YESHIVA UNIVERSITY REVIEW Fall 2005

YUReviewT H E M A G A Z I N E O F Y E S H I V A U N I V E R S I T Y

F A L L 2 0 0 5 / S T A V 5 7 6 5 – 5 7 6 6

JEWISH LAW STEPS UPTO THE BAR

BALANCING SPIRITUALITYANDHALAKHAH

TALE OF A NAZI HUNTER

JEWISH LAW STEPS UP TO THE BAR

BALANCING SPIRITUALITY AND HALAKHAH

TALE OF A NAZI HUNTER

YESHIVA UNIVERSITYBringing Wisdom to Life.

UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS

Yeshiva College

Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein Honors Program

Robert M. Beren Department of Jewish Studies

Isaac Breuer College of Hebraic Studies

James Striar School of General Jewish Studies

Yeshiva Program /Mazer School of Talmudic Studies

Irving I. Stone Beit Midrash Program

Stern College for Women

S. Daniel Abraham Honors Program

Rebecca Ivry Department of Jewish Studies

Sy Syms School of Business

Rennert Entrepreneurial Institute

GRADUATE AND PROFESSIONAL SCHOOLS

Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Sue Golding Division of Medical Sciences

Belfer Institute for Advanced Biomedical Studies

Michael F. Price Center for Genetic and Translational Medicine

Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration

Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law

Jacob Burns Institute for Advanced Legal Studies

The Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy

Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies

Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology

Wurzweiler School of Social Work

AFFILIATES

Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary

Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik Center of Rabbinic Studies

Rabbi Norman Lamm Kollel L’Horaah Yadin Yadin Semikhah Program

Marcos and Adina Katz Kollel (Institute for Advanced Research in Rabbinics)

Ludwig Jesselson Kollel Chaverim

Bella and Harry Wexner Kollel Elyon and Semikhah Honors Program

Israel Henry Beren Institute for Higher Talmudic Studies (HaMachon HaGavohah Le’Talmud)

Max Stern Division of Communal Services

Philip and Sarah Belz School of Jewish Music

Yeshiva University High Schools

The Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy / Yeshiva University High School for Boys

Milton and Pearl Unger Department of Jewish Studies

Samuel H. Wang Yeshiva University High School for Girls

Yeshiva University Museum

IN ISRAEL

Caroline and Joseph S. Gruss Institute in Jerusalem

S. Daniel Abraham Israel Program

FROM THE PRESIDENT

JEWISH LAW STEPS UP TO THE BAR

Cardozo highlights Halakhah’s potential contribution to understanding and improving American legal thinking.

SEEKING SPIRITUALITY IN A HALAKHIC WORLD

Is there room within Modern Orthodoxy for observance and spirituality?

FROM THE YESHIVA UNIVERSITY MUSEUM COLLECTIONS

Paintings on display at the president’s residence and office.

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Y U R E V I E W E D I T O R I A L A D V I S O R Y B O A R D

Harvey Babich, PhD

PROFESSOR OF B IOLOGY

Edward Burns, MD

PROFESSOR OF MED IC INE ,

PROFESSOR OF PATHOLOGY,

ASSOC IATE DEAN FOR

ACADEMIC AFFA IRS

Rabbi Shalom Carmy, MS

ASS ISTANT PROFESSOR OF B IBLE

Herbert Dobrinsky, EdD

V ICE PRES IDENT FOR

UNIVERS ITY AFFA IRS

Carl Feit, PhD

DR. JOSEPH AND RACHEL ADES

PROFESSOR OF PRE -HEALTH SC IENCES

Joseph Luders, PhD

DAV ID AND RUTH GOTTESMAN

PROFESSOR OF POL IT ICAL SC IENCE

William R. Jacobs, PhD

PROFESSOR OF M ICROBIOLOGY

AND IMMUNOLOGY

Howard Spierer, MA

SEN IOR D IRECTOR , DEVELOPMENT

ALUMNI

PROFILES

EPHRAIM ZUROFF: NAZI HUNTER

His life’s work is the veritable embodiment of the post-Holocaustimperatives to ‘Never Forget’ and ‘Never Again’.”

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF DR. DOOLITTLEJENNIFER SUSS ’97S AND JOCELYN (BREIBART) THOMPSON ’98S

Two SCW alumnae follow a road less traveled.

BOOKSHELF

CLASSNOTES

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YUReview

graduate and graduate students. Such moments are bit-tersweet, for they mark both a beginning and an end.We will miss the class of 2005; through their hope,energy, and talents they have inspired us—the YeshivaUniversity family—to be more devoted and more com-mitted in helping to heal a troubled world.

Against the backdrop of that world, the uniquenessof this university stands in high relief. Our students,faculty, alumni, and friends recognize our institution asa paradigm for melding knowledge, values, caring, com-passion, and community into wisdom. It is that wisdomthat shapes our students, and through them impacts onour world and, ultimately, its future.

That is why I charged our graduating students to

“bring wisdom to life.” And, that is why I implore all inthe YU family to do the same. Tap into the wisdom thatemanates from the recesses of your learning and theexpanse of your imagination. Become our ambassadorsof wisdom learned and wis-dom conveyed so that togeth-er we can make our world abetter place.

RICHARD M. JOEL

from the president n

In May, I performed one of the truly wonderfulresponsibilities of my presidency, as Yeshiva University

conferred some 2,000 degrees upon our richly deserving under-

YUReview

Y E S H I VA U N I V E R S I T Y

Morry J. Weiss

CHA IRMAN, BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Richard M. Joel

PRES IDENT

Daniel T. Forman

V I CE PRES IDENT FOR

INST ITUT IONAL ADVANCEMENT

Georgia B. Pollak

EXECUT IVE D IRECTOR OF

UN IVERS ITY COMMUNICAT IONS

Y U R E V I E W

June Glazer

ED ITOR

Judy Tashji

CREAT IVE D IRECTOR

CONTR IBUT ING TO TH IS I SSUE :

David HillstromCara HuzinecEsther KustanowitzAri MermelsteinHedy Shulman

PHOTOGRAPHY

Norman GoldbergPeter RobertsonV. Jane Windsor

Richard Bieler

SEN IOR EXECUT IVE D IRECTOR

OF COMMUNITY RELAT IONS

Yeshiva University Review is published three

times each year by Yeshiva University’s

Department of Communications and Public

Affairs. It is distributed by mail to alumni and

friends of the university and on campus to

faculty and administrators. Paid subscriptions

are available at $15 per year.

Editorial contributions and submissions to

“Classnotes” are welcome, but the publication

cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited

manuscripts or photographs. All submissions

are subject to editing. Opinions expressed in

the Review are not “official” university policy.

Send mail to: Yeshiva University Review,

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© YESH IVA UN IVERS ITY 2005

3

Jeffrey Swartz, CEO of The Timberland

Company, delivered the keynote speech

at YU’s 74th commencement exercises

May 26 at The Theater at Madison

Square Garden. Mr. Swartz also received

an honorary doctor of humane letters

degree from YU. To see his address,

click on http://spider.mc.yu.edu/

news/_video/keynote.cfm.

Prof. Suzanne Last Stone conceived

and directs the Program in Jewish Law

and Interdisciplinary Studies at YU’s

Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.

n 2004, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law brought thecomparative study of Halakhah into the heart of this revo-lution when it launched its Program in Jewish Law andInterdisciplinary Studies (PJLIS). Conceived and directedby Prof. Suzanne Last Stone, PJLIS makes Cardozo theonly law school in the country with a serious initiative toadvance the role of the Jewish legal tradition in public

intellectual debate through dialogue between Halakhah andother intellectual disciplines.

Still in its infancy, the comparative study of Jewish law waspioneered by Israeli scholars of the modern Mishpat Ivri(Hebrew law) movement who sought to demonstrate thatHalakhah is a “normal” legal system whose structure, sub-stance, and values overlap with those of contemporary Western

legal systems. However, their approach deprived Jewish law ofmuch of its distinctiveness. Moreover, it was primarily, thoughnot exclusively, an Israeli phenomenon.

In contrast, Professor Stone built PJLIS on the objectives ofher own scholarship in Jewish law, in which she addresses anddraws inspiration from specialists in Jewish law and religion aswell as from theorists in Constitutional law and legal theory,political theory, philosophy, and literature. Through PJLIS, sheenvisioned a conversation between Halakhah, secular legal the-ory, and the disciplines of the humanities. This conversationwould highlight the distinctiveness of Halakhah and its poten-tial contribution to understanding and improving Americanlegal thinking.

“By studying Jewish law in light of the other humanities and

Jewish Law Steps Up to the Bar

B Y A R I M E R M E L S T E I N Y H , ’ 0 0 Y, B

One of the most exciting developments in legal thought in the last 50 years is the quest

to understand and improve law by studying it in light of other disciplines and traditions.

Today, contemporary law schools are dominated by an approach to law that incorporates

the insights of the humanities as well as secular and religious legal traditions.

IAri Mermelstein is program coordinator for Yeshiva University’s Cardozo School of Law Program in Jewish Law and Interdisciplinary Studies and a PhD

student in NYU’s Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies. He can be reached at [email protected].

6 F A L L 2 0 0 5 • Y E S H I V A U N I V E R S I T Y R E V I E W

secular and religious legal traditions such asAmerican Constitutional law, Islamic law, andCanon law, we can focus on what is distinctiveabout Jewish law as well as what it can con-tribute to general legal thought. In this way, theprogram’s academic orientation intersects withthat of American legal thinking generally,” saidProfessor Stone, who spent the spring 2005semester as Gruss Visiting Professor ofTalmudic Civic Law at Harvard Law School.She is the first woman to hold any of the sever-al Gruss chairs in Jewish law at American lawschools and the first American to hold the posi-tion at Harvard.

PJLIS has generated significant interest inthe intellectual community. A panel discussionslated for Dec. 7 at Manhattan’s Center forJewish History (home of Yeshiva UniversityMuseum) and cosponsored by PJLIS under-scores Halakhah’s new prominence—and Car-dozo’s standing—in academic circles. Panelistswill assess the legal theory of Professor RonaldDworkin and its impact on the study of Jewishlaw; and Professor Dworkin, one of the 20thcentury’s most influential legal philosophers, willoffer keynote remarks. His participation, saysProfessor Stone, illustrates the depth of interestin the subject and also the sense that Jewish lawis ripe for cross-disciplinary conversation.(Editor’s note: For information about this andother upcoming events, visit the Program inJewish Law and Interdisciplinary Studies Website at www.cardozo.yu.edu/jlis.)

The fruits of this type of interdisciplinary dia-logue were on display at the two conferencessponsored by PJLIS during 2004–2005. In its in-augural event, held in October and titled “Text,Tradition, and Reason in Comparative Perspec-tive,” PJLIS hosted leading scholars of legal the-ory and Constitutional law, Jewish law, Islamiclaw, Canon law, and Confucianism. Participantsexamined the competing claims to authority oftext, tradition, and reason in the Jewish,Catholic, Islamic, and American Constitutionallegal traditions. At the second PJLIS conference,cosponsored and hosted by Harvard Law Schoolin May, group study sessions focused on the legaldimensions of narrative in Jewish, Islamic, Cath-olic, and American legal writing.

However, if a true conversation betweenJewish law and other legal and intellectual tra-ditions is to evolve, the next generation of schol-ars, rabbis, and thoughtful lawyers must beequipped with the tools to participate. In spring2004 Cardozo introduced “Jewish Law andAmerican Legal Theory,” a pilot course on theinterdisciplinary study of Halakhah that Profes-sor Stone and RIETS faculty member RabbiOzer Glickman taught to nearly 30 studentsfrom the law school, RIETS, and Yeshiva Col-lege. In addition, Cardozo recently launched aconcentration in Jewish law offered under itsnew LL.M in Comparative Legal Thought. Last-ly, workshops and reading groups are in forma-tion at Cardozo to help create a community ofyoung thinkers from a variety of academic back-

grounds who are interested in the interdiscipli-nary study of Jewish law.

According to Professor Stone, exposing rab-binical and graduate students to contemporarylegal theory could revolutionize Jewish studiesas well as more traditional programs of rabbinicstudy. “A program in legal theory is crucial forthose who work in Bible, midrash, and Jewishhistory because many of the issues they en-counter are legal in nature,” she said. EvenTalmud scholars, whose corpus of study is pri-marily legal, rarely turn to contemporary legalstudies for insight, she noted, adding that tradi-tional students of Jewish law also receive noinstruction in legal theory and philosophy eventhough much of the halakhic system raises im-portant issues of legal and political philosophy.“The relationship between law and morality, therole of authority and controversy, and the divi-sion of religious and political spheres are staplesboth of secular and religious legal thought,” Pro-fessor Stone said.

Rabbi Glickman, who teaches anothercourse in Jewish law at Cardozo this fall, addedthat “helping students of the Talmud formulateconcepts by providing a self-consciously devel-oped vocabulary would constitute a significantbreakthrough. The language of legal theorywould add an important dimension to our ana-lytical arsenal.”

Although PJLIS is driven by academic goals,it contains a distinct policy component. As partof the program’s policy objectives, Professor

Cardozo is the only law school in the country with a serious initiative

to advance the role of the Jewish legal tradition in public intellectual debate

through dialogue between Halakhah and other intellectual disciplines.

“By studying Jewish law in light of the other humanities

and secular and religious legal traditions … we can focus on what is distinctive

about Jewish law as well as what it can contribute to general legal thought.”

Y E S H I V A U N I V E R S I T Y R E V I E W • F A L L 2 0 0 5 7

Stone hopes to initiate ongoing debate and dis-cussion among scholars, intellectuals, and laypeople on topics of critical concern to the Amer-ican public and, more specifically, the Jewishcommunities in America and Israel. “The dra-matic transformation of public debate due tocontemporary political events, globalization, andtechnological revolution has spotlighted religionas a primary resource in confronting these newchallenges,” she said, citing topics of concern tothe general and Jewish publics that include therelationship between religion and democracy,tolerance, civil society, human rights, just andunjust war, and responsibilities of citizenship.

To meet the program’s policy objectives,PJLIS cosponsors the “Jews and Justice Series”at the Center for Jewish History, which featureslectures and colloquia that explore the Jewishcontribution to the development and practice oflaw and legal institutions. Recent installmentsof this series included discussion on the findingby the International Court of Justice that Israel’ssecurity fence is in violation of international law,religious attitudes towards tolerance, and MelGibson’s film “The Passion.”

Such timely issues will also be the focus of

PJLIS’s inaugural weekly colloquium, “Religionand the Idea of the Secular,” to begin in fall2006 on how public and private space is consti-tuted and defined from both religious and legalpoints of view. Future programming will devoteattention to other aspects of the relationshipbetween Jews and the law, including a confer-ence planned for 2006 that will explore the roleof Jews in the American legal profession.

The historical significance of housing PJLISat YU’s law school is not lost on David Ruden-stine, the Cardozo dean. “Establishing the Pro-gram in Jewish Law and InterdisciplinaryStudies follows naturally from Yeshiva Univer-sity’s vision in founding Cardozo School of Law,”he said. Cardozo is ranked fifth in the country inthe field of law and philosophy by the Educa-tional Quality of US Law Schools 2003–04 sur-vey (www.utexas.edu/law/faculty/bleiter/rank-ings/philo.html), and boasts a faculty especiallyinterested in the interdisciplinary study of law.

“Such a vision embodies the belief that Car-dozo can make a significant contribution to thefield of law given the pivotal role of law in theJewish tradition and the school’s commitment toscholarship and teaching,” he said. n

Participants at the October ’04 “Text, Tradition,

and Reason in Comparative Perspective”

conference included:

(on steps at left, front to back): Sanford

Levinson, University of Texas Law School; Silvio

Ferrari, Facolta di Giurisprudenza, Universita

degli Studi di Milano; YU President Richard M.

