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Yeshiva College • Stern College for Women • Sy Syms School of Business • Albert Einstein College of Medicine • Benjamin

N. Cardozo School of Law • Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology • Wurzweiler School of Social Work • Bernard Revel

Graduate School of Jewish Studies • Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration • affiliated Rabbi Isaac

Elchanan Theological Seminary / Philip and Sarah Belz School of Jewish Music / YU High Schools • Yeshiva University Museum

YU.eduYESHIVA UNIVERSITY NEWS BRIEFS • NOVEMBER 20, 2003

■ JUBILEE FAMILY DAY, THE FIRST EVENT IN THE

yearlong celebration of the 50th anniversary ofStern College for Women, took place Nov. 2 at ThePuck Building in Manhattan. More than 500 alum-ni, friends, staff and their children attended. Prizesranging from a vacation for two on St. Martin anda Sony laptop computer to Shabbat dinner for sixfrom Prestige Caterers and various sporting eventtickets were raffled by President Richard M. Joel,Marjorie Diener Blenden Chairman of Stern’s Boardof Directors, Karen Bacon ’64S, Dr. Monique C. KatzDean, event organizers Sharon Herzfeld ’88S andSusan Ungar ’87S, and Stern development directorJoan Apple. For information on forthcoming Jubileeevents, contact Joan Apple at 212-340-7863.

■ PRESIDENT JOEL HOSTED THE FIRST TWO TOWN

Hall meetings of his tenure at the Midtown andWilf Campuses on Nov. 4. The meetings inaugurat-ed a series to be held on all four YU campuses andin which the president will address major topicsand issues related to the university. The Town Halldiscussions focused on President Joel’s vision andallowed the audience, including students, faculty,and staff, to ask questions.

■ STERN COLLEGE FOR WOMEN WILL HOST A

shabbaton at the Midtown Campus this month:• Nov. 21-22, Michlelet Mevaseret YerushalayimIsrael Alumnae Reunion Shabbaton. Rabbi AlanHaber and Rabbi Baruch Felberman will reunitewith their former talmidot and will offer inspiringdivrei (words of) Torah and shiurim (Torah lec-tures) to the women during Shabbat. Programincludes a Tish on Friday night and a MelaveMalka on Saturday night.

■ PRESIDENT JOEL HELPED KICK OFF THE

recruiting season by speaking at the opening ses-sions of the Stern College for Women/Sy SymsSchool of Business Open House on Nov. 9 and theYeshiva College/Sy Syms School of Business OpenHouse on Nov. 16. The events attracted nearly 700prospective students and their families primarilyfrom the Tri-State area and as far away asCalifornia. Highlights of each Open House includ-ed presentations by the faculty of the S. DanielAbraham and the Jay & Jeanie SchottensteinHonors Programs along with sessions conducted byYU’s Israel Admissions Counselors, who flew toNew York to speak with students interested in theS. Daniel Abraham Israel Program and to parents ofstudents currently in the program.

■ KAREN BACON, DR. MONIQUE C. KATZ DEAN

at Stern College for Women, will be honored at the79th Annual Hanukkah Dinner with YU’s first-ever

Presidential Medallion. The award recognizes DeanBacon for her dedication and contributions to theexcellence of Stern College and Yeshiva University.A 1964 graduate of Stern and former assistant pro-fessor of biology at Yeshiva College, she was nameddean in 1977.

■ THE 2003 YESHIVA COLLEGE BOOK PROJECT

host and a lecture by Tim O’Brien, author of this year’s featured text, The Things They Carried,a finalist for both the 1990 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, on Nov. 19, in Weissberg Commons, Wilf Campus. Mr. O’Brien spoke about his war experiences and writings.

■ MARGARET GIBELMAN, DSW, PROFESSOR AND

doctoral program director at Wurzweiler School ofSocial Work, was awarded a research grant by theOffice of Research Integrity at the US NationalInstitutes of Health. Dr. Gibelman is studyingwhether, and to what extent, universities educatestudents in the mental health disciplines in respon-sible research conduct. The research team includesTerry DiLorenzo, PhD, assistant professor of psy-chology at Stern College; Nigel Bark, MD, associateprofessor of clinical psychiatry at Albert EinsteinCollege of Medicine, and Alison Link, a PhD studentat WSSW who is assisting in the research.

