Jan 7, 2009 — The following is a message that President Richard M. Joel circulated to the alumni community in Israel:

Dear Alumni,

I want to communicate with you on behalf of all the students, faculty and alumni of YU. Although we are far from you, we are not distant. We know you are again enduring the incredible pain of war and uncertainty, as you and your children are forced to fight to protect and sustain the Jewish State. Here there is precious little we can do but provide moral support, advocate within our communities and have you and the medina in our tefillot.

Our students have been involved in multiple rallies, we are in touch with our elected representatives, we have held and continue to hold Tehillim gatherings daily in our batei midrash. We are sending a mission of students to Israel this week, are in touch with the 700 plus students learning in Yeshivot and Seminaries, and many of us, as parents with children learning in Israel, also consume every news report.

Please know that you are in our thoughts and our hearts. Esther and I will hopefully see many of you next week in Jerusalem.

Richard M. Joel

Dec 2, 2008 — There exist moments in time that shock us to our core, that force us to stop and question the very essence of our humanity. Unfortunately, today is one of those times. We are diminished by the brutal killings of almost 200 men, women and children in Mumbai. Today we bury the six victims of the attack at the Chabad House, including Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and Rivkah Holtzberg, the Chabad couple who managed the center. Today two young children bury their parents.

This past summer a delegation of Yeshiva University students traveled to India as part of a course on Perspectives on Global Health arranged by our Institute for Public Health Sciences. They were blessed to be hosted by this special family. The Holtzberg family’s kindness, graciousness and warmth inspired all our students. If there is but one light flickering in the abyss, it is the spark of passionate and compassionate Judaism that they shared not only with our students, but with everyone they touched.

Our hopes and prayers are with their family and all the families of those who were murdered in Mumbai.

May their memories be for a blessing.

President Richard M. Joel

Philanthropist David Feuerstein (above) will be honored, as will Elliot Gibber, president and CEO of Deb-El Food Products; philanthropist Roslyn Goldstein; Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun; and NY State Governor David Paterson.

Nov 7, 2008 — New York state’s governor, the Honorable David A. Paterson, will be the keynote speaker at Yeshiva University’s (YU) 84th Annual Hanukkah Dinner and Convocation on Sunday, December 14 at The Waldorf=Astoria in New York City.

YU President Richard M. Joel will confer an honorary doctor of law degree on Governor Paterson; he will also confer honorary degrees on philanthropist David Feuerstein; Elliot Gibber, president and CEO of Deb-El Food Products; philanthropist Roslyn Goldstein; and Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, rabbi of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun and head of the Ramaz School in Manhattan.

The Honorable David A. Paterson became New York’s 55th governor – and its first African-American to hold the office – on March 17, 2008. He has held several offices over the course of his political career. At the age of 31 in 1985, Governor Paterson was elected to represent Harlem in the New York State Senate, becoming the youngest senator in Albany. In 2003, he became the minority leader of the New York State Senate, the first non-white legislative leader in New York’s history. He made history again in 2004 as the first visually impaired person to address the Democratic National Convention. He was appointed New York’s first African-American Lieutenant Governor in 2007.

Governor Paterson’s inclusive approach to governing has won him the respect of colleagues and a reputation for uniting disparate forces toward consensus that benefits all New Yorkers.

In a proclamation issued to commemorate Israel’s 60th anniversary, Governor Paterson noted, “the Empire State’s greatest strength is its diversity of people, including a vibrant Jewish population that shares a wonderful cultural heritage with all New Yorkers and, as home to the largest Jewish population in America, New York proudly supports the State of Israel.”

Governor Paterson, who is legally blind, is nationally recognized as a leading activist for the visually and physically impaired. His father, Basil Paterson, was the first non-white Secretary of State in New York and the first African-American Vice-Chair of the National Democratic Party.

David Feuerstein has dedicated his life to preserving the memory of the 6 million Jews who perished in the Holocaust, both in the national and international arenas. A Holocaust survivor, he serves as president of the Chilean Society for Yad Vashem and established the Yom Hashoah Prize in 1988 to recognize Chilean citizens for their outstanding work in keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive. In 2004, Feuerstein built a memorial monument to the martyrs of the Holocaust, which stands in the Estadio Israelita of Santiago, Chile. He and his wife, Sara, are benefactors of the Valley of the Communities at Yad Vashem in Israel and recently endowed its VIP Pavilion.

Elliot Gibber, president and CEO of Deb-El Food Products, a major player in the egg products business in the United States and worldwide, has longstanding ties with Yeshiva University. He sits on YU’s Real Estate Committee with a special focus on development and acquisition for the Wilf Campus and serves as liaison to the University’s Board of Trustees for space planning and capital expenditures. With Gibber’s involvement, the University has purchased more than $100 million in real estate properties in the Washington Heights area and other locations throughout New York City. He serves on the Board of Trustees of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS). Gibber also served on the Board and as chairman of the Yeshiva University High Schools. His wife, Debbie, is a member of the Yeshiva University Museum Board of Directors and the Yeshiva University Women’s Organization. Five of his children are alumni of the University and his youngest son is a student at Yeshiva University High School for Boys.