Joel; and Adam Seligman, Boston University

(seated in front row, from left): Marion Katz,

New York University; Christine Hayes, Yale

University; Asifa Quraishi, University of

Wisconsin Law School; Michael Puett, Harvard

University; Said Amir Arjomand, SUNY-Stony

Brook; Ron Garet, University of Southern

California Law School; and Suzanne Last Stone

(middle row): Yaakov Elman, Yeshiva University;

and Asma Barlas, Ithaca College

(back row, from left): George Fletcher, Columbia

Law School; Paul Kahn, Yale Law School;

Steven Fraade, Yale University; Arye Edrei,

Tel Aviv University Law School, CSL visiting

professor; Haym Soloveitchik, Yeshiva

University; Hon. John T. Noonan, Ninth US

Circuit Court of Appeals; and Hanina Ben

Menahem, Hebrew University Law School

B Y J U N E G L A Z E R

Seeking Spiritualityin aHalakhicWorld

9

new book in a series that exam-ines the interaction betweenTorah and Madda*—“God’sword” and “God’s World”—ischallenging Modern Ortho-dox Jews to rethink the re-quirements of observanceand belief.

Torah Umadda, thedefining philosophy of Yeshiva University, be-comes fertile ground for debate in JewishSpirituality and Divine Law (The MichaelScharf Publication Trust of the Yeshiva Univer-sity Press, 2005). Tenth in the series, it is a com-pilation of papers presented at a 2000 sympo-sium by the same name under the auspices ofthe Orthodox Forum, a think tank that address-es issues of concern to the Jewish communitythrough conferences and follow-up volumes.The symposium considered a potential clash be-tween spirituality and Halakhah (Jewish law).

The book, edited by Adam Mintz ’84Y,B,Rand Lawrence Schiffman, is a multidisciplinarylook at how experts in the fields of intellectualhistory, education, prayer, and the arts reconcilethe central principles of Orthodox belief andpractice with widely accepted values of contem-porary secular society. Recently, four of its con-tributors—presenters at the “Jewish Spiritualityand Divine Law” Orthodox Forum in 2000—gathered for a follow-up conversation with YUReview and Rabbi Robert S. Hirt YH,’59Y,B,R,senior adviser to YU’s president and overall edi-tor of the Orthodox Forum series. Their discus-sion focused on a perceived dearth of spirituali-

ty in contemporary Orthodox life and ways with-in Jewish practice and learning to bolster it.Following are excerpts from that conversation.

ROUNDTABLE PARTICIPANTS:

LAWRENCE SCHIFFMAN, PhD, chairman ofNew York University’s Skirball Department ofHebrew and Judaic Studies; Ethel and Irvin A.Edelman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Stu-dies; Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Educa-tion and Administration adjunct professor; andJewish Spirituality and Divine Law coeditorOrthodox Forum Paper: “Jewish Spirituality inthe Bible and Second Temple Literature”

ALAN BRILL, PhD, ’82Y,B,R, assistant profes-sor of Jewish mysticism and thought at YU;founding director of Kavvanah, a Center forJewish SpiritualityOrthodox Forum Paper: “Dwelling with Kab-balah: Meditation, Ritual, and Study”

ERICA BROWN ’87S, scholar-in-residence forthe Jewish Federation of Greater Washingtonand director of its Leadership InstituteOrthodox Forum Paper: “Orthodoxy and theSearch for Spirituality in Jewish AdultEducation”

CHAIM I. WAXMAN, PhD, ’63Y,B,R, professorof sociology and Jewish studies at RutgersUniversityOrthodox Forum Paper: “Religion, Spirituality,and the Future of American Judaism”

What are some main points of your paper?DR. SCHIFFMAN: I examined the sources thatI think are really at the foundation of Judaism—the Bible and some of my favorite material thatI work on from the Second Temple period. Isought to extract from these sources a sense ofhow Temple ritual, sacrifices, and prayers weredirectly connected to spiritual experience andwere not mechanistic.DR. BRILL: My goal was to show that spiritu-ality has been part of our tradition sincemedieval times through a wide variety of spiritu-al schools. And, although it has skipped severalvery rational generations—Judaism has pushedaway from spirituality in the modern period duein part to the Enlightenment and 20th-centuryphilosophy—spiritual continuity can resume bygoing back to the traditional texts and resources. MS. BROWN: My paper deals with many of theassumptions I believe we make about what peo-ple should derive from adult education classesbut don’t. Experiential and non-intellectualaspects of adult education can enhance spiritu-ality, yet the Orthodox community does not em-phasize them. People often lose interest inJudaic studies by the time they are young adults.We need to help them [reconnect] by teachingthem with sufficient emotional potency for themto grow spiritually.DR. WAXMAN: There is a difference between[the popular conceptions of] religion and spiritu-ality in American society. While in America spir-ituality has definitely increased—people lookingfor answers beyond what is empirically observ-able—that is not the same as religion, and par-

Spirituality vs. religious doctrine is a topic ofheated debate in many religions. A new book in a series that addresses issues of concern to theJewish community tackles the issue head on.

* Torah Umadda is the name of the philosophy that, within the spectrum of Orthodox Judaism, perceives the relationship between Jewish and general studies as symbiotic. It is the

foundation upon which Yeshiva University was established.

A

1 0 F A L L 2 0 0 5 • Y E S H I V A U N I V E R S I T Y R E V I E W

ticularly not the same as Orthodoxy. Althoughthere has been a significant increase in religionand spirituality in general—and in particularamong American Jews—that hasn’t necessarilymeant an increased religious commitment.

What practical applications do your findings have?DR. SCHIFFMAN: I believe that there is a seri-ous question of whether or not a sense of a con-nection to God—to something beyond ourselves—exists as we do a variety of rituals. While you’remaking Kiddush [the blessing over wine], for ex-ample, you may be thinking that, yes, God tookus out of Egypt [mentioned in Kiddush], andthat’s important to know. But there may be noconnection or emotion of any kind. It could be-

come a non-spiritual religious experience. Juda-ism, in its origins, placed great emphasis on spir-ituality in one’s religious life. And having lost it,for many of us we ought to be bringing it back.DR. WAXMAN: [I’m not speaking of] a spiritu-ality that is personalistic or individualisticthrough which people try to find what’s mean-ingful for themselves. That does not involve anycommitment. I am talking about a spiritualitythat has significance to one’s life to the extentthat it involves commitment—to tradition, toinstitutions, and to the group. To the extent thatit involves a connection between spirituality andcommitment.MS. BROWN: We have placed such an empha-sis on text, on intellectual development, on akind of Maimonidean rationalism, that we’re notstrengthening core experiential aspects ofJudaism in elementary and high school and alsoin adult education.DR. BRILL: Spirituality needs to be taught aspart of the school curriculum in an age-appro-

priate way starting in eighth grade [to begin] theprocess of softening the souls. Spirituality needsto be a fundamental part of how we view things.And I do not think we should be making a strawman out of various parts of eighties new-agespirituality and continually harping on that.There’s a solid core of very committed peopleinterested in mysticism and spirituality.

What is the role of spirituality in the Orthodoxand general Jewish communities today?DR. SCHIFFMAN: spirituality as we’re defin-ing it is highly emphasized among hasidicgroups. And there are groups within the non-Orthodox Jewish community that emphasize itas well. So, this feeling that there really is a God,that He really does matter, and that you’re some-

how in contact with Him through fulfilling thelaw is not confined to a small minority. In mypaper I found that emphasis to be at the heart ofthe biblical Jewish experience as well. So, to theextent that we’re failing [to bring spirituality tothe performance of mitzvot], I think it’s becausewe’ve simply left it out, not because we viewspirituality as something bizarre.DR. WAXMAN: There is a Modern Orthodoxelite that underscores intellectualism and placesemphasis on the mind almost to the exclusion ofthe heart. They’re missing the boat on bothaccounts and need to bring back a kind of spiri-tuality that is part and parcel of “normative”Halakhah.RABBI HIRT: When the Rav [Rabbi Joseph B.Soloveitchik] noted that learning is a form oftefillah [prayer] and tefillah is a form of learning,it was an attempt to bridge the intellectual tra-dition and the existential dimension.MS. BROWN: I’m not sure that correlatingstudy with prayer as an experience of spirituali-

ty will necessarily reach the “average” Orthodoxreader. I think there are many people who do notregard prayer as spiritually engaging nor are theynecessarily looking to Judaism for intellectualdepth. We need to expand our “spiritual” lan-guage beyond prayer and study.

Can spirituality and Orthodoxy be mutually hostile? If so, how can we reconcile them?DR. SCHIFFMAN: If spirituality is encouragedwithin the halakhic framework, then it cannotpossibly be hostile.DR. BRILL: Great figures through the ages, like[11th-century halakhist] Nachmanides, RabbiYosef Caro [16th-century author of theShulchan Arukh, the definitive compilation ofJewish law], the Maharasha [16th-century com-

mentator on the gemara], and the Vilna Gaon[18th-century Lithuanian scholar] all combinedspirituality with the halakhic tradition. Spiritu-ality doesn’t have to contradict Orthodoxy,though it certainly seems that it does because ofthe way in which we present it.MS. BROWN: Perhaps we ought to think aboutthe kinds of words that would help people havean experience of transcendence or of transfor-mation without making [the negative] associa-tions that are typically made with the word “spir-ituality.”DR. WAXMAN: Can spirituality and Orthodoxybe mutually hostile? Sure, when spiritualitymoves people to go beyond Halakhah, to bedeviant. But hostility or distance between themhas negative impact both on those who arethinking of spirituality and those who want to bewithin the halakhic framework. So if they arehostile, they need to be reconciled. Can theybe? Of course, and that’s what we’ve been tryingto point out. n

Schiffman Brill Brown Waxman

Y E S H I V A U N I V E R S I T Y R E V I E W • F A L L 2 0 0 5 1 1

Talking Among Themselves

Volumes in the Orthodox Forum series are

available through local bookstores. Also, they

may be ordered through Rowman & Littlefield

Publishers, Inc. by calling customer service

at 800-462-6420 or by visiting

www.rowmanlittlefield.com.

All Web site orders receive a 15% discount.

VOLUMES IN THE ORTHODOXFORUM SERIES

Rabbinic Authority and Personal Autonomyedited by Moshe Z. Sokol

Jewish Tradition and the Non-Traditional Jewedited by Jacob J. Schacter

Israel as a Religious Realityedited by Chaim I. Waxman

Modern Scholarship in the Study of Torah:Contributions and Limitationsedited by Shalom Carmy

Tikkun Olam: Social Responsibility in JewishThought and Lawedited by David Shatz, Chaim I. Waxman, and

Nathan J. Diament

Engaging Modernity: Rabbinic Leaders and the Challenge of the Twentieth Centuryedited by Moshe Z. Sokol

Jewish Perspectives on the Experience of Sufferingedited by Shalom Carmy

Jewish Business Ethics: The Firm and Its Stakeholdersedited by Aaron Levine and Moses Pava

Tolerance, Dissent, and Democracy:Philosophical, Historical and HalakhicPerspectivesedited by Moshe Z. Sokol

Jewish Spirituality and Divine Lawedited by Adam Mintz and Lawrence Schiffman

he Orthodox Forum was

convened in 1989 by Chancellor

Norman Lamm ’49Y,B,R to

reflect the thinking of some of

today’s most esteemed Torah

Umadda scholars—rabbis and

academics in secular and Jewish

studies from the United States and Israel

who have contributed to the understanding

of these issues through their scholarship.

It is composed of two components:

symposia and books—“vehicles for involv-

ing scholars in a conversation that they may

not have had the opportunity before to join,”

said Rabbi Hirt. Dr. Lawrence Schiffman,

Jewish Spirituality and Divine Law coeditor,

sees the think tank as a way to “turn my

attention more toward problems of our own

community.” Chairman of New York

University’s Skirball Department of Hebrew

and Judaic Studies and Ethel and Irvin A.

Edelman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic

Studies, he says he is usually focused on

more theoretical and historical issues.

These “conversations” among scholars

are at the heart of the Forum process.

Prior to the symposium, presenters receive

each other’s original papers so that “each

can come to the symposium with a full

awareness of the others’ ideas,” according

to Rabbi Hirt. At the Forum gathering,

presenters and invited guests—rabbis,

educators, policy makers, and those with a

particular interest in the subject—discuss

and critique each offering. Afterward,

presenters revise their papers based on new

insights and submit them to a Forum

volume editor who compiles them into a

book. The volumes find their way to

libraries, academic institutions, and indi-

viduals around the world who can effect

practical change in Jewish education,

policy, and communal awareness.

“The collegiality of the Orthodox Forum

allows all participants to hear and antici-

pate the kinds of questions that a reader

might ask when a paper gets published,”

said Erica Brown, a contributor to the

most recent volume. “In journal and book

chapter writing, you rarely have the oppor-

tunity to hear feedback before you publish

something. The Forum gives you a sounding

board to improve and rewrite sections and

also question whether you have discussed

the most important issues of your topic.”

The process is intended to create a body

of literature that “speaks with a sense of

authority, but that is not authoritarian,

based on the input of people from a variety

of backgrounds and disciplines,” Rabbi Hirt

said. It also builds a community of scholars

from across the board who are committed

to Modern Orthodoxy—“people who are

reinforced in their approach to life by the

knowledge that other scholars share their

general world view. This is something that

did not exist before the Orthodox Forum,”

he said.

In addition, the Forum is a vehicle for

younger people who are emerging as

scholars, many of whom are YU alumni who

may have lost contact with the university

but, through the Orthodox Forum, have

reconnected. Others are non-alumni who

identify with the university’s mission.

For them, the Forum is a way to become

involved in the intellectual life of the

university, Rabbi Hirt said.

“As an academic institution with a high

level of Jewish studies for men and women,

Yeshiva University has a responsibility to

the Jewish community to promote ideas

and values. These symposia and books

reflect what we feel informs Modern

Orthodoxy at the highest level,” he noted,

adding that the Forum does not speak to

Modern Orthodoxy alone. “Our audience

includes the Jewishly educated college

graduate regardless of where he or she is

on the ideological spectrum.”

“President [Richard M.] Joel now wants

the Forum to move forward, to develop in

an activist mode so that we can dissemi-

nate this information in the widest possible

way—in communities, on Web sites, and

through curricula. And the Forum is a

natural component of President Joel’s new

initiative, the Center for the Jewish Future.

Under its auspices, we can more readily tap

into the resources at Yeshiva University and

the synergy that is within its institutions,”

Rabbi Hirt said. n

T

From the Yeshiva University MuseumCollections

Yeshiva University Museum, a teaching

institution, occupies a special place

among New York’s Jewish cultural and

artistic institutions by preserving and

exhibiting artifacts representing the

cultural, intellectual, and artistic

achievement of more than 3,000 years

of Jewish experience. A selection of

paintings from its collections is on display

at the residence and office of President

Richard M. Joel, representing a sampling

of work by some of the important

artists in its holdings. Among them:

(AT THE RESIDENCE)

Jewish Mother

Boris Schatz (1867–1932)

Painting: Oil on board

Frame: copper repoussé, color

Jerusalem, ca. 1929

Collection of Yeshiva University

Museum (88.18)

Gift of the Jewish Community

Center of Greater Baltimore

(AT THE OFFICE)

Yemenite Jews in Safed

Chaim Gross (1904–1991)

Watercolor on paper

New York, 1957


Museum (70.13)

Gift of Charles Frost

(AT THE OFFICE)

Lighting the Menorah

Chaim Gross (1904–1991)

Watercolor on paper

New York, mid 20th century

Collection of Yeshiva University Museum (70.10)

Gift of Charles Frost

(AT THE RESIDENCE)

Panorama of Jerusalem

Ludwig Blum (1891–1974)

Oil on canvas

Israel, mid 20th century


Museum (85.40)

The Joseph and Rebecca

Meyerhoff Collection

1 3

alumni

he work that SimonWiesenthal began afterWorld War II of collectingevidence on Nazi atroci-ties and seeking the cap-

ture and prosecution of Nazis suchas Adolf Eichmann, Franz Stangl,and Alois Brunner, is being carriedon by Efraim Zuroff, PhD, YH,’70Y. He is director of the IsraelOffice of the Simon WiesenthalCenter and the Center’s chief Nazihunter. A historian and activist, Dr.Zuroff has assumed Mr. Wiesen-thal’s mantle.

