New York, NY, May 20, 2004 -- More than 2,000 students in the fields of law, medicine, social work, education, Jewish studies, undergraduate studies, and psychology will receive degrees at Yeshiva University’s 73rd Annual Commencement Exercises on May 20 at The Theater at Madison Square Garden at 5 pm. The university will also bestow honorary degrees on Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder, the Simon Wiesenthal Center; Dr. Ruth Roskies Wisse, Martin Peretz Professor of Yiddish Literature and professor of comparative literature, Harvard University; and Dr. Maurice Wohlgelernter, professor emeritus of English, Baruch College, City University of New York. YU President Richard M. Joel will deliver the commencement address. Rabbi Marvin Hier established the center in Los Angeles, one of the world's foremost Jewish human rights agencies, following a 1977 visit to Holocaust sites in Europe. The center has more than 400,000 members and maintains offices throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, Israel, and Argentina. Rabbi Hier is also the founder of Moriah Films, the center’s film division, and is the recipient of two Academy Awards – one in 1997 as co-producer for The Long Way Home, a movie about Holocaust refugees, and another in 1981 as co-producer and co-writer for Genocide, a Holocaust documentary. In 1994, Rabbi Hier also produced and co-wrote Liberation, the first production of Moriah Films. Under his direction, the Wiesenthal Center served as consultant to Steven Spielberg’s epic Schindler’s List, and ABC Television’s adaptation of Herman Wouk’s novel War and Remembrance. Dr. Ruth Roskies Wisse received a BA and PhD from McGill University and an MA from Columbia University. She has written and edited numerous books, essays, and anthologies of Yiddish prose and poetry, including her books The Modern Jewish Canon: A Journey Through Literature and Culture (Free Press, 2000), for which she received the National Jewish Book Award for Scholarship; If I Am Not For Myself: The Liberal Betrayal of the Jews (Free Press,1992); I.L. Peretz and The Making of Modern Jewish Culture (University of Washington Press, 1991); A Little Love in Big Manhattan: Two Yiddish Poets (Harvard University Press, 1988); and The Schlemiel as Modern Hero (University of Chicago Press, 1971). Dr. Wisse directed Harvard’s Center for Jewish Studies from 1993 to 1996. She has taught at McGill University and was also a senior lecturer in the department of comparative literature at Tel Aviv University from 1971 to 1973. She has held visiting appointments at The Hebrew University; New York University; Stanford University; and the Max Weinreich Centre of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Dr. Maurice Wohlgelernter received a BA from a Yeshiva University and an MA and PhD from Columbia University. From 1972 to 1982, he directed Baruch’s Religion and Culture Program, and taught at Yeshiva University and the New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury, NY. Dr. Wohlgelernter also held visiting and adjunct positions at New York University; YU’s Stern College for Women; City College, City University of New York; Bar-Ilan University; The New School; and Manhattanville College. He is the author and editor of numerous books and essays, including Israel Zangwill: A Study (Columbia University Press, 1964); Frank O’Connor: An Introduction (Columbia University Press, 1977); and Jewish Writers/Irish Writers: Selected Essays on the Love of Words (Transaction Press of Rutgers University, 2000). Commencement exercises of Yeshiva University's graduate schools and high schools are as follows: Wurzweiler School of Social Work - May 20, 11 am, Lamport Auditorium, Wilf Campus Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology - May 20, 1:30pm, Hotel Pennsylvania Yeshiva University - May 20, 5 pm, The Theater at Madison Square Garden Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law - June 1, 3 pm, Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center Albert Einstein College of Medicine ­- June 2, 6 pm, Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy YU High School for Boys ­- June 7, 7 pm, Lamport Auditorium, Wilf Campus Samuel H. Wang YU High School for Girls - June 13, 10 am, Lamport Auditorium, Wilf Campus