Roslyn Goldstein and her husband, Leslie, recognize the duty of the private sector to fund stem cell research and its potential treatments of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other diseases. They support the research of Dr. Mark Mehler, founding director of Albert Einstein College of Medicine’s Institute for Brain Disorders and Neural Regeneration. In 1980, the Goldsteins established the Leslie and Roslyn Goldstein Foundation. The foundation is not only a key supporter of stem cell research but also supports cancer research, many Jewish agencies and synagogues, health care and other philanthropic organizations. Mrs. Goldstein sits on the board of Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and is a national commissioner of the Anti-Defamation League and a board member of both Evelyn Lauder’s Breast Cancer Research Foundation and the American Friends of the Israel Museum. She also founded RB Enterprises, a jewelry design business.

Rabbi Haskel Lookstein is spiritual leader of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun and head of the Ramaz School, one of the most influential Jewish day schools in the United States. His influence in the pulpit and his commitment to advocacy and chesed [acts of kindness] have earned him a national reputation, with “Newsweek” naming him the second most influential pulpit rabbi in America. After graduating from Columbia College with B.A., Rabbi Lookstein earned an M.A. in medieval Jewish history and a Ph.D. in modern Jewish history from Yeshiva University’s Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies. He received semicha [rabbinic ordination] from Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik and Dr. Samuel Belkin at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) in 1958. He serves as the Joseph H. Lookstein Professor of Homiletics (named for his father) at RIETS, where he has taught since 1979. He is a vice president of the Beth Din of America and a member of the board of directors of the UJA-Federation of New York. Rabbi Lookstein also serves on the New York City Human Rights Commission. He has served as president of the New York Board of Rabbis, chairman of the National Rabbinic Cabinet of UJA and president of the Synagogue Council of America.

For more information, go to our Hanukkah dinner Website.

Aug 1, 2008 — A roundtable discussion featuring President Richard M. Joel will be screened this week from August 17-23 on Shalom TV, a free video-on-demand network. The filmed discussion among Richard Joel, Rabbi Arnold Eisen, chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and Rabbi Norman Cohen, provost of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, took place at the United Jewish Community’s General Assembly in Nashville last November.

According to the network, the heads of American Jewry’s three principal rabbinic schools exchange views on the Jewish future, on how to excite the next generation of Jews, and the Orthodox movement’s cooperation with the other movements of Judaism.

Watch a clip of President Joel on the program here.

To find out how to access Shalom TV in your area, visit www.shalomtv.com and click on “Available.” The program can be viewed any time from August 17-23 in the category, “Judaism and Culture” entitled “The Jewish Future?”.

May 17, 2008 — Yeshiva University (YU), the country’s oldest and most comprehensive institution combining Jewish scholarship with academic excellence, will bring its unique message and mission of Torah U’madda, the synthesis of Jewish learning with secular knowledge, to the Chicago Jewish community on Friday, June 13 through Sunday, June 15. Yeshiva University President Richard M. Joel will spend Shabbat in the West Rogers Park area, Rabbi Kenneth Brander, dean of Yeshiva University’s Center for the Jewish Future will be scholar-in-residence in Skokie, and Rabbi Reuven Brand, rosh kollel of The Yeshiva University Torah Mitzion Kollel in Skokie, will be scholar-in-residence in Lincolnwood, and Rabbi Zvi Sobolofsky, a rosh yeshiva (professor of Talmud), will be scholar-in-residence in Lincolnwood.

Other members of YU’s administration and faculty will also join alumni, parents and friends in celebrating YU’s new partnership with the Chicago Jewish community which has the largest number of out-of-town students on the YU campus. The celebration continues on Motzei Shabbat with a Melave Malka at Congregation Or Torah featuring “Jewpardy,” a spoof on the popular program “Jeopardy,” and continues on Sunday morning with the first YU Kollel Yom Rishon and Midreshet Yom Rishon sessions in Chicago.

The visit will also highlight the formation of the Yeshiva University Torah Mitzion Kollel in Chicago. “The Yeshiva University Torah Mitzion Kollel will consist of a permanent cadre of Torah scholars who will reside in Chicago and enrich the entire local Jewish community with exciting learning programs for men, women and youth,” said President Joel. “The Kollel will foster a transformational experience in Chicago and be an incubator for klai kodesh, lay leaders, by attracting young couples to move to Chicago, seeding the community with educators and rabbis to lead and inspire local synagogues.”