Coming of age in the late1960s, a time of protest and ques-tioning, Dr. Zuroff and many of hiscontemporaries channeled theirenergies into Jewish causes, espe-cially after Israel’s victory in theSix-Day War.

As an undergraduate at Yeshiva

College, he was active in Israel-related issues and spent his junioryear in Israel studying at TheHebrew University in Jerusalem.Upon his return to YU, he estab-lished the first Israel aliyah cluband took courses on the Holocaustthat deepened his interest in thesubject. He was one of the campusleaders active on behalf of SovietJewry and played varsity basketballfor YU’s Mighty Mites (in 1974renamed the Maccabees) in pur-suit of his athletic passion.

Though he was a student at YUfor three years, his connection tothe institution stretches backmuch further. “My family has morethan 160 years of service to YU,”Dr. Zuroff said. “My grandfather,Dr. Samuel L. Sar, was known asMr. Yeshiva and was the first deanof men as well as head of develop-

ment and recruitment. He dedicat-ed his entire life to YU and died atthe Chag Hasemikhah [RIETSrabbinic ordination ceremony] in1962 after delivering opening re-marks in Lamport Auditorium.”His father, Dr. Abraham N. Zuroff,was principal of Yeshiva UniversityHigh School for Boys in Brooklynfor 30 years and supervisor of(then) four YU high schools. Sub-sequently, he taught and did guid-ance work at the WashingtonHeights campus high school for 13years. Eli Sar, Dr. Zuroff ’s uncle,was medical director at YU foralmost half a century and hismother, Esther Zuroff, was directorof student services at Stern Col-lege for Women for three decades.

Following graduation from Ye-shiva College, Dr. Zuroff madealiyah and began working at YadVashem (the national Holocaustremembrance center in Israel). Heearned his master’s degree in Holo-caust studies at The Hebrew Uni-versity and eight years later wasinvited to serve as the first aca-demic director of the SimonWiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.After returning to Israel from Cali-fornia, he earned a PhD from theInstitute for Contemporary Jewryof The Hebrew University for hispioneering research on the activi-ties of the Vaad Ha-Hatzala Res-cue Committee between 1939 and1945. He has published two booksand close to 200 articles, translat-ed into 14 languages, on the Holo-caust and its impact on contempo-rary Jewish life.

His career as a Nazi hunterbegan at the Center following ameeting with Simon Wiesenthal.At the time, he also began his co-

operation with the newly estab-lished Office of Special Investiga-tions (OSI), founded in 1979 bythe United States Department ofJustice to prosecute Nazi war crim-inals living in America.

In 1980, Dr. Zuroff returned tohis home in Israel where heworked for six years as a researcherfor the OSI. During the course ofinvestigating the postwar escape ofJosef Mengele, the infamous Angelof Death of Auschwitz, he discov-ered a method of utilizing post-World War II refugee records touncover the escape routes of hun-dreds of Eastern European Naziwar criminals to Western democra-cies, enabling them to concealtheir collaboration with the Nazis.

The method utilized refugeerecords that had been compiled bythe International Tracing Service(ITS). The ITS was established bythe International Red Cross short-ly after World War II to locate rel-atives and friends of Europeansdislocated by the war. This discov-ery led to the opening of theWiesenthal Center in Israel that itsnamesake founded and directs tothis day.

“Efraim Zuroff has tenaciouslyfused action with memory, particu-larly in his indefatigable efforts topress often reluctant governmentsin Europe and elsewhere to inves-tigate and prosecute the perpetra-tors of Nazi crimes,” said EliRosenbaum, OSI director. “Hislife’s work reflects an unswervingdevotion to the pursuit of bothjuridical and historical justice. It isthe veritable embodiment of thepost-Holocaust imperatives to‘Never Forget’ and ‘Never Again.’”

A tall, imposing figure, Dr.

Efraim Zuroff:Nazi HunterBY HEDY SHULMAN

In the final paragraph of his memoirs, Simon

Wiesenthal, renowned Nazi hunter, recalls an

SS corporal’s chilling words to him in 1944—words that continue to

motivate ongoing efforts to find those responsible for the crimes

of the Holocaust. “You would tell the truth [about the death camps]

to the people in America. And you know what would happen,

Wiesenthal? They wouldn’t believe you. They’d say you were mad.

Might even put you in an asylum. How can anyone believe this

terrible business—unless he lived through it?”

T


YESHIVA COLLEGE

Zuroff has a quick smile, thoughwhen discussing his life’s missionhis expression is steely. “I am moti-vated by the desire to achieve jus-tice and to make it clear that any-one who seeks to harm Jews willalways be pursued,” he said. “I be-lieve this is an obligation we haveto the victims. To do otherwisewould send the message that peo-ple can get away with genocide.”

Achieving justice is becomingmore difficult; many of the thou-sands who escaped prosecution areaging, as are witnesses. Added tothis is the lack of political will toprosecute local Nazi collaboratorsin post-Communist societies andin some of the countries of refuge.

To overcome these obstacles,three years ago the Simon Wiesen-thal Center created a campaign

employing more innovative meth-ods to bring Nazi war criminals tojustice. The Center, in partnershipwith the Targum Shlishi Foun-dation of Miami, FL, founded byAryeh Rubin ’72Y, officiallylaunched “Operation: LastChance.” This program, conceivedby Mr. Rubin and coordinated byDr. Zuroff, offers financial rewardsfor evidence that facilitates theprosecution and conviction ofHolocaust perpetrators.

“Targum Shlishi [Third Inter-pretation] is committed to bringingremaining Nazi war criminals tojustice regardless of the passage oftime,” Mr. Rubin said.

An investment manager and aventure philanthropist, he is achild of parents who escapedHitler’s murder machine. His

mother left Hanover, Germany in1939 with her family and went toThe Hague “on vacation” beforethey ultimately settled in the US.His father escaped to Siberiawhere he spent the war and over aspan of 45 days lost his father,brother, and niece. After studyingin an Austrian yeshiva, and withstopovers in other European cities,he, too, made his way to the US.

“We cannot allow the world tobelieve that people can get awaywith murdering Jews,” Mr. Rubinsaid. “Let those murderers of ourfamilies, be they 75 or 105 [yearsold], fear that knock on the dooruntil their dying day.”

Dr. Zuroff and Mr. Rubin metas undergraduates at YU, andspent time together in Israel. Theyreconnected in Los Angeles in1980. After the fall of the BerlinWall in 1989 and the breakup ofthe Soviet Union, there were newopportunities to access records ofEastern European Nazi war crimi-

nals, and the two men cooperatedon a number of initiatives, includ-ing the DLANG (Don’t Let Austra-lian Nazis Go) project, the pursuitof Evald Mikson in Iceland, Bog-dan Kosizy in Costa Rica, andDinko Sakic in Croatia. These ven-tures led to the creation of Op-eration: Last Chance, establishedin 2001 and generously funded bythe Targum Shlishi Foundation.Together the old friends have trav-eled to 11 countries in pursuit ofjustice.

“Effie is one of the unappreciat-ed stars of Jewish life. He couldhave done anything but he choseto devote himself to hunting downNazi war criminals. He is the truesuccessor to Simon Wiesenthal,”Mr. Rubin said.

Operation: Last Chance en-courages eyewitnesses to come for-ward with the promise of a$10,000 reward. The program ispublicized through extensive ad-vertising and media campaigns in

Efraim Zuroff Simon Wiesenthal

His life’s work reflects an unswerving devotion to the pursuit of

both juridical and historical justice.


countries such as Germany, Aus-tria, Lithuania, Estonia, and Po-land, where Nazi war crimes werecommitted with the active partici-pation of the local population.

The program began in July2002 in the Baltics because thesecountries had the highest victimrate in Europe during the Holo-caust. Not only were the localJewish communities almost com-pletely annihilated, but manythousands of Jews from othercountries including Germany,Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary,and France were deported to theBaltics and murdered in Lithuania,Latvia, and Estonia.

Press conferences are held inkey cities in each country an-nouncing the monetary rewardoffered by Operation: Last Chance

and are followed by ads that publi-cize the reward and highlight theactive participation of local Nazicollaborators in the mass murderof the Jewish community.

In fall 2003, the effort waslaunched in Poland, Romania, andAustria, followed by campaigns inCroatia and Hungary in summer2004. The final effort was initiatedin Germany on January 26, 2005,the day before the country’s na-tional memorial day for victims ofthe Holocaust, marking the pro-ject’s culmination.

Between 2001 and 2004, as aresult of Operation: Last Chance,more than two dozen Nazi warcriminals have been convicted insix countries. During 2002, the USalone filed 10 new indictmentsagainst Nazi perpetrators. But,thousands of Nazis are still alive,many living out their years in rela-tive comfort. In a 1987 telephoneinterview with The Chicago SunTimes, Alois Brunner, reportedlyliving in Damascus, Syria andresponsible for the murder of128,500 Jewish men, women andchildren, said, “The Jews deservedto die. I have no regrets. If I hadthe chance I would do it again.”

“Time is quickly running out,”Dr. Zuroff said of his new push tohunt down Nazis. And, with a nodto the work that lay ahead, headded, “There is no statute of limi-tations on genocide.” n

n alumni

Aryeh Rubin conceived the

Operation: Last Chance campaign.

DR. ZUROFF’S WORK has made him a sought-after

expert on genocide. In 1995, he was invited to Rwanda by US AID and the

Rwandan government to attend a conference of experts from 13 countries

discussing commemoration, rehabilitation of survivors, and justice. In 1996,

a German NGO sought his help in assisting the Rwandan Ministry of Justice

to put its house back in order and in preparing for trials of perpetrators of

genocide. In 1997, he was invited to South Africa and met with representa-

tives of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission who were investigating

Apartheid atrocities, and in 1999 Dr. Zuroff traveled to Macedonia to meet

refugees from the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. YU Review asked Dr. Zuroff

about this aspect of his work.

YUR: What factors must come into play before genocide can occur?

EZ: First, there has to be intent. Then there has to be a group with power that

is determined to wipe out another group that is unable to protect itself. That

is all that is necessary—that and the silence and acquiescence of the world.

Today, terrorist organizations can carry out genocide by utilizing a

nuclear bomb or weapons of mass destruction. Until recently, only a state

could harness the resources to create a systemic genocide.

YUR: What is the relationship between genocide and the nature of man?

EZ: If there is anything that genocide reveals, it is the incredible capacity

for evil, the almost limitless capacity of the inhumanity of man against his

fellow man. One of the best ways to bring home that lesson is to bring to

justice those responsible for such acts regardless of their age. I call

empathy for murderers who are old men “the misplaced sympathy

syndrome.” No killer deserves any empathy simply because he reached an

elderly age. On the contrary, these are people who had absolutely no

sympathy for their innocent victims and must therefore be held accountable.

Let those murderers of our families, be they 75 or 105 [years old], fear that knock on the door until their dying day.”

“


hen Jennifer Suss’97S began her

studies at Michi-gan State Univer-

sity’s College ofVeterinary Medicine in 1997, shewas a fish out of two kinds ofwater. A metropolitan girl from theNew Jersey suburbs, she lackedthe farm experience of many of herclassmates. An Orthodox Jew, shewas worried because “some of myclassmates had never met a Jewbefore.”

At first, the transition to life inEast Lansing, Michigan, was diffi-cult. “Did they have any precon-ception about Jews?” Ms. Susswondered early on. “When Iarrived, some of my classmatesseemed to be practically lookingfor my horns, but by graduation,people knew what I could andcouldn’t eat, and would stop by onShabbat because they knew Icouldn’t answer the phone. I madesome of my closest friends.”

Both Jen, a biology/pre-healthsciences major at Stern, andJocelyn (Breibart) Thompson ’98S,a biology major from Baltimorewho enrolled at Michigan State’sCollege of Veterinary Medicine ayear after Jen, have had a life-longinterest in taking care of animals.While Jen was in college, her catwas diagnosed with kidney failureand given three months to live.She injected the cat twice dailywith subcutaneous fluids and helived for nearly three more years.“It was such a wonderful feeling tohave given him that extra time. Itmade me realize how rewarding itis to help improve the quality oflife of an animal.”

“I was always interacting withanimals,” Jocelyn recalled. “Mymom never was an animal person,so when we got a dog when I wastwelve, he became my responsibil-ity.” In school Jocelyn favored thesciences. “I was told that [vetschool] was a very long and diffi-cult path. But I still thought aboutit,” she said. After considering ma-rine biology, during her senior yearshe realized “at the last minute”what she really wanted, and ap-plied to veterinary school.

During their respective firstyears, both Jen and Jocelyn had

exams scheduled on Yom Kippur,but took them earlier to fulfill theircourse requirements. “I wasstressed out; I knew that everyoneelse was sitting in lab and gettingan extra day of studying that I did-n’t have,” said Jocelyn, who hadassumed that professors wouldhave been more considerate of theJewish holy day. But just as fellowstudents had become more accept-

ing of her, so too, professors be-came more accommodating. “I didnot care how long and difficult thisjourney would be. I wanted towake up every morning happy andexcited to be doing something thatI love,” Jen said.

Because neither woman hadprior experience working with farmanimals, both have “fish out ofwater” stories. Jen recalled trying

In the Footsteps of Dr.DoolittleBY ESTHER D. KUSTANOWITZ

I wanted to wake up every morning happy and excited to bedoing something that I love.”

“

W

Jen Suss (right) has come a long way since the day she tried to lasso a sheep.

STERN COLLEGE FOR WOMEN


to lasso a sheep and take blood; ittook her so long to catch the ani-mal that the other students beganlaughing. Jocelyn got pinned be-tween a cow and a wall while tak-ing the bovine’s heart rate. “One ofthe other students had to move thecow out of the way,” she said.Jocelyn experienced no lastingtrauma from the cow encounter,but learned that “you have towatch out for their feet.”

Now both veterinarians, the

Stern alumnae are ensconced inthe jobs they have always wanted.Jocelyn is in private veterinarypractice in Birmingham, Michigan,and Jen works in New Jersey at theBloomingdale Animal Hospital andVan Saun Park Zoo.

“The path was not easy, but def-initely rewarding,” Jen said. “Whenyou have a dream and want some-thing so badly, you do whatever ittakes to get there.” n

YC AT 75’ EVENTS CELEBRATE ACHIEVEMENTS

eshiva College marks its 75th

anniversary with a series of

events that are expected to draw

some of the largest gatherings of

YC alumni in the school’s history.

A gala dinner aboard the USS Intrepid on Sept. 21, reunions

across North America, and events at the Wilf Campus including

lectures and special courses are just a few of the events that are

planned in celebration of this unique institution.

“I am amazed at how much good will Board members and

alumni serving as marshals—and everyone involved in this

effort—have for Yeshiva College,” said Stanley M. Raskas

’65Y,B,R, chairman of the YC at 75 Celebration. “When we join

together to celebrate the history of this unique institution, we

will also be looking to secure its future and academic excellence.”

The gala celebration on Sept. 21 will honor Hadassah ’54TIW

and Marvin S. Bienenfeld ’53Y,R, first YC Board chairman; and

Jeanie and Jay Schottenstein, YU Trustee and second YC Board

chairman. The dinner will also feature a tribute by alumni to

longtime faculty members.

“Our primary goals are to get as many alumni and spouses

and friends as possible to attend the Intrepid dinner and our

other events, and for them to sense the excitement about what is

new and exciting at Yeshiva College,” says Mr. Raskas. “I feel

indebted to Yeshiva College for all that it has done for me and

for my family members who have attended there.”

As part of the anniversary year, the Board is conducting a

campaign to raise $1 million to renovate the science labs on the

Wilf Campus. Part of the money raised will go toward upgrading

the communications lab with sophisticated electronic and film-

making equipment.

