Mar 13, 2008 -- Yeshiva University cemented its ties with the people and state of Israel when the Second Yeshiva University Colloquium in Israel opened with an academic convocation at the Renaissance Jerusalem Hotel on Wednesday, March 12. The event, which coincides with Israel’s 60th anniversary, honored four Israelis who embody the institution’s philosophy of Torah Umadda. It also remembered a Yeshiva College alumnus who lost his life in the massacre of the Lamed Hey unit of Israeli soldiers. For photos of this event and others during the Second YU Colloquium in Israel, click here. President Richard M. Joel began his remarks to the more than 450 people in attendance at the convocation by noting Yeshiva University’s ties to Yeshivat Mercaz Harav (The Rabbi Kook Universal Yeshiva), the seminary where eight students were murdered and 10 others injured by a Palestinian terrorist on March 6. “Yeshiva University’s links with Mercaz Harav go back to a series of letters between my predecessor, Dr. Bernard Revel [the first president of what is now Yeshiva University], and Rav Avraham Yitzhak Hacohen Kook [the first Chief Rabbi of Israel for whom the Mercaz is named],” said President Joel, who visited the seminary and its rosh yeshiva Wednesday morning. He also noted with sadness the passing Wednesday morning of Erica Jesselson, whom he called “a grand and good woman [who was] truly the matriarch of Yeshiva University.” Mrs. Jesselson and her late husband, Ludwig, were benefactors and leaders at Yeshiva University as well as other institutions in the United States and Israel. This second convocation is part of a tradition that began two years ago when Yeshiva University held its inaugural Yeshiva University Colloquium in Israel. This year, honorary doctoral degrees were awarded to Rabbi Dr. Chaim Brovender ’62Y, ’65B, ’65R, president of the Academy for Torah Initiatives and Directions in Jewish Education (ATID) and a Torah educator who President Joel called “a visionary architect whose pioneering work for both men and women has brought us into a modern era”; Professor Jonathan Halevy, MD, director general of the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem who President Joel said applies “the values borne of Torah and the wisdom of scientific research for the welfare of humanity”; Clara Chaya Hammer, founder of the “Chicken Fund” that today helps 250 needy Israeli families with food and basic necessities, who—at age 97—President Joel praised as “the stuff of legend”; and Dr. Michael Rosenak ’54Y, the Mandel Professor Emeritus of Jewish Education at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem who President Joel said “defined and shaped the discipline of Jewish education.” President Joel also honored the memory of Moshe Perlstein ’46Y, a Palmach guard and scout who was the first American to lose his life in the massacre of the Lamed Hey, a group of 35 soldiers who were attempting to bring aid to the beleaguered Gush Etzion, which in January 1948 was under attack by the invading Jordanian Legion. President Joel presented Shaul Goldstein, the mayor of Gush Etzion and whose father served with Perlstein in the same Palmach unit, with a special certificate. Dr. Karen Bacon, The Dr. Monique C. Katz Dean of Stern College for Women, delivered the convocation address. “Passion sets our university apart from all others,” Dean Bacon said. “No other student body in America debates, dissects, and revisits time and again the nature of the university’s mission in the way that Yeshiva University students debate, dissect, and revisit our mission, Torah Umadda. This is one of our greatest strengths.” The other Yeshiva University Colloquium events scheduled for this week are a discussion between President Joel and Rabbi Dr. Aharon Lichtenstein, the Rabbi Henoch and Sarah D. Berman Professor of Talmud and rosh kollel and director of the RIETS YU Israel Kollel in Jerusalem, on “Contemplating Torah Umadda: Bedieved or Lechatchila”; the dedication of the Beit Midrash at the Yeshiva University Israel Campus in memory of Rabbi Israel Miller; and an alumni Shabbaton.