The Kollel will be a satellite of YU’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) and will be a “Beit Midrash (study hall) without walls” serving as a beacon of Torah U’madda and Religious Zionism for the entire Jewish community. Guest shiurim will be led by RIETS roshei yeshiva, HaRav Gedalia Dov Schwartz, Av Beit Din of the Chicago Rabbinical Council and the Rabbinical Council of America, and other community rabbis.

“This Kollel represents our continuing efforts to shape the Kollel paradigm and create programs that will enrich Jewish life in Chicago via outreach and inreach,” said Rabbi Brander. “They also represent a vibrant initiative to enable communities to experience the wealth of resources and presence of Yeshiva University right in their backyard.”

YU President Richard M. Joel meets with Israeli President Moshe Katzav.

Jan 30, 2006 — President Richard M. Joel was in Israel during Winter Break continuing his goal to strengthen the relationship between America’s premier Jewish university and Israel.

For coverage in the Israeli media see this story from The Jerusalem Post.

Highlights of President Joel’s visit to Israel include:

* Meeting with Israeli President Moshe Katzav.
* Meeting with Jewish Agency Chairman Ze’ev Bielski.
* Meeting with educators to discuss joint efforts and cooperation, including Dr. Menachem Magidor, president of Hebrew University; Elan Ezrachi, director of the Jewish Agency’s MASA program; and educators at the Melton Center.

President Joel also announced YU’s first Israel Colloquium, scheduled for March 2006, as a celebration of Torah U’Madda and its relevance to life in Israel and the Jewish world. The colloquium will include a formal academic convocation at which honorary doctorates will be presented to key individuals who have made a difference in Israel.

President Joel visited with alumna Rabbanit Malke Bina, founder and educational director of Matan, a pioneer institution in women’s Torah education in Jerusalem. The other honorees are Victor B. Geller, a Jewish communal administrator, author and lecturer; Prof. Moshe Kaveh, an internationally renowned physicist who serves as president of Bar-Ilan University; and alumnae Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, chief rabbi of the city of Efrat and founder of the Ohr Torah Stone educational institutions.

President Joel was the guest of honor at the Distinguished Scholar Applicant Event for high-achieving students currently studying in Israel. This event included a Model Knesset simulation session and a lecture by Dr. Yitzchak Herzog entitled “Does Israel Need a Constitution?”

YU’s first Town Hall Meeting with alumni in Israel was held on January 23rd. President Joel reported on YU’s increasing involvement in Israel and invited suggestions from alumni as to how their former university can become even more engaged in day-to-day life in Israel.

President Joel also met with students in one-year or two-year Torah study programs (including Midreshet Lindenbaum and Toras Shraga) to help recruit for Yeshiva University’s undergraduate programs in New York.

Jun 16, 2005 — Richard M. Joel, president of Yeshiva University (YU), has been elected to the Board of Trustees of the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities (cIcu). The Commission represents the chief executives of New York’s more than 100 private and not-for-profit colleges and universities on issues of public policy.

Member colleges of cIcu comprise the largest private sector of higher education in the world and confer 59 percent of the bachelor’s degrees, 74 percent of the master’s degrees, and 81 percent of the doctoral and first-professional degrees earned in New York State. Founded in 1956 and incorporated in 1972, commission member schools enroll 440,000 students, including 300,000 New Yorkers.

President Joel became the fourth president in YU’s 117-year-history in September 2003.

Other college and university presidents elected to the cIcu Board of Trustees include Lee C. Bollinger of Columbia University; John E. Sexton of New York University; Robert A. Scott of Adelphi University; George Campbell, Jr., of The Cooper Union; Thomas Joseph M. McShane, S.J., of Fordham University; and Philip A. Glotzbach of Skidmore College.

Apr 21, 2005 –
To the Yeshiva University Community:

Spring brings with it the freshness of renewal. Passover teaches us what we can achieve if we are free to commit ourselves to noble responsibilities. In that spirit, I greet you and share some “travels with Richard.”

Thank G-d, there is so much happening at YU, provoked by engaged faculty, deans, students, rebbeim and leadership, that I must refer you to our web site, www.yu.edu for ongoing programs and educational initiatives. Let me just offer an overview of some of the matters on our plate.

I hope many of you participated in an extraordinary conference on the Nuremberg Trials at Cardozo School of Law, led by Prof. Richard Weisberg and Prof. Sheri Rosenberg. It dovetails beautifully with a series of Human Rights lectures, put together by Prof. Bryan Daves and offered by Stern College’s Dr. Marcia Robbins-Wilf Scholars-in-Residence Program.

I am proud to take note of several members of our undergraduate faculty who have distinguished themselves recently through awards and fellowships: Paula Geyh (English Literature; NEH award), David Glaser (Music; American Academy of Arts and Letters award), Jay Ladin (English Literature; American Academy of Learned Societies research fellowship), and William Stenhouse (History; Italian Academy for Advanced Studies research fellowship).

