Ambassador Michael Oren Implores YU's Graduates and Community to Stand with Israel May 27, 2010 -- More than 5,000 family and friends of Yeshiva University’s graduates and undergraduates attended the 79th annual commencement ceremonies at The Theater at Madison Square Garden on May 26. Waves of emotion and anticipation rolled through the ceremony as students heard words to live and succeed by, but it wasn’t just the 2010 graduates who were excited. “All of these graduates, and especially the women at Stern, have so many more opportunities now,” said Joan Dulitz, ’70S, who lives in Queens and teaches at Hunter College. “We used to hold our ceremonies in a small room at Stern. I know it’s not the first time, but it’s still so thrilling to be here at Madison Square Garden, and it’s just one more example of how far we’ve come as an institution.” Ben and Dasha Gelbtuch, who reside in Riverdale, NY, and whose son Andrew was graduating from Yeshiva College, agreed completely. “We love being here, and it’s not our first time, either. Andrew is our fourth child to graduate from Yeshiva,” said Mr. Gelbtuch. “We couldn’t be more proud that all of our children have attended such an excellent institution. Our family is Yeshiva, and Yeshiva is our family.” Another beaming parent played an integral role in the ceremony. “On behalf of all the fathers and mothers and family members and friends of today’s graduates, I am honored to offer a few words of prayer of gratitude,” said Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and commencement invocation speaker, whose daughter, Hana Lieberman Lowenstein, was graduating from Stern College. “This unique university has educated these graduates so well in timeless values of Torah Judaism, the thrilling opportunities of a modern secular knowledge, and the ways in which these two streams can be combined.” This theme of Torah Umadda was expanded upon in nearly every word spoken during the day’s proceedings, and the importance of this idea to the state of Israel was made clear by commencement speaker Michael B. Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the United States. “Whenever difficult decisions had to be made and intrepid answers rendered, religious Zionists were ready. And in America, no institution better represents this readiness, the commitment to combining Jewish and secular scholarship, the dedication to preserving Israel and defending its essential relationship with the United States, than this remarkable university.” Ambassador Oren, an award-winning historian who has written extensively for many major American publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and The New Republic, and has recently published two New York Times bestsellers, Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East and Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, told the students that they are the next wave of ambassador-historians, and made it clear that this role means they are not supposed to merely study history but shape it. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Joh3OC1Va6M “Historians are decision-makers because they are confronted with masses of information and from those masses must select the most relevant and compelling passages,” he said. “Whether in Israel or here, in America, you—Yeshiva graduates—will make the decisions and provide the answers.” While he admitted that life after graduation would pose difficult challenges and questions, he said as part of this community, the decision to stand with or even move to Israel was something they would never be questioned about. “Here, I know that you know the answer—intrinsically, intellectually, and spiritually. You have always known the answer….examine any facet of Israeli life—in governance, finance, academia, defense—and you will find Yeshiva graduates. And little wonder. Every year, 600 of you study in Israel under Yeshiva’s auspices, and 15 percent of all of you receiving degrees today will make aliya [immigration to Israel], enriching and strengthening our State.” He closed by asking graduates, and indeed, the Yeshiva community at large, to continue to stand with Israel and to help it rise to the challenges that it has faced since its inception as a state in 1948. With the same emphasis on preserving and expanding Jewish and Israeli heritage through a Yeshiva University education, President Richard M. Joel called upon students to take the University’s new messaging campaign, “Now You Know,” to heart. He stressed that it is more than just a smart slogan, but a challenge to every graduate. “I’m about to have the extraordinary privilege of conferring on each of you your degrees. With a full heart and with every belief I do this because I know that now you know: Now you know the sterling elegance of Torah and its impact on you and those around you.” httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NvVMQj4tzc Fay Burekhovich, Valedictorian of Stern College, spoke of the way that Yeshiva University had provided countless opportunities to showcase chesed [kindness] in its purest form, while her closing remarks echoed Ambassador Oren’s call for Jews to come together as one nation, no matter where they are. “Too many categories serve to separate us; instead, we need bridges that bring us together, irrespective of where we originated, how we conduct ourselves religiously, or even how we act towards others,” said Burekhovich. During the ceremony, President Joel conferred a Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree upon Ambassador Oren; Rabbi Moshe Gottesman, a respected Jewish educator, received an Honorary Doctor of Divinity degree; Alfred Henry Moses, a philanthropist, communal leader and former US ambassador to Romania, received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree; and Zygmunt Wilf, who serves on Yeshiva University’s Board of Trustees and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine Board of Overseers and is chairman of the Minnesota Vikings, received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. Dr. Sylvia Wassertheil-Smoller, professor of social medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and a renowned researcher, was awarded the Presidential Medallion in recognition of her groundbreaking work in cardiovascular disease. “It is really all the small choices that we make day by day, all the small decencies to others during our lifetime that define us as people,” said Dr. Wassertheil-Smoller. “And so, what I wish is that you continue learning while doing work that is meaningful to you, and take the opportunities to do small decencies and large ones when called upon. And don’t forget to call your mother—often.” More than 2,000 graduate students in the fields of law, medicine, social work, education, Jewish studies and psychology, as well as undergraduate students from Yeshiva College, Stern College for Women and Sy Syms School of Business, are being awarded degrees this commencement season.