On April 3, 2022, hundreds joined together in the Nathan Lamport Auditorium at Zysman Hall on the Wilf campus in Washington Heights for the launch of the Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks-Herenstein Center for Values and Leadership, “Passover, Redemption and Religious Freedom.” The event featured Dr. Ari Berman, president of Yeshiva University, Dr. Erica Brown, director of the Sacks-Herenstein Center and vice provost for values and leadership; Terri and Andrew Herenstein; Bret Stephens, New York Times columnist and a YU honorary degree recipient; Gila Sacks, Rabbi Sacks’ daughter; and Alan Sacks, Rabbis Sacks’ brother. Here are some of the highlights of the event:

• Dr. Erica Brown discussed the bracha [blessing] on fruit trees, reflecting the potential for renewal and hopeful idealism, for Jews as a people, as a world and as individuals. She explained that that can serve as a metaphor for the inauguration of the Sacks-Herenstein Center, which will grow leaders by promulgating the values of Rabbi Sacks through academic initiatives for Yeshiva University students as well as the broader community.

• In To Heal a Fractured World (p.3), Rabbi Sacks writes, “The God who gave us the gift of freedom asks us to use it to honour and enhance the freedom of others.  God, the ultimate Other, asks us to reach out to the human other.” Gila Sacks, Rabbi Sacks’ daughter, reflected upon memories of her father’s Pesach seder and his powerful lessons about freedom and moral responsibility.

• Rabbi Sacks wrote a lot about family, which he held to be “the most primal and powerful moral bond.”  Though he had many students and admirers from across the globe spanning many faiths, few knew him as intimately as his family.  Alan Sacks offered personal reflections about his older brother’s life, values and legacy.

• Dr. Berman described our contemporary need not only for the fighting Jew to combat anti-Semitism but also for the inspiring Jew to infuse Jewish values into the world, as embodied by Rabbi Sacks.  Such is the model to be followed to heal our fractured world.

• “What morality restores to an increasingly uncertain world is the idea of responsibility—that what we do, severally and collectively, makes a difference, and that the future lies in our hands.” (The Dignity of Difference, pp. 84-85). Aliza Abrams Konig described the efforts of the Sacks-Herenstein Center to support Vienna’s Jewish community by sending a YU humanitarian mission to aid Ukrainian refugees.

• Rabbi Sacks taught, “We are changed, not by what we receive, but by what we do” (To Heal a Fractured World, p. 149). Romi Harcsztark, a Yeshiva College student, described his transformative experience volunteering on the Sacks-Herenstein Center’s mission.

• “Chessed is an act of engagement” (To Heal a Fractured World). Andrew Herenstein described the motivation for his family to support the founding of the Sacks-Herenstein Center and the perpetuation of Rabbi Sacks’ impact upon global Jewry.

• Bret Stephens, in conversation with Dr. Erica Brown, insightfully discussed some of the most pressing issues of today, including religious freedom, anti-Semitism, microaggression on college campuses and cancel culture. He shared his perspective on the war in Ukraine and Israel’s stance in the conflict as he stresses the obligation for moral values to define strategic interests.

 

Bret Stephens (left) in conversation with Dr. Erica Brown