If you are in New York, you must not miss YU Museum’s extraordinary exhibition, Printing the Talmud: From Bomberg to Schottenstein. The museum is a gem and must be part of a visit to New York, or a day in New York.

More and more men and women are participating in our Sunday morning learning programs on the Wilf Campus, Kollel Yom Rishon and Midreshet Yom Rishon — it is a delightful and important way to study with our Rabbinic and Jewish Studies faculty.

A visit to the Resnick Campus will reveal that construction is underway for the new Michael F. Price Center for Genetic and Translational Medicine at the Harold and Muriel Block Research Pavilion. Our deans’ searches at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Yeshiva College are in full swing.

A wonderful, anonymous $5 million gift brings us closer to being able to erect a magnificent Glueck Center for Torah Study at the Wilf Campus. More to follow.
Many of us were fortunate to hear Dr. David Pelcovitz’s inaugural lecture as the Gwendolyn and Joseph Straus Professor of Education and Psychology at the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education, held at the Geraldine Schottenstein Cultural Center.

I so enjoyed a reception this week that paired our undergraduate scholarship donors with their young scholars. Seeing the mutual admiration of students and patrons needs no further elucidation.

Many of us participated in numerous activities that marked the undergraduate Arts Festival and reminds us of our students’ enormous creativity.

A RIETS Yom Iyun brought together faculty from RIETS, Azrieli, Wurzweiler, Einstein and Ferkauf in exploring issues of mental health and methodologies of dealing with crisis situations.

Esther and I hosted a breakfast for faculty and students to welcome Mrs. Linda Hooper, principal of the Whitwell School in Whitwell, Tennessee. Mrs. Hooper will receive an honorary degree at Commencement for her wonderful “Paper Clips” project. Mrs. Hooper brought the tragedies of the Holocaust to an understandable and meaningful experience for many in her state by assisting her eighth-grade students in collecting six million paper clips representing each of the victims of the Holocaust. Her project was developed into a remarkable documentary film.

Finally, over the last several weeks, Esther and I have visited alumni communities in Englewood, New Jersey, Dallas and Houston, Texas, Atlanta, Georgia, Miami Beach and Boca Raton, Florida. A tremendous sense of excitement is generated as we launch a national conversation on how YU goes to the next plane in demonstrating its character as America’s Jewish university in service to humanity and as the university with a Yeshiva at its heart.

I thank you so much for all the expressions of interest made to date. Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liady in his work Likutei HaTorah tells us that we should speak of Passover as marking not just “Yitziat Mitzrayim,” the exodus from Egypt, but “Yitziat Mitzarim” – the transcending of limitations. Many will have the joyous determination to go beyond our limits and together with our students, advance the values we together cherish.

Richard M. Joel

From left to right: Robert Eli Rubinstein, national president of CFYU, President Joel, and Dr. Herbert C. Dobrinsky, vice president of university affairs.

Dec 17, 2003 — Yeshiva University (YU) President Richard M. Joel traveled to Toronto, Canada, on Dec. 2 for a two-day trip, his first official visit to Canada as president of YU.

Accompanied by Dr. Herbert C. Dobrinsky, vice president of university affairs and liaison to the Canadian Jewish community, President Joel was the guest at various receptions.

On Wednesday, Dec. 2, President Joel attended a dinner reception at the home of Robert Eli Rubinstein, national president of Canadian Friends of Yeshiva University (CFYU), and his wife, Renee. At the reception, about 30 lay leaders contributed more than $1 million to launch the Jewish Education Scholarship Program to support students attending YU’s Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration. Under the Three-Way Campaign, which involves students, donors, and Yeshiva University, Canadian cities with day schools are urged to provide scholarship funds for men and women pursuing careers in Jewish education, or educators seeking higher degrees for career advancement.

On Thursday, Dec. 3, President Joel attended morning services at Congregation Shaarei Shomayim and attended a breakfast at the home of Brenda and Brian Medjuck. Mr. Medjuk is a member of the Yeshiva College board of directors. Later that evening, President Joel attended an alumni gathering at the Sephardic Kehillah Centre, where he discussed his vision for the university and the need to expand YU’s role in the professional training of Jewish educators. Recent studies have indicated a shortage of experienced teachers and administrators at Jewish elementary and secondary schools throughout North America, and YU is attempting to address the need through targeted graduate studies and scholarship assistance.

President Joel’s visit to Toronto was the first of several planned trips to Canada. He will visit Montreal next spring, where Samuel Z. Eltes, national chairman of the national board of CFYU, and his wife Lynn, and Abraham Gurman, Montreal’s president of CFYU, and his wife Maria, will host receptions to launch the Jewish Education Scholarship Program in Montreal.