More than 170 YC alumni are volunteer class marshals and

ambassadors in communicating and generating support for the

celebration among fellow alumni. The marshals kicked off the

yearlong celebration by gathering on the Wilf Campus in July for

a sports night and barbecue hosted by President Joel.

YC offered two special YC at 75 courses last spring: “Jewish

New York,” with Jeffrey Gurock, PhD, Libby M. Klaperman

Professor of Jewish History; Joanne Jacobson, PhD, associate

professor of English; and Hadassa Kosak, PhD, associate profes-

sor of history; and “Modern Orthodox Thought,” taught by Alan

Brill, PhD, assistant professor of Jewish mysticism and thought.

“YC at 75 is a milestone around which to rally,” said

Joshua L. Muss ’62YC, YC Board of Directors chairman. “We

want to create an opportunity to raise alumni awareness and

bring them back to see old friends and celebrate.”

For further information and to volunteer, contact

[email protected] or 212-960-0193.

New Alumni Web Site: Check It Out!The Alumni Affairs Web site has been redesigned with a fresh new

look and additional features. The reader-friendly site provides visitors

with links to the student newspapers, The Commentator and The

Observer, and is complete with a volunteer section; a calendar of

events; giving opportunities; access to the online community; and

profiles of alumni in the news. Visit the site at www.yu.edu and click

on “Alumni, Donors & Friends.”

Jocelyn Thompson realized “at the last minute” that she wanted to be

a veterinarian.

Y


n alumni

‘


mbassador Max Kampel-man YH’37, YU Hon-orary Degree recipientin 1990 and a YUHSDistinguished Alum-

nus, in April received the PubliusAward of the Center for the Studyof the Presidency. The Center“seeks to further the understand-ing and functioning of the Ameri-can Presidency and its related in-stitutions and, thereby, to educate,illuminate, and inspire leaders oftomorrow.”

In 2000 Ambassador Kampel-man was among those receivingthe first Library of Congress“Living Legend” awards. In 1999he received the Presidential Medalof Freedom, the nation’s highestcivilian award, and in 1989 thePresidential Citizens Medal, whichrecognizes “citizens of the UnitedStates who have performed exem-plary deeds of service for theircountry or their fellow citizens.”

Ambassador Kampelman servedunder Presidents Carter and

Reagan as Ambas-sador and Head ofthe US Delegation tothe Conference onSecurity and Coop-eration in Europe(CSCE). He subse-quently served asAmbassador andHead of the USDelegation to theCSCE CopenhagenConference on theHuman Dimension,the CSCE GenevaConference on Na-tional Minorities inJuly 1991, and theCSCE MoscowConference on theHuman Dimensionin September 1991.

A lawyer, diplo-mat, and educator, he also servedas ambassador and head of theUnited States Delegation to theNegotiations with the SovietUnion on Nuclear and Space Arms

in Geneva; and counselor of theDepartment of State, beforerejoining the law firm of Fried,Frank, Harris, Shriver & JacobsonLLP, where he is now counsel.

He received thePublius Award for hisrole “in the negotia-tions and events thatcontributed to an in-crease in humanfreedom at the end ofthe 20th century,” ac-cording to the awardcitation. “During theCold War,” it contin-ued, “he helpedshape the diplomacyrequired to containtotalitarianism, and,with his work onhuman rights, stoodwith those whofought for freedom.In foreign and do-mestic service forDemocratic and Re-publican Presidents,

Max Kampelman has demonstrat-ed the breadth and vision, civility,and inclusive leadership that ourFounding Fathers hoped wouldgrace our country.” n

In the Serviceof Freedom

AMax Kampelman:

an official

“Living Legend.”

YESHIVA UNIVERSITY HIGH SCHOOLS

HELLO,THIS IS YU CALLING

Jonathan Hay and Avraham Cooper were among the YU students who

enjoyed asking alumni to participate in last year’s annual fund drive.

If you made a pledge, please be sure to send in your payment using the

gift envelope enclosed in this magazine. For an even quicker and

easier way to give, donate online at www.yu.edu/onlinegiving.


eshiva University isreaping benefits from a

dramatic increase in re-cent years in the numberof alumni in leadership

positions on its various boards. Ofthe 336 people currently serving,as we go to press 123 are alumniand represent a 27 percent jumpfrom just five years ago when 97alumni served.

Daniel T. Forman, vice presi-dent for institutional advance-

ment, said the belief that alumnihold the key to the university’sfuture sustenance and growth em-anates from the leadership ofDavid S. Gottesman (YU Board ofTrustees chairman, 1993–2000),continued under chairmen RobertM. Beren (2000–2002) and Ron-ald P. Stanton (2002–2004), andhas been enhanced by the currentleadership of Morry J. Weiss.

But, says Mr. Forman, YeshivaUniversity has only scratched thesurface.

“We are unique in that histori-cally we have attracted civic lead-ers, but we want a more balancedlevel of alumni participation,” hesaid. “Our goal is to have the vari-ous YU boards composed of 80percent alumni.”

With a host of initiatives, suchas the Center for the JewishFuture under the direction ofRabbi Kenneth Brander ’84Y,R,and national community programs

headed by Rabbi Richard C. Bieler’74Y,R,B, senior executive directorfor community affairs, Yeshiva Uni-versity will be engaging alumnithroughout North America andIsrael.

For Kathryn O. Greenberg ’82C,the first CSL alumni chairman ofits Board of Directors, becominginvolved in Cardozo is natural.

“I don’t think there is anyonewho cares more about a schoolthan someone who went there,”

said Ms. Greenberg, who also sitson the YU Board of Trustees.“Alumni bring to the table the factthat they really know the schooland what the issues are.”

And Mordecai D. Katz YH’48,chairman of the BRGS Board ofDirectors and a member of YU’sBoard of Trustees, said alumniinvolvement sets an example forothers to follow.

“It’s almost like a dominoeffect,” he said. “Once you get themomentum started, it stimulatesother alumni to fall into line andget involved.”

Joshua L. Muss YH,’62Y, YCBoard of Directors chairman andmember of the Yeshiva UniversityBoard of Trustees, asked: “Whatbetter person to appreciate YUthan a person who went there?Alumni know the ‘lay of the land’and understand its needs andbenefits.” n

n alumni More Alumni BecomeBoard Members

Y

Alumni bring to the tablethe fact that they reallyknow the schooland what the issues are.”

“

Save the Date!Sunday, September 18, 2005

Beren (Midtown) Campus

BACK TO SCHOOL

For all Beren Campus Alumnae

• Stern College for Women

• Sy Syms School of Business

Featuring:

• Morning Torah Learning Program

• Luncheon including the reunion classes of 1960,

1965, 1970, 1975, 1985, 1990, and 2000 (all

alumnae are invited to attend)

• Afternoon classes with distinguished professors

For reservations and information, contact the

Alumni Office: 212-960-5373 or [email protected]


YESHIVA UNIVERSITYBOARD OF TRUSTEES

Jayne (Grundman) BekerYH,’90F

Julius Berman ’56Y,R

Marvin S. Bienenfeld ’53Y,R

Sender Z. Cohen YH,’94Y

Aaron Feuerstein ’47Y

Felix L. Glaubach YH,’50Y

Alan E. Goldberg YH,’79C

Lance L. Hirt ’87Y

Michael Jesselson YH’69

Richard M. Joel YH’68

Mordecai D. Katz YH’48

Norman Lamm ’49Y,R,B

Vivian (Glueck) RosenbergYH’78

Irwin Shapiro YH,’53Y,R

Moshael J. Straus YH,’74Y

David Yagoda YH’44

Jacob E. Goldman ’40Y, honorary trustee

AZRIEL I GRADUATE SCHOOLOF JEWISH EDUCATION ANDADMINISTRATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Moshael J. Straus YH,’74Y, chairman

Henry I. Rothman ’64Y, vice chairman

Steven Adelsberg YH’71, secretary

Sender Z. Cohen YH,’94Y, treasurer

Julius Berman ’56Y,R

David E. Miller ’53Y,R

Zev Weiss ’88Y

BENJAMIN N. CARDOZOSCHOOL OF LAW BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Kathryn (Olson) Greenberg’82C, chairman

Mark S. Lieberman ’84C, vice chairman

Rachel L. Warren ’92C, vice chairman

Leon H. Charney ’60Y

Hon. Sandra J. (Ellstein)Feuerstein ’79C

Shimmie Horn ’93Y,’96C

Nate Kacew ’98C

Jonathan Kukin ’87C

James E. Schwalbe ’93C

Bonnie Steingart ’79C

Stephen A. Weiss ’90C

Joseph Appleman YH,’47Y, honorary director

Louis Henkin YH,’37Y, honorary director

ALBERT E INSTEIN COLLEGEOF MEDICINE BOARD OF OVERSEERS

Gerald Dorros ’68A

Adam Gottbetter ’92C


Elizabeth Stoner ’77A

BERNARD REVEL GRADUATE SCHOOL OF JEWISH STUDIES BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Mordecai D. Katz YH’48, chairman

Walter Feder ’48R

Martin N. Kaufman ’76Y

Rabbi Haskel Lookstein’58R,B

Irwin Shapiro ’53Y,R

Moshe Talansky ’54Y,R

FERKAUF GRADUATESCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGYBOARD OF GOVERNORS

Beth Myers ’86F, vice chair

Peter Abrons ’84F, vice chair

Jayne (Grundman) BekerYH,’90F, chair emeritus

Ellen J. Klausner ’93F

Therese Rosenblatt ’94F

Kathie Kramer Rudy ’90F

Lisa Hershberg Striar’93F,’97F

RABBI ISAAC ELCHANANTHEOLOGICAL SEMINARY BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Julius Berman ’56Y,’59R, chairman

Moshael J. Straus YH,’74Y, secretary

Hyman ArbesfeldYH,’53Y,’56R

Howard S. Balter ’83Y,’85R

Shael Bellows ’61Y,’64R,B

Jack C. Bendheim YH,’68Y

Moshe Bessin YH,’67Y

Marvin S. Bienenfeld’53Y,’56R

Alvin J. Blumenfeld YH,’61Y


Alan E. Goldberg YH,’79C

Benjamin Heller ’85W

Jacob W. Heller YH,’56Y


Mordecai D. Katz YH’48

Norman Lamm ’49Y,’51R,B

Morton L. Landowne ’69Y

Irwin Peyser ’54R

Solomon Rybak ’63Y,’66R,B

Henry Schachar YH,’74Y

Alvin I. Schiff ’47Y,F

Joel M. Schreiber’57Y,’60R,B

William J. Schwartz ’65Y

Irwin Shapiro ’53Y,’55R

Norman Stark ’69Y

Moshe Talansky ’54Y,’56R

STERN COLLEGE FORWOMEN BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Dorothy (Gewirtz) Berman’59S, vice chairman

Monique (Censor) Katz ’63A, vice chairman

Cali (Daar) Orenbuch ’85S,B, vice chairman

David Yagoda YH’44, honorary chairman

Sandra (Ehrenreich) Quinn’71S, honorary founding chairman

Susan (Mitchell) Ascher ’61S

Hadassah Bienenfeld ’54TIW

Alfred J. Friedman YH’52

Fred Halpern YH’61

Sherri (Steinberg) Herring’72S

Sharon (Herzfeld) KleinerYH,’88S

Seryl B. (Stadtmauer)Kushner ’76S

Murray Laulicht ’61Y

Susan (Ungar) Mero ’87S

Debbie (Morris) Niderberg’86S

Marcia Robbins-Wilf ’81F

Eudice Zauderer RohinskyYH’58

Vivian (Glueck) RosenbergYH’78

Deina Shapiro ’75S

Roberta A. (Romanoff)Strauchler YH’78

Shira (Radinsky) Yoshor ’89S

SY SYMS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS BOARD OF DIRECTORS

William L. Silber ’63Y, secretary

Isaac Corre ’85Y

Henry Kressel ’55Y

Manfred M. Rechtschaffen’54Y,R

Edward I. Zughaft YH’76

WURZWEILER SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK BOARD OF GOVERNORS

Joan (Sadinoff) Katz ’80W, vice chair

Joan O’Donnell ’80W, assistant secretary

Janet Adler ’96W

Joel Daner ’60Y,’62W

Meri (Zaidins) Kraidman’62W

Lilly Tempelsman ’79W

Roselyn (Heller) Weitzner’76W

YESHIVA COLLEGE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Joshua L. Muss YH,’62Y, chairman

Emanuel J. Adler YH,’76Y, vice chairman

Robert I. Kantowitz YH,’76Y, vice chairman

J. Philip Rosen YH,’78Y, vice chairman

Leon Wildes ’54Y, treasurer

Stanley I. Raskas ’65Y,B, secretary

Marvin S. Bienenfeld ’53Y,R, founding chairman

Joshua Annenberg ’89Y,C

Zev S. Berman ’82Y

Morris Bienenfeld YH,’78Y,R

Stephen Brown YH,’79Y

Aaron Feder ’55R

Elliot Feinerman ’73Y

Herbert Frisch ’73R


Nahum Gordon YH,’57Y

David L. Gottesman ’72Y

Shalom E. Lamm ’81Y

Arthur M. Luxenberg ’81Y,C

Joel Mael ’79Y

Steven Major ’90Y

Jay L. Pomrenze ’70Y,R

Marvin Reiss ’66Y

Sheldon Rudoff YH,’54Y,R

Leonard Z. ShapiroYH,’58Y,A

Samuel H. Solomon ’75Y,B,R

Joseph Stechler ’73Y

Alan E. Uliss YH,’76Y,A

Gary Weiss ’84Y

Jonathan Zizmor YH,’69A

David A. Zwillenberg YH,’73Y

YESHIVA UNIVERSITY HIGH SCHOOLS BOARD ( IN FORMATION)

Miriam R. (Peyser) Goldberg’79S, chairman

YESHIVA UNIVERSITYMUSEUM BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Ted Mirvis YH,’73Y, vice chair


Alumni who serve on YU boards:(as of July 2005)

n alumni


Amy Gordon Guterson: Acting on Our Behalf

my Gordon Guterson ’86S presented “An Improvisational

Journey: From Stern College to Off-Broadway to Hasidut,

Creating Theater and Making Film” at the 2005 Morris

Epstein Forum on the Arts lecture on March 7.

Ms. Guterson, who lives in Pittsburgh with her husband,

Yaakov Guterson ’87A, and their four children, studied theater and fine

arts at Stern, where she was president of the Stern College Dramatics

Society and directed many of its productions. While attending Stern, she

studied acting with Uta Hagen

at the Herbert Berghof Studio

and later earned a graduate-

level degree in acting at the

New Actors Workshop, under the

direction of Mike Nichols and

Paul Sills.

Ms. Guterson performs with

Pittsburgh Playback Theatre, a

professional improvisational

company. She is cofounder and

artistic director of Kol Isha, a

Jewish women’s theater group

that creates and performs origi-

nal theater pieces, focusing on issues of Jewish womanhood and Jewish

unity. She has written works for the group including the full-length play

“Journey Through Ruth,” based on the Book of Ruth.

“Becoming Rachel,” a film she wrote, directed, and produced, pre-

miered in April at the Pittsburgh Jewish/Israeli Film Festival.

The Morris Epstein Forum on the Arts is sponsored by Stern College.

It honors the longtime Stern College English professor who died in 1973.

Professor Epstein authored several children’s books and edited World Over

magazine, published by the New York Board of Jewish Education. He was

also a drama and book critic for WEVD radio in New York.

f you don’t know the storyof the Yeshiva University“Mighty Mites”—yes, that’swhat they were called beforethey became the Maccabees

—then you may want to pick up acopy of “For the Love of theGame—A Basketball Story.”

Asked by legendary YU basket-ball coach Bernard “Red” Sarachekto write a historical account of YU’sbasketball program, former playerAbbey Gewirtz ’55Y traced the 50years of YU basketball before theMax Stern Athletic Center wasbuilt in 1985.

Prior to that year, the YU teamplayed wherever it could in all five

NYC boroughs. And who couldforget Coach Sarachek, a memberof the NYC Basketball Hall ofFame, holding strategy sessionswith his players on the subway.

