Lawrence Schiffman Will Lead Effort to Create a Unified Undergraduate Faculty and Improved Student Experience at Yeshiva University

President Richard M. Joel has announced the appointment of Lawrence H. Schiffman as vice provost for undergraduate education at Yeshiva University. Schiffman joins the University from New York University where he served as the Ethel and Irvin A. Edelman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies and Chair of the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies. “Professor Schiffman will lead the effort to ‘re-imagine’ undergraduate education at Yeshiva University,” said President Joel. “This undertaking will involve restructuring the undergraduate colleges, creating a unified undergraduate faculty to establish more commonalities and synergies among disciplines at both the Wilf and Beren campuses. The vice provost will work in close collaboration with the undergraduate deans and the provost to strengthen and foster a student experience of excellence and success and provide the optimum environment for faculty scholarship and teaching." Schiffman earned his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Brandeis University and is a specialist in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Judaism in Late Antiquity, the history of Jewish law and Talmudic literature. He has previously served as president of the Association of Jewish Studies and has taught at Yale University, Ben Gurion University, Johns Hopkins University and the Russian State University for the Humanities in Moscow, among others. Students will have the opportunity to study under Schiffman in his role as professor of Jewish studies at the undergraduate and graduate levels. “Professor Schiffman’s reputation as a scholar, his academic vision and his commitment to Torah u’Maddah exemplify our mission,” said President Joel. “His boundless energy, his strong leadership skills and his collegial sensibilities make him the ideal person to further that mission in our undergraduate schools.”