attorney Nathan Lewin Discuss Landmark First Amendment Cases at Straus Center Event
The First Amendment of the United States Constitution begins with a bold statement: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” How that statement shapes the interaction of religion and the public sphere in modern-day America, however, has been the subject of heated debate throughout American judicial history.
President Richard M. Joel introduces Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, center, and attorney Nathan Lewin, second from right. Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik (left) moderated the panel.
That question and others like it were the focus of a conversation between United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and renowned attorney and Yeshiva College graduate Nathan Lewin, hosted by Yeshiva University’s Zahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought and attended by a crowd of more than 1,200 in Yeshiva University’s Lamport Auditorium on November 6.
Straus Center Presents November 6 Conversation with Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and Attorney Nathan Lewin
Yeshiva University’s Zahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought presents a conversation with United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and renowned attorney and Yeshiva College graduate Nathan Lewin on “Synagogue and State In America: The Landmark First Amendment Cases of our Age” on Wednesday, November 6, 2013 in YU’s Lamport Auditorium, 2540 Amsterdam Ave., New York City. The discussion, part of YU’s “Great Conversations on Religion and Democracy” series, begins at 7 p.m. and will be moderated by Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik, director of the Straus Center. Read the rest of this entry…
Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks Discusses The Merchant of Venice, Modern-Day Anti-Semitism
Hundreds gathered on the morning of November 30 to hear Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks and Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik in a conversation on Torah, law and literature titled “The Merchant of Venice: A Jewish and British Reflection.” The event was the second one of the year hosted by Yeshiva University’s Zahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought, and marked Sacks’ second visit as a Straus Center guest.
Chief Rabbi Sacks and Rabbi Soloveichik discuss The Merchant of Venice at YU’s Straus Center event.
Sacks and Soloveichik, director of the Straus Center, began their discussion focusing on Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. In the play, Shylock’s obsession with justice is juxtaposed with Portia’s compassion, epitomized by her line: “The quality of mercy is not strained,” and continuing: “Therefore Jew, though justice be thy plea…we [Christians] do pray for mercy.”
“Shakespeare here is expressing the medieval stereotype of Christian mercy against Jewish justice,” said Sacks. “[However,] justice and mercy are not opposites. The false contrast between Judaism and Christianity in The Merchant of Venice is testimony to the cruel misrepresentation of Judaism in Christian theology until recently.” Read the rest of this entry…
From O.J. Case to Gaza War, Alan Dershowitz Confronts Moral Complexities at Straus Center Event
As Israel grappled yet again with the complex strategic and moral challenges of self-defense, Alan M. Dershowitz delved into a nuanced analysis of the obligations, merits and dangers of human justice in a conversation presented by Yeshiva University’s Zahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought on November 20.
Alan Dershowitz and Rabbi Meir Soloveichik at the November 20 Straus Center event
Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik, director of the Straus Center, drew on many recent publications by Dershowitz, a world-renowned lawyer and political commentator and the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, in juxtaposition with the biblical travails of Abraham to frame the discussion, which addressed topics as far-reaching as capital punishment, post-Holocaust Germany and Dershowitz’s own part in the defense of O.J. Simpson against murder charges.
Straus Center Presents Conversation with Alan Dershowitz on November 20
Yeshiva University’s Zahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought will present a conversation between Professor Alan M. Dershowitz and Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik on Tuesday, November 20 at 7 p.m. in Weissberg Commons, 2495 Amsterdam Avenue, on YU’s Wilf campus. The event, titled “From Sodom to Nuremberg: A Conversation about Genesis, Justice and Law,” is free and open to the public.
The Straus Center hosts Alan Dershowitz on November 20.
Dershowitz, Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, is a graduate of Yeshiva University High Schools and has published hundreds of articles in numerous publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The New Republic and Commentary. He is the author of 27 fiction and non-fiction works with a worldwide audience. Dershowitz’s most recent titles include Rights From Wrong, The Case For Israel, The Case For Peace and The Case For Moral Clarity: Israel, Hamas and Gaza.
“As the Straus Center’s academic theme this year is ‘Jewish and Western Philosophies of Law,’ I am especially delighted and grateful that Professor Dershowitz, one of America’s most prominent figures in both the legal world and in Jewish public life, has graciously agreed to visit Yeshiva and engage our students,” said Soloveichik, director of the Straus Center. Read the rest of this entry…
New Book Brings Chancellor Lamm’s Timeless Commentaries to a New Generation
Yeshiva University will be publishing a selection of essays based on sermons on the book of Genesis delivered by YU Chancellor Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm early in his rabbinical career. The volume, entitled Derashot LeDorot , is sponsored by the Michael Scharf Publication Trust of Yeshiva University Press and OU Press, and is scheduled for release by Maggid Books, an imprint of Koren Publisher Jerusalem, on September 23, 2012.
Derashot LeDorot (literally “A Commentary for the Ages”) is culled from the files of the Lamm Archives of Yeshiva University and draws from lectures and speeches given by Rabbi Lamm between the years 1952 and 1976 Read the rest of this entry…
Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik Delivers Opening Invocation at Republican National Convention
Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik, director of Yeshiva University’s Zahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought, delivered the invocation at the opening session of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida on Tuesday, August 28.
“It is extraordinary privilege to deliver an invocation at a cherished ritual of American democracy,” said Soloveichik. “The fact that I have been teaching courses about the connection between Jewish ideas and American democracy makes this moment all the more meaningful for me.”
An associate rabbi at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun in Manhattan, Soloveichik graduated summa cum laude from Yeshiva College, received his semikha [rabbinic ordination] from RIETS and was a member of its Beren Kollel Elyon. In 2010, he received his doctorate in religion from Princeton University. Rabbi Soloveichik has lectured throughout the United States, in Europe and in Israel to both Jewish and non-Jewish audiences on topics relating to Jewish theology, bioethics, wartime ethics and Jewish-Christian relations. His essays on these subjects have appeared in Commentary, First Things, Azure, Tradition and the Torah U-Madda Journal.
“Yeshiva University celebrates its faculty and the opportunities they have to share their knowledge and wisdom beyond the walls of the University,” said President Richard M. Joel. “We also respect faculty’s right to their own political and policy views. Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik is a true son of Yeshiva and we are proud that he has the wonderful opportunity to address the Republican National Convention and to spread the Torah’s sacred values to the world.”
Mayor Cory Booker: “Use Your Faith to Help and Inspire Others”
On the evening of May 8, students, faculty, staff, alumni and members of the greater Yeshiva University community filled Lamport Auditorium to hear Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, New Jersey, discuss “The Role of Religion in Education and Public Life.” The event was the final installment of this year’s Great Conversation Series of the Zahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought.
Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik and Mayor Cory Booker discuss “The Role of Religion in Education and Public Life” at the final Straus Center event of the academic year.
The conversation—led by Straus Center Director Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik—bounced around from discussing how Booker’s personal faith influences his daily life, issues regarding the importance of improving education, and the nature of faith in the public square in America. Throughout the conversation, the mayor sprinkled his words with pointed anecdotes, quotes of important figures like the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi, and—to the crowd’s delight—passages from biblical and rabbinic literature in English and in Hebrew. Read the rest of this entry…