“We schlepped all over theplace, to 24th Street, to the Bronx,and to Queens,” Mr. Gewirtz said.“What we had to go through backthen made us stronger. Those werethe glory days.”

A must for every YU basketballplayer or fan, “For the Love of theGame” is available through theOffice of University Alumni Affairsat [email protected] or at 212-960-5373. n

A IFor the Love of the Game

The Office of University Alumni Affairs can be reached at

[email protected]; by phone at 212-960-5373; or by fax at

212-960-5336. Our mailing address is Yeshiva University,

Office of University Alumni Affairs, 500 West 185th Street,

BH723, New York, NY 10033-3201.

STERN COLLEGE FOR WOMEN

YESHIVA COLLEGE


t’s a traditional publishingcompany with a twist: onethat also offers free onlinecontent.

Started by Rabbi Gil Stu-dent ’94Y and Rabbi MosheSchapiro ’93Y,AG,R in 2004,Yashar Books publishes printedvolumes as well as online divreiTorah, both designed to spark dia-logue among those who studyTorah around the world.

“In the last 20 years there hasbeen a huge change in the intellec-tual and scholarly thinking of manyin the Orthodox world,” Rabbi Stu-dent said. “Unfortunately, many oftheir new ideas don’t get publi-cized. Scholars come up with bril-liant notions but only their stu-dents hear about them.”

Rabbi Schapiro, a Judaica refer-ence librarian at the Mendel Got-tesman Library on the Wilf Cam-pus and rabbi of the Synagogue ofthe Palisades in Fort Lee, NJ, andRabbi Student, a former financeexecutive at Radian Insurance,

came together to fulfill a life-longdream of publishing Jewish books.

They have recently publishedThe Right and the Good: Halakhahand Human Relations by RabbiDaniel Z. Feldman ’94Y,R, instruc-tor of Jewish studies at YU, as partof an ongoing series on Jewishethics that will include a volumetitled Moral Issues of the Market-place in Jewish Law by AaronLevine, Samson and Halina Biten-sky Professor of Economics at YC.

The Open Access Project is anonline resource center that bringtogether elements of a virtual beitmidrash (study hall)—with freedownloads of articles, essays, andeventually, entire books—and in-cludes a public forum. It can befound at www.yasharbooks.com/Open/.

“We want to make good qualityscholarship accessible to the pub-lic at large, which is bound to be aboon for those beyond the walls ofa university or yeshiva,” RabbiSchapiro said. n

HANGING TEN FOR CHARITYThanks to the efforts of lawyer Ben (Aaron) Katz YH’88 (pictured left with

actor Martin Sheen), the Santa Barbara, CA, surfboard maker Yater received

permission to recreate the surfboard belonging to Col. Kilgore (Robert Duval)

in the movie “Apocalypse Now.”

Film director Francis Ford Coppola had designed the board and owned the

rights, but when the film, starring Mr. Sheen, was re-released in 2001,

Mr. Katz noticed the Yater logo on the surfboard used by Col. Kilgore. After

inquiring about purchasing one, Mr. Katz discovered that it was not an

authentic Yater surfboard and that Mr. Coppola had used the company’s name

without permission.

Mr. Katz approached Yater about making a limited edition of the board and

organized a permission “swap” between Mr. Coppola and Yater, clearing the

way to produce 90 surfboards that are duplicates of the one in the movie.

Yater gave Mr. Katz several boards, which he auctioned with all proceeds

given to a charity for war veterans.

Spreading the (Written) Word

I

Be Part of HistoryThe President of Yeshiva University

and Board of Directors of Yeshiva College

cordially invite you to the

Gala Celebration of the 75th Anniversary of Yeshiva College

Join hundreds of Yeshiva College alumni, friends and family

as we celebrate this momentous occasion

Wednesday, September 21, 2005 • Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum

For more information, please call 212-960-0193 or e-mail [email protected]

YESHIVA UNIVERSITY HIGH SCHOOLS

?STERN COLLEGE FOR WOMEN• Class of 1960Bessie KoppermanEthel Milch KornMiriam Resnikoff Metzger• 1965Shirley ReingewertzEsther Mann SnyderSheila SnyderFrayda Fink WeissSusan WengerRachel Solomon Witty• 1970Judith Gluck ApplebaumAlice CheslerPearl Moskowitz CohenVera Deutsch DickmanRosalyn EisenbergDeborah Album EstermanKrystine R. ForemRoberta KatzenRifka Schikman ZdanowitzWendy Zuckerman• 1975Rachel Shapiro Ben-ZevSusan Lebowitz BondiChana Butler Shapiro CohenMartha GluckViviana M. GoldschmidtSusan Kofman KaplanDebra B. Pomrenze PelegSara Kirschbaum PodemskiPnina PollackJudith D. ReissAline M. RockmanJudy SchacterEsther C. TartakJanet R. Waterstone• 1980Sara Jane Kaplan BrombergElizabeth Anne Heinig CohenNina Feld-DaganRuth GangerPeggy GoldbergMindy Sara HellerBonnie KletterGreta NathansonAnnie Kelman PomrantzMedea RizinashviliLinda Susan RubinBarbara SilvermanCarolyn Smith SnyderBarbara WeissMelanie Wolf• 1985Paloma BenhamuNaomi Liberman BlankKaren A. ChriquiRobyn GodisHindy J. KalishEdythe Buchbinder KayeRachel LandauSara Goldstein LeibowitzDeborah NaimarkJoy Malka RothenbergMarilyn M. Wermut

• 1990Lisa E. BermundoSari Polansky DrazinMichelle A. FrankelHindy Najman FranksAviva GartenbergSusan L. GoldsteinRachel H. GoodmanToby A. HirschMiriam Segal HoberVeronica R. Edelstein KayeAmy D. NewmanMichelle L. PahmerSherri L. ProstakLinda R. RaymanAlison R. ReedChaya Gold RosenfeldRebecca Fishman SilversteinSara L. Weiss• 1995Sandra G. AbramsLeah Koslowski BenscherSharon BerezinBridget F. BurrowsMaya A. CohenArielle ElbazMiriam EngelsteinMalki Blond FogelAlyssa Insel FormanDeena M. Frank Lisa Nussbaum GlassYael C. GreenbergYoela Levin HolmanPessi Elias HornblassRachel IskowitzRachel IsraelSara Y. KaminRachel V. KatzDara KnapelJanet Abboudi LauerMeira Drazin LebovitzNaomi Liebowitz MaronLeora SalzhauerLeslie J. Tuchman SasnowitzTzipporah Tischler SolomonLeba SpiegelmanEsther SteinAbby Cooper WeisbergYaffa Zweig• 2000Dvasha S. AllenAmy Lauren BermanTammi Sara BlumenfeldEsther Leah CaroOlga DyninaRachel Leah FarkasNaomi Tikva FeuerRachel Toby GlassMiriam Cheryl GrossmanElana Sharona HurwitzYael KabassoRena KantrowitzAndrea Joyce KatzensteinAimee M. KlapperSuzanne Laura LitmanNicole Rachel Maryles

Tova ReinJudith Kayla RobinsonMiriam E. RosenblattRuth Mirjam RosenkranzSara A. SchacterOlga Pantukhova SegalAnnie Hollander SteinerRochi Iris SteinerAliza SternYael Wexler

SY SYMS SCHOOL OFBUSINESS• Class of 1990Evan BartRobert BloomMark M. BransdorferDeerah R. Fruchter• 1995Simon AbadiMarc A. BrugerRobert RabinowitzEric ReinhardRena Ennis Reinheimer Phyllis B. RothSarit SteinRobert WilligerJoseph Zaionz• 2000Caroline BittonRafal Sabastian BuczykBarbara M. ElbazEli FeilerAviad GoldwichtJessica GottesmanJeffrey GreenbergAdina Loberfeld HallerVladimir LibineJoseph LondonSara Beth LoweSteven Dov PollakDina Adelsberg ReichEdmundo RosenbergSharon Beth ShternTalia Ilana SpiererVitali SpivakTami Sue ThomasHannah VermesSusan Wohlgelernter

YESHIVA COLLEGE• Class of 1955Leonard BorsteinAbraham BruckensteinSol FlugMilton FreundlichHenry HartmanOscar Krater (Kratzer)Norman LissJoseph NaimerAlvin SchreiberStuart Sloyer

• 1960Michael FrankMartin L. GordonAharon OrlandskyJoseph RosenthalSender ShizgalHarry TurnerArthur M. WittowYosef Jerome WolickiMordecai E. Zeitz• 1965Stephen L. GrallaElieser NeubergerShaul RotterMichael G. SametHarold WassermanMurray Zimmer• 1970Martin J. BirnArnold EliasovJoshua FinkWalter HertzbergSteven KelterElliot LevineKarl LifschitzManny MillerMichael SilberNeal ToberHarvey WeinribGerald A. WolkinsonRobert Young• 1975Yehuda CharlapVictor DelouyaJoshua FlukAryeh Leon NeilTed Amnon NessNoah ReifmanMicahel SaksYaakov Jerrold ShemariaMichael I. SkobacDavid I. SternbergJudd H. Zisquit• 1980Ephraim BeckerWarren BursteinSteven Allan EisenbergSimon GrunbaumMichael Jay KahnVidal KeslassyEdward Alan LevinDaniel A. LevyIsaac LivniJeffrey ReinKen A. ResnicowMurray RosenthalElan Jonathan Sober• 1985Brian D. AarenauJay Stuart AuslanderMartin Mordechai DevonJoel FinkelsteinNaftali FriedmanAbraham Bert HidaryAri Hier

Moshe D. LichtmanEric S. StraussAlan I. Talansky• 1990Daniel E. ChefitzBary DinerMoshe Elliot FisherYitzchok GenackSteven H. JutkowitzAri KeehnMark Isaac (Mordechai) SchrekMichael S. Shapiro• 1995Ronen AbergelDavid Alex BaileyEzra M. CohenJoseph CrystalDavid DebowGil DersovitzJeffrey GoldmanMatthew J. GoldsmithJason A. GottliebAri GroverShimon HararyDavid KaplanAndrew Michael LeibowitzDaniel J. LoewKevin OhayonAryeh PearlmanJeremy Rosner• 2000Benjamin AhdutMorrie Jeffrey AssoulineAmi Y. AttaliBenjamin BeiserElliot Moshe FischerIsrael FrenkelJonathan GamssStephen GordonJoseph M. MandelbaumAlexander MigirovScott NadelGabriel NivaschAvi Gershon OppenheimerYevgeniy PavlovskiyBen-Zion M. RadinskySamuel RitterIlan Simon RubinsteinMatthew ScharfRoni Y. SchwartzAriel S. SeidmanRadislav SenderskyDaniel SilberDoron SimonShmuel SorkinGary TurkelChaim WoolfBenjamin YoungMichael Zaidel

The Office of University Alumni Affairs is looking for the following “lost” alumni. If you know of anyone’s whereabouts, please contact the YU Alumni Office at [email protected]. The most current list is available at: www.yu.edu/alumni/mia.asp

n alumni


Some 80 alumni and guests in the real estate

industry participated in an innovative net-

working exercise March 16 at the Beren

Campus. Lining up along a rope, participants

had a few moments to meet, greet, and

exchange business cards with another

professional. When the bell rang, they moved

down the line to meet the next person.

The Sunday morning Kollel Yom

Rishon (men) and Midreshet Yom

Rishon (women) learning programs

were phenomenal successes in

their first year. Both programs

attracted hundreds of alumni and

guests from communities in the

NYC area to the Wilf Campus

each week. For program

information, schedules, and audio

recordings of shiurim (lectures),

visit www.kollelyomrishon.org and

www.midreshetyomrishon.org.

Rabbi Daniel Z. Feldman

‘94Y,R, instructor of Jewish

studies at YU, was the

featured author at YCAA’s

Sixth Annual Soy Seforim

Sale Book Signing and

Lecture in February.

2005–06 Alumni Highlights


n alumni


Spring Reunions2005

Cardozo Class of 1980

Brooklyn Girls High School Class of 1955

Stern College for Women Class of 1980

Yeshiva College Class of 1980

Yeshiva College

Class of 1955

bookshelf

he Hebrew Kid and theApache Maiden, by RobertJ. Avrech YH’68, is thebikorim (first fruits) of anew initiative by Mr.

Avrech and his wife, Karen(Singer) ’80F that is as much atribute to their late son as it is anoffering of quality literature forobservant Jewish young adults.

The Avrechs began SeraphicPress (Seraphicpress.com), namedfor God’s first order of angels,shortly after their son, ArielChaim, died in 2002 at age 22from side effects of chemotherapy.Ariel became quite religious as ateenager and was studying at Ner

Israel yeshiva in Baltimore whenhe was hospitalized for the lasttime. Mr. Avrech wrote the bookwhile his son was dying. Arielhelped him with some of the diffi-cult halakhic questions that arosein the narrative while writing thebook, and lived to see the complet-ed manuscript, which he liked verymuch, his father said.

“Ariel really enjoyed literature,

especially young adult literature.And he lamented that there was solittle material for Orthodox kids.Much of what’s out there that kidsread deals with topics that are in-appropriate for them, not to men-tion for observant kids,” said Mr.Avrech. The Brooklyn-born son ofRabbi Abraham Avrech YH,’40Y,R,W, MSDCS associate directorfor four decades and director ofrabbinic alumni of RIETS and ofYC, Robert is Hollywood’s firstOrthodox screenwriter, with cred-its that include Body Double and AStranger Among Us. He deliveredthe 1999 Morris Epstein Forum onthe Arts lecture at SCW, calling his

talk “Lights! Camera! Action!:Shomer Shabbos in Hollywood.”

The Hebrew Kid and the ApacheMaiden, published in 2005 andsoon to enter into its second print-ing, is a coming-of-age story thattakes place in the Arizona Terri-tories in the period following theCivil War. It is told by the maincharacter, a boy named Ariel whois about to celebrate his bar mitz-

vah. He and his family, pious Jewsfleeing pogroms in Russia, becomestranded in Apache country andcome face to face with the USCavalry, Indian warriors, home-steaders, and outlaws. The oddityof being Jewish in the Wild West—and of being part of the “Jewishtribe”—enables them to escape asuccession of perils. (Ariel’s moth-er helps to pacify the notoriousDoc Holliday by serving himcholent and potato kugel.)

“We’re discovering that thebook has a wide readership, in-cluding Conservative and ReformJews and even among the Chris-tian community,” Mr. Avrech said.Under the Seraphic Press impri-matur, he is working on a secondHebrew Kid novel, The HebrewKid and the Gangs of Tombstone—like its prequel, carefully re-searched and incorporating realcharacters. Says Mr. Avrech, “I loveAmerican history, and I believethat we Jews are blessed to live

here. My novels are a love songfrom a Jew to America.”

Other books are in the works atSeraphic, as well—next up is TheShidduch Diaries by MichaelLevin—and the Avrechs would liketo create a literary magazine foryoung adults.

“Karen and I are determined topublish fiction that will enrich thelives of Jewish children. We hopethat Seraphic Press books will notonly be a kiddush HaShem (sancti-fication of God’s name), but also amatzevah (monument) to ArielChaim’s memory,” Mr. Avrech said.

TWestward, oy!BY JUNE GLAZER


My novels are alove song from a Jew to America.”

“

Mystery writer Rochelle Krich ’69S has sold Spanish rights to

Blues in the Night, her first Molly Blume mystery. Her third

Molly Blume volume, Grave Endings, recently won the Calavera

Award at Left Coast Crime in El Paso and also the Mystery

Writers of America Mary Higgins Clark Award. (Rochelle offers

reading guides for her three Molly Blume titles—Dream House

is the second in the series—and is available for conversations

with groups via speaker phone.)

Also, the Israeli translation of her Blood Money, in Hebrew

titled Kaspei Dam, is now in bookstores in Israel.

