Message From Our President
Dear Students, Faculty, Staff and Friends,
I am pleased to present to you this Guide to our plans for the upcoming fall semester and reopening of our campuses. In form and in content, this coming semester will be like no other. We will live differently, work differently and learn differently. But in its very difference rests its enormous power.
The mission of Yeshiva University is to enrich the moral, intellectual and spiritual development of each of our students, empowering them with the knowledge and abilities to become people of impact and leaders of tomorrow. Next year’s studies will be especially instrumental in shaping the course of our students’ lives. Character is formed and developed in times of deep adversity. This is the kind of teachable moment that Yeshiva University was made for. As such, we have developed an educational plan for next year that features a high-quality student experience and prioritizes personal growth during this Coronavirus era. Our students will be able to work through the difficulties, issues and opportunities posed by our COVID-19 era with our stellar rabbis and faculty, as well as their close friends and peers at Yeshiva.
To develop our plans for the fall, we have convened a Scenario Planning Task Force made up of representatives across the major areas of our campus. Their planning has been guided by the latest medical information, government directives, direct input from our rabbis, faculty and students, and best practices from industry and university leaders across the country. I am deeply thankful to our task force members and all who supported them for their tireless work in addressing the myriad details involved in bringing students back to campus and restarting our educational enterprise.
In concert with the recommendations from our task force, I am announcing today that our fall semester will reflect a hybrid model. It will allow many students to return in a careful way by incorporating online and virtual learning with on-campus classroom instruction. It also enables students who prefer to not be on campus to have a rich student experience by continuing their studies online and benefitting from a full range of online student services and extracurricular programs.
In bringing our students back to campus, safety is our first priority. Many aspects of campus life will change for this coming semester. Gatherings will be limited, larger courses will move completely online. Throughout campus everyone will need to adhere to our medical guidelines, including social distancing, wearing facemasks, and our testing and contact tracing policies. Due to our focus on minimizing risk, our undergraduate students will begin the first few weeks of the fall semester online and move onto the campus after the Jewish holidays. This schedule will limit the amount of back and forth travel for our students by concentrating the on-campus component of the fall semester to one consecutive segment.
Throughout our planning, we have used the analogy of a dimmer switch. Reopening our campuses will not be a simple binary, like an on/off light switch, but more like a dimmer in which we have the flexibility to scale backwards and forwards to properly respond as the health situation evolves. It is very possible that some plans could change, depending upon the progression of the virus and/or applicable state and local government guidance.
Before our semester begins, we will provide more updates reflecting our most current guidance. Please check our website, yu.edu/fall2020 for regular updates. We understand that even after reading through this guide, you might have many additional questions, so we will be posting an extensive FAQ section online as well. Additionally, we will also be holding community calls for faculty, students, staff and parents over the next couple of months.
Planning for the future during this moment has certainly been humbling. This Coronavirus has reminded us time and time again of the lessons from our Jewish tradition that we are not in full control of our circumstances. But our tradition also teaches us that we are in control of our response to our circumstances. Next semester will present significant challenges and changes. There will be some compromises and minor inconveniences--not every issue has a perfect solution. But faith and fortitude, mutual cooperation and resilience are essential life lessons that are accentuated during this period. And if we all commit to respond with graciousness, kindness, and love, we can transform new campus realities into profound life lessons for our future.
Deeply rooted in our Jewish values and forward focused in preparing for the careers and competencies of the future, we journey together with you, our Yeshiva University community, through these uncharted waters. Next year will be a formative year in the lives of our students, and together we will rise to the moment so that our students will emerge stronger and better prepared to be leaders of the world of tomorrow.
Best Wishes,
Ari Berman
Users from anywhere in the world will now be able to listen on their mobile devices to more than 180,000 shiurim [lectures] and over 2,000 male and female speakers affiliated with YU.
According to Rabbi Yaakov Glasser, the David Mitzner Dean of the Center for the Jewish Future (CJF) and University Life at Yeshiva University, “YUTorah is a beis midrash [study hall] like no other, a collection that we’ve never seen in the history of the Jewish people because it literally is interconnecting Torah learning communities all over the world under one virtual roof across a diverse array of speakers for people to come and engage. Most important, beyond the quantitative power of Talmud Torah, it’s a platform to host hundreds of independent interconnected Torah communities.”
“It is impossible to properly assess the Katz family’s enormous contribution to the international Torah world,” noted Rabbi Shay Schachter, rosh bais medrash [study program leader] at Young Israel of Woodmere, New York. “YUTorah is a platform that perpetually inspires millions across the globe and allows listeners to experience a sense of connection that they’ve never felt before. I've met listeners from South Africa, New Zealand and Australia who have expressed that YUTorah serves as the sole spiritual lifeline to their communities. It is the most humbling privilege to be a small part of this sacred endeavor, and I am eternally grateful to the entire Katz family for their amazing generosity and for their global vision for the Jewish people.”
The app allows users to search for speakers, create personalized preferences and adjust the speed of the speakers. Other features include the ability to return to different shiurim at different times, exactly where the user left them off, and to sort by thousands of different categories, venue, speaker, topic and parsha [portion of the Torah].
Rabbi Glasser described the app as “connecting the individual Jew to some of the most inspiring, substantive and life-transforming Talmud Torah available in the world. YUTorah was created thanks to the vision of Marcos and Adina Katz. Their vision was that they saw, long before others did, that in the future people would harness the power of the internet and that that interconnectivity would not just be for commerce and information but also for spiritual growth and connecting to our yeshiva. And they believed in the power of the unique message and substance of the Torah of Yeshiva University as relevant and resonant to the rest of the world.”
On Sunday, March 3, 2019, CJF will officially launch the Marcos and Adina Katz YUTorah App with a special event titled “Talmud Torah in the 21st Century.” The event will begin at 9:30 a.m. with a shiur [lecture] from Rav Hershel Schachter, rosh yeshiva [head of yeshiva] and rosh kollel [head of kollel] at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) and one of the most sought-after speakers in the YUTorah collection.
The event will also feature a panel on the future of Torah learning including Rabbi Aryeh Lebowitz (senior magid shiur [lecturer] at Lander’s College for Men, the incoming director of the semikha [rabbinic ordination] program at RIETS and rabbi of Beis Haknesses of North Woodmere, New York), Mrs. Chaya Batya Neugroschl (head of school for the Samuel H. Wang Yeshiva University High School for Girls), Rabbi Shay Schachter and Rabbi Moshe Tzvi Weinberg (rebbe [teacher] and mashgiach ruchani [spiritual supervisor] of the Stone Beit Midrash Program and mashpia [spiritual mentor] for the Congregation Beth Abraham of Bergenfield, New Jersey).
Please register at 