The Company My Father Builtby Susan Bitensky Lerner

Sands Point Press

The author tells the story of herfather, honorary University boardmember and Ferkauf GraduateSchool of Psychology board chairemeritus Samson Bitensky, whogrew up in interwar Poland. Shetraces his journey to America andchronicles how he became a textilemanufacturer and CEO of FabIndustries.

Mishpat L’Avraham: CollectedArticles on Jewish Lawby Abraham M. Fuss YH,’56Y,B

Biegeleisen J.S.

Brooklyn, NY

Articles written by the author overthe past 40 years were collectedand prepared by his wife and chil-dren on the occasion of his 70thbirthday. An attorney in New Yorkand formerly in Israel, he has a life-long interest in Jewish studies,Jewish law, and history.

A Lifetime Companion to the Lawsof Jewish Family Lifeby Deena R. (Cohen) Zimmerman

’88A

Urim Publications

Jerusalem, New York

The author is a pediatrician inIsrael and a yoetzet Halakhah(women’s halakhic adviser). Herbook helps married and engagedcouples of all ages learn the laws ofJewish marital life. Additionally, itemphasizes an understanding ofthe interplay between Jewish lawand women’s health issuesthroughout the life cycle.

The Chimney Treeby Helaine (Gewirtz) Helmreich

YH’64

Toby Press

New Milford, CT

A saga that unfolds with forbiddenlove between the daughter of aprominent Hasidic family and aPolish Christian boy, the authortraces the heroine’s life from Euro-pean shtetls to America and finallyto Israel as she seeks to reunite herfamily and rebuild her life.

Fahrenheit 9-12: Rebuttal to Fahrenheit 9/11by Aaron I. Reichel YH,’71Y,B,R

iUniverse, Inc.

New York

The author has written a “frame-by-frame” rebuttal to the contro-versial film “Fahrenheit 9/11.” Heis a lawyer, author, and editor, andis on the federal and NY and NJstate bars.

Around the Family TableA Comprehensive “Bencher” andCompanion for Shabbat andFestival Meals and Other FamilyOccasionsby Shlomo Riskin YH,’60Y,R,B

Urim Publications

Jerusalem

A book of prayer and celebration, itis intended to serve as a guide formeaningful expressions of theJewish experience at home. In-spiring stories and personal com-mentary by the author supplementthe text throughout.

n bookshelf


The Man Who Shocked the World:The Life and Legacy of Stanley Milgramby Thomas Blass ’63Y,F

Basic Books

New York

The author, professor of psycholo-gy at University of Maryland, Balti-more County, has written a com-prehensive biography of one of themost controversial and inventivepsychologists of our time. The ManWho Shocked the World was namedone of the top science books of2004 by Discover magazine.


Voices of Bereavement: A Casebook for Grief Counselorsby Joan Beder,

WSSW associate professor

New York and Hove:

Bruner-Routledge

The casebook is a collection ofcompelling case studies drawnfrom the author’s experiences as agrief counselor, each reflecting onan unusual set of circumstances—the bereavement of an identicaltwin, the death of an adolescent’sdisabled sibling, and a husband’sgrief after a miscarriage.

The Book of Passoverby Benjamin Blech ’54Y,R,

assistant professor of Talmud

Citadel Press

New York, NY

Intended as a keepsake, the authorcompiles all the special traditionsof the Pesach holiday. The bookincludes insights, thought-provok-ing ideas, recipes, explanations ofcustoms, relevant quotations, triviaand games, decorating ideas, and alist of helpful links and resources.

Tradition: A Journal of OrthodoxJewish ThoughtJewish Education: A Special Issue(Vol. 37 No. 4)edited by David J. Schnall

YH,’69Y,R, AGS dean

Rabbinical Council of America

in conjunction with the Azrieli

Papers, an AGS project

For the first time in 30 years,Tradition has devoted an issue totopics in Jewish education. Contri-butors are Peninnah Schram, YU

associate professor of speech anddrama; Lawrence Schiffman, Etheland Irvin A. Edelman Professor inHebrew and Judaic Studies atNYU; Jay Goldmintz ’81F,R, head-master of Ramaz Upper School;Dr. Schnall and Daniel Pollack ofWSSW; and Michael Broyde YH,’84Y,R, a dayan (judge) in the BethDin of America and a law professorat Emory University.

Antisemitismby Jerome Chanes YH,’64Y,W

SCW WSSW, and AGS adjunct

professor

ABC-CLIO

Santa Barbara, CA

The first reference work on thesubject of antisemitism, it joins thepublisher’s series on contemporaryworld issues, available in bothprint and eBook formats. Theauthor presents a survey of the his-torical, political, and sociologicalcontexts of antisemitism in morethan 50 countries.

Nutrition for LifeCoauthored by Darwin Deen ’81A,

AECOM professor of family and

social medicine

(with Lisa Hark, MD)

DK publishers

Get the lowdown on how goodnutrition can improve health. Thebook offers reviews on popular dietprograms; guidance on all aspectsof nutrition; advice on using foodas medicine to treat cholesterol,osteoporosis, diabetes, migranes,and more; and real-life examples ofhealth problems and how im-proved nutrition can remedy them.

The Right and the Goodby Daniel Z. Feldman ’96Y,R,

instructor of Talmud

Yashar Books

Brooklyn, NY

The book (published in 1999 byJason Aaronson) has been re-re-leased in an expanded edition. It

delves into 14 areas of interperson-al relations and provides an in-depth review of the subjects andhow they have been understoodthroughout Jewish history.

“Remember Amalek!”: Vengeance,Zealotry, and Group Destruction inthe Bible According to Philo,Pseudo Philo, and Josephusby Louis H. Feldman

YC Abraham Wouk Family Professor

of Classics and Literature

Hebrew Union College Press

The author details how three first-century CE Jews grappled with thequandary presented by the obliga-tion to exterminate the nation ofAmalek in light of the Torah’s pro-scribing that “fathers shall not beput to death for children, neithershall children be killed for theirfathers.”

God vs. The Gavel: Religion andthe Rule of Lawby Marci A. Hamilton

Paul R. Verkuil Professor of Public

Law and Director, Intellectual

Property Law Program, CSL

Cambridge University Press

The author offers a comprehensivelook at how laws providing religiousfreedom are being used by religiousentities to shield them from legalliability in cases of clergy abuse,medical neglect, even murder.

FROM THE FACULTY

Robert J. Avrech YH’68

The Hebrew Kid and the Apache Maiden

Dr. Bryan B. Kagan ’76Y

Dancing in the MistFlight of a Butterfly

Rabbi Alfred J. Kolatch YH,’37Y

The Comprehensive Dictionaryof English and Hebrew First Names

Miriam Lieberman ’78TIW,W

Saying Goodbye

Rabbi Aaron I. Reichel Esq.

YH,’71Y,R,B

Fahrenheit 9 -12: Rebuttal to Fahrenheit 9 /11

Rabbi Bernhard H. Rosenberg

’69Y,F,R,AG

The Holocaust As Seen Through Film

Rabbi Samuel H. Solomon

’75Y,R,B

Power Point for Litigators

Dr. Joel B. Wolowelsky ’69BS

Women at the Seder—A Passover Haggadah

ALUMNI AUTHORS

We thank the following alumni for submitting

their works since the last YU Review:

To have your book displayed in the Alumni Authors Library, send a

copy to the Office of University Alumni Affairs, Yeshiva University,

500 West 185th Street, BH723, New York, NY 10033-3201.


’40sn Professional News

Rabbi James I. Gordon YH,’44Y,R was

cited by the Jerusalem Post for having

completed three cycles of SHAS, each

in a different language—Yiddish while

he was spiritual leader in Oak Park,

MI; English with an RCA-sponsored

group in Jerusalem after making

aliyah; and Hebrew at Hazvi Yisrael,

the Jerusalem synagogue where he

maintains membership.

Rabbi Gedalia Dov Schwartz ’46Y,R

received the Rabbi Abraham Isaac

HaKohen Kook Award at the 90th

Anniversary Dinner of Religious

Zionists of America. He has been

chairman of the Beth Din (Rabbinical

Court) of America of the Rabbinical

Council of America (RCA) since 1991,

and also heads the Rabbinical Court of

the Chicago Rabbinical Council. Prior,

Rabbi Schwartz served for nearly two

decades as spiritual leader of Young

Israel of Boro Park and has held pul-

pits in Providence, RI, Englishtown,

NJ, and Philadelphia. He is editor of

the RCA’s journal HaDarom.

Rabbi Aaron Ben-Zion Shurin ’40Y,R,

SCW instructor of Judaic studies,

1949–56 and 1966–2001, was hon-

ored in Nov. by The Forward for his 60

years as a columnist for the Yiddish-

language newspaper.


Herb Adelman YH’59 was awarded the

Frank Capra Achievement Award from

the Directors Guild of America at its

annual awards dinner in Jan. ’05.

Yeshiva University honored RabbiArthur Schneier ’51Y,R on his 75th

birthday, 50th year as rabbi, and “for

his leadership in advancing peace,

religious freedom, and tolerance.”

The event, held in

March 2005 at

The Plaza in NYC,

was in support of

the Rabbi Arthur

Schneier Center

for International

Affairs at YU.

Rabbi Schneier, a longtime advocate

for religious freedom and human

rights, spearheaded with President

Richard Joel creation of the center as

a forum for discussion of important

international issues—war and peace,

security and terrorism, human rights,

global health, intellectual property

rights, and the environment. Also,

Rabbi Schneier was appointed

chairman of the editorial board of

Midstream.

Anne (Rosenbaum) Senter YH,’58S is

chairperson of the Township of

Teaneck (NJ) Zoning Board of

Adjustment. She has been a board

member for 15 years.

n Personal News

Mazal tov to Rabbi Saul Aranov’59Y,R,B on the birth of a granddaugh-

ter, Hadas Batya, to children Shalhevet

and Aryeh Heymann.

Shoshana YH’59 and Moshe BerlinYH,’58Y, of Jerusalem, have 27 grand-

children. Their eldest, Mordechai, was

inducted into the elite Duvdevani

commando unit this past erev Purim.

Israel Bick ’59Y announces the mar-

riage of his son, Mayer Benjamin, to

Gail Anita Katz.

Mazal tov to Rivka Kahn ’54TIW and

Rabbi Pinchas (Paul) KahnYH,’53Y,R,F, of Jerusalem, on the birth

of a great-granddaughter.

Sol Steinmetz ’52Y,R and wife Tzipora

celebrated the bar mitzvah of grand-

son Natanel in Israel.

classnotes

Yeshiva University Review welcomes Classnotes submissions

that are typewritten or neatly printed. Relevant information (name,

maiden name, school, year of graduation, and a contact phone

number) must be included. The magazine is not responsible for

incomplete or incorrect information. Graduates of CSL, WSSW, FGS,

and AECOM may also direct notes to those schools’ alumni

publications. In addition to professional achievements, YUR

Classnotes may contain alumni family news, including information

on births, marriages, condolences, and bar/bat mitzvahs.

Engagement announcements are not accepted. We reserve the right

to edit submitted items. We cannot be responsible for time-sensitive

submissions that expire before publication. Items sent for the next

edition of Yeshiva University Review will be included as received

and as space permits. Photographs are encouraged.

Dr. Samuel Kay ‘58Y is among 26 Holocaust survivors who were honored at

the 39th annual dinner of Cong. Ahawas Achim Bnai Jacob and David, West

Orange, NJ. A pediatrician, he attributes his choice of profession to his

experiences during the war: “So many children died in the Holocaust and

I don’t want to see more children hurt. It made me more caring,” he says.

Dr. Kay was four years old when the war broke out and his father

disappeared. He and his mother, 22 years old at the time, survived by hiding

in Poland’s forests. After liberation, they eventually immigrated to the US

and settled in Newark. Today there are 30 members of his immediate family—

his revenge, he says, against the Nazis.


Jerome A. Chanes YH,’64Y,W, adjunct

professor at SCW, WSSW, AGS, and

RIETS, delivered a Library of Congress

Lecture in Dec., in conjunction with

the Library’s exhibition, “Haven and

Home,” commemorating 350 years of

Jews in America. He spoke on

“Antisemitism in America, Past and

Present: Realities and Myths.” He is

thought to be the first YU undergradu-

ate alumnus to lecture as part of the

prestigious series. Also, his book,

Antisemitism: A Reference Handbook,

was published in Dec. by ABC-CLIO

and is the first-ever comprehensive

reference work on anti-Semitism (see

Bookshelf).

Pinhas Friedenberg ’67Y, Hudson

County (NJ) Community College regis-

trar, spoke on student privacy rights at

the annual meeting of the NY State

Organization of Bursars and Business

Administrators. He spoke on ID theft

and record fraud at the fall meeting of

the NJ-NY Association of Collegiate

Registrars and Admissions Officers

and at the annual meeting of the

Middle States Association of Registrars

and Officers of Admission

(MSACROA), where he also spoke on

successfully implementing an imaging

system. At the MSACROA meeting, he

was elected vice president for profes-

sional development.

Dr. Stephen Kleinman ’64Y has prac-

ticed podiatric medicine for 28 years

and was named Podiatrist of the Year.

Recently, he earned a JD degree from

Hofstra University School of Law and

was awarded three certificates of

completion—Constitutional, taxation,

and matrimonial law.

n Personal News

Pnina (Pam) Forman Aronson ’68S and

husband Ya’akov (Jerrold), YUHS fac-

ulty member 1964–68, of Rehovot,

Israel, celebrated the births of their

19th and 20th grandchildren to their

daughters Bracha and Tehilla.

Miriam (Fuchs) YH’61 and Jerry BassYH,’64Y announce the birth of a

grandson.

Toni (Feltscher) ’70S and PhilChernofsky YH,’69Y, of Jerusalem,

announce the birth of granddaughter

Roni Rnana Schler.

Sarah (Singer) Eiferman YH’62 and

husband Zecharia announce the birth

of a grandson.

Cantor Sherwood Goffin ’63Y,CTI,

BSJM outreach coordinator, and wife

Batya announce the birth of grand-

daughter Ayala Yehudit to children Elly

and Chavi Goffin and the birth of

Asher Yosef to children Rabbi Uri and

Yael Goffin.

Phyllis (Curchack) Kornspan ’69S, of

Petach Tikvah, Israel, celebrated the

birth of a granddaughter to children

Yonatan and Shlomit of Shvut Rachel.

Mazal tov to Dr. Joel Luber ’68Y on

his marriage to Sarah Feld of Bet-El,

Israel.

Batya (Beth Spiegelman) ’71S and

Yisrael Medad (Winkelman) ’69Y, of

Shiloh, Israel, announce the birth of

their second granddaughter to their

children Tzruya and Oren Luzon of

Ofra.

Mindy (Ganz) ’74S,B and David Ribner’68Y,B,R,W, of Jerusalem, announce

the birth of a grandson.

Charlene Rosenberg YH’68 and RabbiBernhard Rosenberg ’69Y,F,R,AG

announce the birth of grandchild Akiva

Yosef to their children Joshua and

Ilana Merl.


Rabbi Raymond Harari ’76Y,B,R was

named Head of School at Yeshivah of

Flatbush Joel Braverman High School,

Brooklyn. He will serve as its chief

educational officer, effective July

2005. Rabbi Harari is a graduate of

the Braverman High School. He has

taught there since 1980 and also is

spiritual leader of Cong. Kol Israel.

Abraham J. Katz ’75Y, an attorney,

started an e-mail-based weekly

newsletter on understanding tefillah.

He has combined the first 46 issues,

representing an introduction to prayer

and to birchot hashachar, into an e-

book, available free of charge on CD

or by e-mail attachment. The book

and a sample newsletter can be

obtained by contacting beureihatefila@

yahoo.com.

Israel Honors Alvin SchiffIn February, the Office of the President of Israel, in cosponsorship with

the Jewish Agency of Israel, awarded Dr. Alvin Schiff ’47Y,F that country’s

highest civilian honor, the Israel President’s Prize. Dr. Schiff, Irving I.

Stone Distinguished Professor of Jewish Education at AGS, traveled to

Jerusalem to receive the award from President Moshe Katsav. It recog-

nizes his contributions to Jewish education during his 58-year career as

a Jewish educator.

Dr. Schiff was nominated for the prize by four Americans—including

author and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Elie Wiesel and RIETS board

chair Julius Berman ’56Y,R—and two Israelis. His career includes his

founding in 1959 of YU’s Department of Graduate Jewish Education

(now AGS), which he directed for 11 years, and his tenure as executive

vice president of the Board of Jewish Education of Greater New York

(BJE), 1970–91, a moribund organization he turned into a leading world-

wide Jewish educational agency.

He also founded a number of initiatives that have become venerable

institutions in Jewish life in the US and Israel, including the Salute to

Israel Parade in New York, the Hidon Ha-Tanakh (Bible Contest) in the

US, March of the Living, and National Commission of Torah Education

(now Association of Modern Orthodox Day Schools). In 1958, he estab-

lished the Tochnit Yod Gimmel Post High School Program in Israel, which

set a precedent: today some 6,000 students spend the year between high

school and college studying at Israeli yeshivot.

In addition, Dr. Schiff authored 15 books and more than 300 articles

and research reports, and served as editor of the Journal of Jewish

Education, 1967–97. Also, he has been visiting professor or lecturer at

institutions including Harvard and New York University.

Dr. Schiff began his career at YU as an instructor of Hebrew studies

at Talmudical Academy (today YUHS) and of education at Teachers’

Institute, 1947–59. In 1977 YU awarded him an honorary degree.



Ted Mirvis YH,’73Y and wife Ruth

were honored by UJA-Federation of

NY at its 2005 Riverdale Renaissance

Reception in March.

Aviva (Anna Borvick) ’82S and JosephOffenbacher YH,’79Y were guests of

honor at the second annual dinner of

Cong. Shaare Tefillah of Teaneck, NJ,

which they founded.

Nava Rephun YH,’76W presented mar-

riage workshops at the Sephardic

Bikur Holim in Brooklyn, NY; Cong.

Shomrei Emunah in Englewood, NJ;

and Bayit Vegan, Jerusalem. Nava is a

licensed clinical social worker and a

certified Imago Relationship Therapist

who works with couples and individu-

als in her NYC private practice. She

conducts workshops in the US and

Israel.

Joyce (Gabel) YH’76 and Daniel StrausYH’74 were honored last November by

AMIT in recognition of their support

and leadership.

n Personal News

Rabbi Elisha Citroen ’71Y and wife

Barbara, of Metar, Israel, celebrated

the birth of a grandson, Harel Natan.

Mazal tov to Joan Gail Schecter Dulitz’70S and husband Aaron on the mar-

riage of sons Levi to Jessica Gerson of

Queens, NY, and Akiva to Sharon Arfa,

of Los Angeles.

Robin (Klein) ’79S and Simon Kahn’77Y announce the birth of second

daughter Bat Shachar.

Mazal tov to Bernie Kastner ’78Y and

wife Iva, and to Rabbi Anshel Rosby’68Y and wife Sarah, on the birth of a

grandson, Natan Aharon.

Mazal tov to Rabbi Yerachmiel Roness’78W and wife Dina on the birth of a

grandson.

Mignone (Eckstein) YH’72 and EzraRosenfeld ’77B celebrated the birth of

a granddaughter, born to their daugh-

ter Orit Rosenfelt Karine.

Mazal tov to Leah (Elaine Becker) ’72S

and Dr. Dahvid Wolf YH,’72Y, of Metar,

Israel, on the birth of a grandson.


Dr. Allan Barsky ’88W is professor of

social work at Florida Atlantic

University in Ft. Lauderdale, where he

teaches professional ethics, conflict

resolution, and addictions. He has

recently published two textbooks,

Alcohol, Other Drugs, and Addictions,

and Social Work Education: A

Student’s Manual.

Marcia (Salmansohn) Bronstein ’82W

was appointed vice president of devel-

opment for the JCCs of Greater

Philadelphia. Formerly, she was vice

president of institutional advancement

at Martins Run, a life care community

in Media, PA.

Rabbi Daniel Cohen ’89Y,AG,R was

named spiritual leader of Cong.

Agudath Sholom in Stamford, CT.

Formerly he was rabbi at Beth

Midrash Hagadol-Beth Joseph in

Denver, CO. He succeeds Rabbi MarkDratch ’79Y,R,F, who stepped down

after eight years to launch JSAFE,

the Jewish Institute Supporting an

Abuse-Free Environment.

Mark Lehrman ’86Y,B is the new direc-

tor of YU’s S. Daniel Abraham Israel

Program. Formerly assistant director of

admissions heading up YU’s recruit-

ment efforts in Israel, he works closely

with Howard Weisband, President

Richard M. Joel’s senior adviser on

Israeli affairs, to develop additional

services and programming for YU’s

students in Israel.

Dr. Ellen (Weinberg) Mausner ’81A

started an online dating service,

“DocDates” (www.DocDates.com) for

singles with advanced degrees.

Applicants must provide proof of a

degree higher than the baccalaureate.

Rabbi Nahum J. Spirn ’87Y,B,R and

wife Rebecca celebrated the birth of

Yeruchmiel Nissim. Mazal tov also to

A L U M N U S I S N E W O U P R E S I D E N T

Stephen J. Savitsky YH,’67Y, of Hewlett, Long

Island, was installed as the Orthodox Union’s presi-

dent at its Biennial National Convention in

Jerusalem in Nov ’04. Mr. Savitsky has been chair-

man of the board since the last OU Convention, in

Dec. ’02. He succeeds Harvey Blitz, who has

served as OU president since 2001.

Actively involved with the OU for more than 15

years, in addition to being chairman of the board,

he has served as dinner chairman, chairman of several missions to Israel,

and chairman of the Community and Synagogue Services Commission. He

also headed the Human Resources Commission and has been a member

of the OU Executive team for over a decade.

Mr. Savitsky has held many additional leadership positions in the

Jewish community, including president of the Vaad Hakashrus of the Five

Towns and Far Rockaway; founder and president of the Kew Gardens Hills

eruv; president of Cong. Ansche Chesed in Hewlett; and board chairman

of Mesivta Ohr Torah in Forest Hills, NY. He is a member of the

International Board of Governors of the Mesorah Heritage Foundation.

Stephen has also represented the OU as a scholar-in-residence at numer-

ous synagogues across the US.

Mr. Savitsky is president and board chairman at ATC Health Care

Services, a nationwide provider of temporary medical staffing. He also

founded and served as CEO and board chairman at Tender Loving

Care–Staff Builders, one of the nation’s largest providers of home health

care services. He received an MBA from Bernard Baruch Graduate School

of Business, CUNY, with a specialization in finance and marketing.

The new OU president is married to Genie (Regina Tennenbaum)

YH,’68S. They have four children: Julie YH,’89S (married to Shabsi

Schreier YH,’85Y), Avi ’93Y (married to Cheryl Stein), Penina YH,’97

(married to Zvi Wiener), and Estie (married to Yehuda Berman). The

Savitskys have 12 grandchildren.

n classnotes

Rabbi Azriel (Jeremy) Rosner ’95Y,AG,R is rosh midrasha of the Tiferet Center

for Advanced Torah Studies for Women, a new Israel program for American

post high-school young women slated to open in Sept. ’05 in Ramat Beit

Shemesh. He expects to begin with 49 students from the US, Canada, and

England, and he is already looking for a new building to accommodate up to

120 students. Alumna Leba (Stark) Schneider ’97S and a BRGS master’s

program student, serves as director of student affairs. For information about

Tiferet, visit www.tiferetcenter.com.

grandparents Rabbi Charles Spirn’47Y,R and wife Dr. Regina.

n Personal News

Pam (Schlanger) YH,’94S and DovBluth ’88Y celebrated the birth of

triplets, Yisrael Aryeh, Baruch, and

Dovid.

Mazal tov to Dr. Joshua BrickmanYH,’81Y and wife Sharon on the bat

mitzvah of daughter Nicole Gabrielle,

in Israel. Mazal tov also to grandpar-

ents Rabbi Seymour Brickman ’53Y,R

and wife Devora.

Dr. Rose (Russo) ’95W and AdamGleicher ’86Y, YU investment account-

ing manager, announce the birth of

son Max Joseph.

Rochelle (Baum) ’79TIW and RabbiStanley Gordon ’80R celebrated the

bar mitzvah of son Hillel. Mazal tov

also to grandparents Rabbi James I.Gordon ’44Y,R and wife Malka, and

Rabbi Eli H. Baum ’54R and wife

Margo.

Ronit (Ben-Ami) ’91S and AdamGreenblum ’88Y, of Alon Shevut, Israel,

announce the birth of fifth child

Yitzchak.

Mazal tov to Rabbi Nathaniel HelfgotYH,’85Y,AG,R and Rachel Brenner, a

2003 graduate of the YU Graduate

Program for Women in Advanced

Talmudic Studies, on the birth of third

child Nehemia Devir. Mazal tov also to

grandmother Dr. Rosa Perla ResnickHelfgot ’76W.

Daniel Katsman ’81Y,R,B and wife

Hannah, of Petach Tikva, Israel, cele-

brated the bar mitzvah of son Hayim

Yeshurun. Mazal tov also to grand-

parents Rabbi Phillip Katsman ’51Y,R,

Dr. Ben Zion Wacholder ’51Y,R, and

Elizabeth Krukowsky.

Batia Lampert-Clark ’89S and husband

Vincent, of Savannah, GA, announce

the birth of fifth child Jaiden Aaqil.

Judy (Klipper) ’86S and ReuvenRosenstark ’88Y,AG,R celebrated the

bar mitzvah of third son Yechezkel

Shlomo.

Richard Saffern ’89SB and wife

Stefanie announce the birth of their

first sabra, Netanel Yisrael.


Adam J. Berner ’90SB,B,C,R, CSL

adjunct professor teaching mediation,

was named president of the Family

and Divorce Mediation Council of

Greater New York. This nonprofit

organization is dedicated to developing

family mediation in and around NYC.

David Borowich ’91Y is one of four US

winners of the inaugural 2004 Herzl

Award, presented by the Department

for Zionist Activities of the World

Zionist Organization for exceptional

volunteer efforts on behalf of Israel

and the Zionist cause. David was cited

for his activist days at YU when, in

1991, he helped organize Operation

Torah Shield, which brought 400 YU

students to Israel during the Persian

Gulf War. Also, the award acknowl-

edged his creating the J2J Network,

which links young Jewish business

people and strengthens ties to Israel,

and Dor Hadash, which links young

Israelis and American Jews.

Tsipi (Goffen) YH,’92W and Dr. JerryHawk ’90Y, an orthodontic surgeon,

live in Silver Spring, MD, with their

four children. He has been working at

Bethesda Naval Hospital in

Washington, DC.

Rabbi Benjamin G. Kelsen ’94Y,C,R, an

attorney, was scholar in residence dur-

ing Hanukkah in the Giffnock-

Newlands Synagogue in Glasgow,

Scotland. Also, he was guest rabbi at

the Yorkville Synagogue, where he

spoke on the halakhic response to the

death of one’s enemies.

Shea Z. Lerner ’99W is director of

development, New York College of

Osteopathic Medicine/New York

Institute of Technology, the second

largest medical school in the US. He

resides in Plainview, NY, with wife

Pamela and son Noah Jacob.

Yosef Levine YH,’99SB and wife Chaya

Rivka were honored with the Young

Leadership Award at the Anshei

Lubavitch Outreach Center inaugural

dinner, in April.

Moshe Milevsky ’90Y, of Toronto, won

the annual My One and Only stock-

picking contest sponsored by The

Globe and Mail three years in a row. A

finance professor at York University

and author of financial books, he was

featured in the lead article of a recent

issue of Lifestyles magazine.

n Personal News

Miriam (Gaisin) ’93S and RabbiElchanan Adler ’95AG, rosh yeshiva at

MYP/RIETS, announce the birth of a

son, Yaakov Meir.

Mazal tov to Aliza Berger-Cooper ’92B

and husband Dov, of Jerusalem, on

the birth of their bekhor, Dvir Barnea.

Rivka (Rosenzweig) ’96S and Dr. ScotChudnoff ’96Y,A announce the birth of

third child Chananel Shimon. Mazal

tov also to grandparents Dr. PeterRosenzweig ’71Y and wife Bobbie, and

Mark and Shirley Chudnoff.

Cindy (Wagner) Haynes ’92S and hus-

band Joshua announce the birth of

daughter Jessica Aliza (Leora Aliza).

Laurie (Katzman) YH,’95S,C and NatanHecht YH,’95Y,C announce the birth of

daughter Rena Rachel in June ’04.

Mazal tov to Melissa (Gabel) ’94S and

Jay Keehn YH’90 on the birth of fourth

child Atara Olivia. Also, Jay received a

PhD in education leadership and

counseling from Barry University, FL.

The family lives in Boca Raton.

Mazal tov to Rabbi Uriel LubetskiYH,’96Y,B, acting assistant principal

last year at YUHS, on his marriage to

Shani Brukner. Mazal tov also to par-

ents Prof. Edith Lubetski ’68B, head

librarian at SCW’s Hedi Steinberg

Library, and husband Dr. Meir; and

Harry Brukner YH’72 and wife Linda.

Heshy Neuman YH,’99SB and wife Liba

celebrated the birth of daughter Malka

Raizel. Mazal tov also to grandparents

Ann (Hook) YH’62 and Rabbi GaryPollack YH,’64Y,R,F.

Dr. Donald L. Paine ’97W announces

his marriage to Deborah E. Goodwin,

an educator in Gibraltar. He is a

certified clinical marriage and family

therapist with a private practice

(www.parakalein.org).

Dr. Zippora (Feuer) Razin ’95S and

husband Ely celebrated the birth of

second child Yehuda Simcha Leib.

Mazal tov also to grandparents StuartRazin ’63Y,I,F, Canadian Friends of YU

national director, and wife Marsha; Dr.

Ezra (and Deborah Shapiro) Feuer ’70Y;

and Harriet Feuer.

Aryeh (Lawrence) Sanders ’99Y

announces his marriage to Dr. Dvora

Shmulewitz. Mazal tov also to parents

Gail (Aranoff) Sanders ’70S and hus-

band Chaim.

Nava (Bardash) ’94S and AvieSchreiber ’95Y announce the birth of a

son, Tzvi Nachum.

Esti (Rosen) ’97S and Adam Snukal’97Y celebrated the birth of son

Yaakov Moshe. Adam is executive vice

president and general counsel at

Spiral Solution, LTD., an international

advertising agency and developer of

mobile technology based in Israel.

Serena (Iglicki) YH’90, an attorney,

and Aaron J. Solomon ’97SB celebrat-

ed the birth of triplets in 2004. Yehuda

Wolfe, Haddassah Gittel, and Arianna

Bella were also welcomed by sister

Shoshana Dafna. Aaron is vice

president of Goldman Sachs in fixed

income technology.

Tzippy (Metzger) ’02S and Mark Staum’99Y,W celebrated the birth of second

child Eli.

David Swidler ’97Y and wife Naomi

announce the birth of a son, Eliezer

Zvi. Mazal tov also to grandparents

Simon Swidler YH’63 and wife Sonja.

Mazal tov to Rachel Teitelbaum ’99A

and husband Gil on the bar mitzvah of

son Eli.

Gil Yoshor ’88Y and wife Hdar cele-

brated the birth of a daughter, Adira.

Faige (Zavin) ’95S and MichaelTrapunsky ’94SB celebrated the birth

of twin boys, Eli and Yehuda.

Benjamin Waltuch YH,’92SB and wife

Debbie announce the birth of second

daughter Adira Michal. Mazal tov also

to grandparents Rabbi Marvin Waltuch’66Y,R and wife Rosalie.


Benji Zimmerman YH’96 and wife Alisa

announce the birth of son Yisroel Dov.

Mazal tov also to grandparents SherryZimmerman ’74S and husband Saul,

and Tova Rhein YH’67 and DannyRhein ’70Y,R.

Zippy (Ellenbogen) Zwiebel ’91SB,C

and husband Tomi announce the birth

of third child Lea Talia Sara, born in

2004.

’00sn Personal News

Mazal tov to Rena (Rosenzweig) ’02S

and Ahron Glazer ’04Y on the birth of a

daughter, Ariana Yakira. Mazal tov also

to grandparents Dr. Peter Rosenzweig’71Y and wife Bobbie, and Jeffrey and

June Glazer, senior writer/editor in

YU’s Communications and Public

affairs department.

Raizy Gorfinkel ’03S announces her

marriage to Aryeh Yanofsky. Mazal tov

also to parents Phyllis (Zimilover)’78TIW and Paul Gorfinkel ’75Y.

Mazal tov

to Anne(Mogilevich)’01C and

AlexanderLumelsky ’01C on the birth of son

Samuel Michael.

CONDOLENCES

Rabbi Saul Aranov ’59Y,R,B on the loss

of his father, Louis.

Dr. Karen (Kermaier) Bacon ’64S, The

Dr. Monique C. Katz Dean, SCW, Dr.Alan ’64Y, and Bruce YH’71 Kermaieron the loss of their mother, Esther.

Roz (Shelkowitz) Berlin YH’59 on the

loss of her brother, Bennett.

Steven Billauer ’72Y, Linda Derovan’72S and Barbara Price on the loss of

their father, Stanley.

Paul Brusiloff, CSL board member, on

the loss of his father, Eugene.

Rabbi Jacob Hoenig ’70Y,R and FreddaFinkelstein YH,’68TIW on the loss of

their brother, Hershy. He was the son

of the late Prof. Sidney B. HoenigYH,’31R, former BRGS dean.

Ed Fox ’75Y,CTI, deputy to YU presi-

dent, on the loss of his father, Stanley.

Allan Friedman YH,’68Y, of

Hashmonaim, Israel, on the loss of his

mother, Sylvia.

Paula (Goldstein) From ’71S SCAA past

president, on the loss of her father,

Jacob.

Rabbi Ira YH,’69Y,R,B, and AbbaKronenberg YH’72, and Evelyn Heller

on the loss of their mother, Gertrude.

Dr. Abraham M. Mann ’59Y,B,R, direc-

tor of development for RIETS; Dr.Jonah Mann YH,’54Y,R,BS, and EstherSnyder ’65S on the loss of their father,

Rabbi Jacob Mann. With his late wife,

Isabelle, Rabbi Mann established

scholarships at YC and SCW and was

a Guardian of YU.

Menno and Helen Ratzker, YU

Guardians, on the loss of his mother,

Paula.

Dr. Howard, YH,’66Y, Dr. Stephen’63Y,A, and Dr. Nathan YH,’71Y,A

Rothman on the loss of their mother,

Anita; and to Jerry Rothman on the

loss of his wife.

Michael and Fiona Scharf, YU

Benefactors, on the loss of his mother,

Blanche.

Rabbi Label Sharfman ’87B on the loss

of his father, Rabbi Zalman (Solomon).

Larry ’71Y, Rabbi Joshua ’00Y

Strulowitz and Sari Kahn ’02S on the

loss of their mother and grandmother,

Gertrude.

Shevi (Werner) Yudin YH,’64TIW and

Judi (Werner) Goldberg YH’64 on the

loss of their mother, Sarah.

Rabbi Dov Zakheim ’70Y,R on the loss

of his father, Rabbi Jacob.

WE MOURN

Lisa (Goldenberg) Altman YH,’93C, in

Oct. ’04. Condolences to her husband,

Michael, her parents, PhillipGoldenberg ’64Y and his wife Idella,

brother David ’96Y, and sister Debra.

Rabbi Henry Hanoch Book YH,’60Y,

R,W, in March ’05. Condolences to his

wife, Esta (Weinreb) YH,’65TIW;

children Chaim YH,’87Y, Mordechai’92Y,C, Dr. Samuel (Ephraim) YH,’93Y,

Yitzchak and Miriam Maron; siblings

Dr. Joseph YH,’56Y,A, and NormaBruckner YH’63.

Remembering Coach Wettstein1922–2004

For those who knew him, Hyman

Wettstein was a renaissance man. He

began coaching the MTA (YUHS-Boys)

basketball team in 1938. From 1939

to 1941 he also coached the YU

Mighty Mites team, compiling a 20–18

record.

In 1941, Coach Wettstein joined

the US Navy and worked with men who

became disabled in battle. After the

war, he was appointed chief of correc-

tive therapy at the Bronx VA Hospital,

and directed and produced “Courage

Takes the Wheel,” a film about a paraplegic Israeli war vet who Coach

taught to drive. Both the US Veterans Administration and the Israeli

Minister of Defense presented Coach with a special award for his efforts.

In 1945, he returned to YUHSB, leading its hoopsters for the next 28

years and cofounding the Metropolitan Jewish High School League. From

1951 to 1954, Coach’s teams won 60 games and lost just 5, capturing

three consecutive championships and three playoff titles. In 1953 and

1954, YUHSB posted a record of 19–1, which included victories of

106–19 (the school’s first 100-point game) and 103–37. The team’s lone

loss was a 70–69 heartbreaker. Coach Wettstein compiled a lifetime

record at YUHSB of 413–170.

Hy Wettstein passed away Dec. 6, 2004 in Port Washington, NY, at

the age of 92. He is survived by sons Howard ‘65YC and Joel, daughter

Ellen Sokol, eight grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

n classnotes

A, AECOM Albert Einstein College of Medicine • AG Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish

Education and Administration • BG, BGSS Belfer Institute for Advanced Biomedical

Sciences • B, BRGS Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies • BSJM Philip and

Sarah Belz School of Jewish Music • CTI Cantorial Training Institute • C, CSL Benjamin

N. Cardozo School of Law • F, FGS Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology • I, IBC Isaac

Breuer College of Hebraic Studies • J, JSS James Striar School of General Jewish Studies

• MSDCS Max Stern Division of Communal Services • Y, MYP Yeshiva Program/Mazer

School of Talmudic Studies • SBMP Irving I. Stone Beit Midrash Program • R, RIETS

Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary • S, SCW Stern College for Women • SG

Sue Golding Graduate Division of Medical Sciences • SB, SSSB Sy Syms School of

Business • T, TI Teachers Institute • T, TIW Teachers Institute for Women • W, WSSW

Wurzweiler School of Social Work • Y, YC Yeshiva College • YH, YUHS Yeshiva

University High Schools (MSTA The Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy) (SWHSG

Samuel H. Wang Yeshiva University High School for Girls)


Rabbi Isaac Ciechonowicz ’43Y,R, in

Jerusalem.

Harold Feld, in Feb. ’05. He was a YU

Guardian with his wife, Isabel. Together

they established the Gerald Feld

Memorial Fund in memory of their

son. Condolences to his daughter,

Stephanie, and grandson Ben Harris.

Dr. Charles W. Frank, AECOM professor

of medicine, in Nov. ’04. Among the

earliest Einstein faculty members, he

set up a cardiac catheterization labo-

ratory there and became one of the

preeminent teachers of clinical cardiol-

ogy and cardiovascular physiology.

Condolences to the entire family.

Rabbi Morris S. Friedman YH,’44I, in

Feb. ’05. He was rabbi emeritus of

Temple Hillel in North Woodmere, NY,

and past president of the NY Board of

Rabbis. Condolences to his wife,

Adelaide, and to the entire family.

Rabbi Moshe Gershinsky YH,’44Y, in

March ’05. Condolences to his wife,

Devorah ’73F, and children AhituvYH,’75Y,W, Shoshana Solow YH’67,

Shulamith Fass YH,’66TIW, and ZivaShapiro ’83S.

Dr. Morton Gordon ’47R,B, in March

’05. He served for several decades as

spiritual leader of Temple Torah of

Little Neck, NY. Condolences to his

wife, Anna, and children Jonathan and

Sandra.

Rabbi Samuel Z. Jaffe ’39TI,’43Y, in

Aug. ’04. He was senior rabbi of

Temple Beth El in Hollywood, FL,

1958–91, and rabbi of Temple Shaarei

Shalom in Boynton Beach, FL,

1991–99. An author and lecturer, he

was associate professor of religion at

Barry University and a lecturer in

Jewish history at Miami–Dade Junior

College. He held the Rabbi Samuel Z.

Jaffe Chair in Jewish Studies at Bar-

Ilan University. Condolences to his

wife, Edythe, and children MicheleKatz ’86W, Arvin, and Joshua.

Rabbi Michael Katz YH,’45Y,B, RIETS

rosh yeshiva for 59 years, in Feb. ’05.

He was the first rosh yeshiva appoint-

ed to the Bible faculty at YC. Also, he

was spiritual leader of Cong. Petach

Tikvah, Bronx, NY, for 20 years.

Condolences to his wife, Rebbetzin

Hinda, children Zahava Jeff YH,’70S

and Yitzchak Katz, grandchildren, and

great grandchildren.

Max Phillip Milians in Feb. ’05. He

and his wife, Ruth, established a

scholarship fund and provided gener-

ous support at RIETS. Condolences to

her, and to his siblings, Shep Milians,

Ida Goldstein, and Muriel Siegel.

Aaron Rosenbaum ’34Y, in March ’05.

A businessman and NJ Jewish com-

munal leader, the Yeshiva of North

Jersey was renamed in his honor last

Jan. Condolences to his wife,

Rosalind; children Chana Senter’58S,F, Rabbi Yitzchak ’60Y,R,B, EstherScharf ’70S, and Yehuda ’75Y,B,R; and

brother Cantor Jacob H. Rosenbaum,

a RIETS Board of Trustees member.

Marcus Rosenberg, in Feb. ’05. A

philanthropist and leader of the Jewish

community in Dallas, TX, he was a YU

Guardian with his wife, Ann. They

established the Marcus and Ann

Rosenberg Scholarship Fund. Con-

dolences to Ann; to his children Helen

Waks; Steven; Sheri P. Rosenberg,

CSL clinical professor of law; and Lizzy

Greif; to Randy Pulitzer, widower of

Margot Rosenberg; to his grandchil-

dren; and to siblings Emanuel Rohan,

David Rosenberg, and Erica Sigal.

Jerome Rosenblum ’41Y, in Feb. ’05.

Condolences to his wife, Sylvia, and to

his children Nina Cohen ’67S,W,

Jay ’70Y,A, Neil ’73Y, Estee Shor ’76S,

and Aviva Romras ’84S.

Pauline Shapiro, in Feb. ’05. With her

husband, the late Louis Shapiro, she

was a YU Guardian. Among their con-

tributions were the establishment of a

large Reading Room in the Mendel

Gottesman Library, scholarship funds,

and sponsorship of YC publications

and of the annual Mishnayos Bekiyus

Competition at YUHS. Condolences to

her children, Martin, Harvey, and

Sheila Rosler.

Rabbi Herbert Witkin YH’51,R.

Condolences to his wife, Pearl; chil-

dren Joshua YH,’76Y,C, Aviva Akerib’91S, Haskel, Marilyn, Mordecai, and

Rachel; and to brother Rabbi JerryWitkin ’61R.

Diana Zborowski, in Dec. ’04. She and

husband Eli, both Polish Holocaust

survivors, established the Eli and

Diana Zborowski Professorial Chair in

Interdisciplinary Holocaust Studies,

the first academic chair in that field

in the US.

SCHOOL / CLASS ____________________

NAME (FIRST) __________________________ (LAST) ____________________________

(MAIDEN)______________________________________________________________

ADDRESS ____________________________________________________________________

CITY, STATE, ZIP ____________________________________________________________

PHONE (HOME) ________________________ (OFFICE) __________________________

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MY NEWS: __________________________________________________________________

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______________________________________________________________________________

SEND OR FAX TO: Office of University Alumni Affairs,

500 West 185th Street, New York, NY 10033-3201.

Phone 212-960-5373 • FAX: 212-960-5336 • Email: [email protected]

Your news is our news!

If you’ve got a new job, promotion, hobby that’s become a

“second career,” new book, award, community service honor,

addition to the family, etc., we’d like to hear about it.

Please include complete information and, if possible, a head

shot or good quality photo.


Judah S. Harris ’87Y, a photojournalist and fine-art photographer, debuted his

new Web site, www. judahsharris.com. He invites fellow alumni and friends to

visit it and view his work.

t wasn’t long after the Bolshevik Revo-lution of 1917. The Russian Com-munists prohibited males over age 13from leaving the country, so LouSchneidman escaped under a load ofhay in a horse-drawn cart. When hegot to America, the handsome, 6'2"

Lou espied the diminutive Ida Rappaport andeventually married her, much to the chagrin ofthe taller girls, says their daughter, TobyMcErlean. Lou and Ida dedicated their lives tohard work and believed in education. Toby andher brother David established the SchneidmanUndergraduate Student Scholars Program atYeshiva University in 2005 to honor the mem-ory of Lou and Ida, and also their late brother,Jackie. Lou passed away in 1962 and Ida diedin 2004. YU Review spoke with Toby recentlyabout the Scholars Program.

YUR: How were your parents involved in thecommunity? What type of work did they do?TM: My mom was a Red Cross volunteer dur-ing World War Two. She was very warm. Veryvivacious. Very kind. In later years, she volun-teered at hospitals in Pensacola [Florida] andFar Rockaway [New York]. She did whateverwas asked, from carrying bedpans to clericalwork. She also taught English-as-a-Second-Language at Pensacola Junior College. Andshe sponsored poor children from abroad andstayed in contact with many of them for years.She’d send money and gifts and cards. My

father was simply a very giving and gentle manin all facets of his life.

YUR: A key to the Scholars Program is that thestudents be in need of financial help. Itsounds like helping children was one of yourmother’s priorities.TM: Both my parents felt strongly that assis-tance should go to children whose parentscould not afford the cost of a good education.

YUR: Your parents are the primary inspirationbehind the Schneidman scholarships. Butyour deceased brother is also honored throughthem. Tell us about him.TM: My brother’s name was Charles Jacob,but we called him Jackie. When he was in theUS Air Force, they called him Charlie. What I

like to say about Jackie is that he had a talentfor living. By that I mean he loved life somuch. He had plans to move to Colorado, butdecided to spend one last year in New Yorkand had a heart attack and died on the streetsof city when he was only 39.

YUR: Had your mother or father ever ex-pressed an interest in endowing an education-al scholarship? Why did you and David estab-lish one at YU?TM: Oh, this would surpass their wildestdreams. My father felt very strongly aboutJewish education. He wanted kids to learnabout Jewish life and Jewish law and theHebrew language. He played an active role inShaaray Tefila, his synagogue in Far Rockaway,where he was very much influenced by thewonderful Rabbi Emanuel Rackman [formerYU provost]. To the amazement of Hebrewteachers, my father spent a good deal of timevisiting their classrooms, encouraging them inevery possible way. After my father died, mymother established a scholarship in his nameat Shaaray Tefila.

As for choosing YU, the main reason wasits tie to Judaism. Jewishness was so impor-tant to my parents and YU was like a shiningstar to them. Anyone who went to YU hadreached beyond the pale. Tears come to myeyes when I think of how humbled but proudthey would be to have a scholarship at YU tohonor their names.

I

FOR INFORMATION ABOUT ESTABLISHING A SCHOLARSHIP OR ENDOWMENT AT YESHIVA UNIVERSITY TO HONOR A LOVED

ONE, PLEASE CONTACT HENRY T. RUBIN, JD, DIRECTOR OF PLANNED GIVING, TOLL FREE AT 877-983-3857 OR 212-960-0870;

FAX TO 212-960-0869; E-MAIL [email protected]

The GiftThat MattersHonoring the memoryof loved ones

Jewishness wasso importantto my parentsand YU was likea shining starto them.”

“

Jackie, Lou, and Ida Schneidman

500 WEST 185TH STREET

NEW YORK, NY 10033-3201

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YESHIVA UNIVERSITY REVIEW Fall 2005

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