■ PENINNAH SCHRAM, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

of speech and drama at Stern College, wrote theforeword to the just-published work, The GerardEdery Sephardic Song Book, which contains 40 musi-cal gems from the Sephardic oral tradition as wellas a CD. The book was co-published by TaraPublications and Sefarad Records. Professor Schramis author several books of her own, includingStories Within Stories: From the Jewish OralTradition.

■ EINSTEIN PROFESSOR OF NEUROLOGY

Richard Lipton and his colleagues recently publisheda national research study describing a new screen-ing technique for migraine headaches. In the jour-nal Neurology, Dr. Lipton identified a simple three-question test, called ID Migraine, for use by pri-mary care internists and family physicians. Thethree questions are: Have your headaches causedyou to feel nauseated or sick to your stomach?Does light bother you when you have a headache?Have headaches limited you ability to work, study,or conduct daily activities for at least a full day? Dr. Lipton reports that if you answer yes to two ofthe three questions, there is a 93 percent probabili-ty that a headache specialist would diagnose youwith a migraine.

■ FOR THE EIGHTH CONSECUTIVE YEAR,

Yeshiva University ranks in the top tier of US News& World Report’s annual list of the nation’s top col-leges. More significantly, YU rates with ColumbiaUniversity and New York University as among thetop three universities in the New York metro area.In the rankings’ most competitive category of theBest National Universities – Doctoral (top 50), YUplaced 40th, tying with Boston College and theUniversity of Illinois.

■ DR. RONALD BRESLOW, S.L. MITCHILL

Professor of Chemistry, Columbia University, delivered the Dr. Ira Kukin Lecture, “The Chemis-try-Biology Interface,” on November 12. Dr.Breslow received his undergraduate and graduatetraining at Harvard University, where he did hisPhD research. Dr. Breslow spent a year inCambridge, England as a postdoctoral fellow andjoined Columbia in 1956 as Instructor inChemistry. His research focuses on the design andsynthesis of new molecules with interesting proper-ties, and the study of these properties.

■ JOANNA MELLOR, DSW, WAS APPOINTED

assistant professor, Wurzweiler School of SocialWork. Her research interests include social welfarepolicy, education, administration, and gerontology.She taught at Hunter College School of SocialWork, CUNY, and was most recently vice presidentfor information services, Lighthouse International,a not-for-profit organization offering resources onvision impairment and rehabilitation. Susan E.

Mason, PhD, and Daniel Pollack, JD, previously asso-ciate professors at Wurzweiler, have become fullprofessors. Ruth Bigman, MSW, former assistantdirector of field instruction, is the new WSSWdirector of admissions, and Donna Harris, MSW, hasassumed Ms. Bigman’s previous position.

■ MAC MADNESS, THE ANNUAL KICK-OFF OF THE

university’s winter sports season, featured the tradi-tional student-faculty basketball game at the MaxStern Athletic Center, Nov. 19. In addition to thegame and a raffle, all Wilf and Midtown athleticteams were introduced.

■ RESEARCHERS AT EINSTEIN RECEIVED GRANTS

totaling $9.1 million toward researching cancer,aging, diabetes, and kidney disease in the comingyear. The US National Institutes of Health (NIH)awarded the grants to the following Einstein facul-ty members, who will each receive at least$500,000 to support their work: John Condeelis,PhD, co-chair and professor of anatomy and struc-tural biology; Nir Barzilai, MD, director of Einstein’sInstitute for Aging and Research and associate pro-

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fessor of medicine; Luciano Rossetti, MD, director ofthe Diabetes Research and Training Center and theJudy and Alfred A. Rosenberg Professor of DiabetesResearch; George Christ, PhD, the Ben MardenDistinguished Scholar in Urology and professor ofurology and physiology & biophysics; Jill Crandall,MD, assistant professor of medicine; and Victor

Schuster, MD, the Ted and Florence BaumritterProfessor of Medicine.

■ JEFFREY SOCOL YH,’85Y, YU’S SENIOR

associate director of facilities management, washonored Nov. 2, along with his wife, Rivka YH ’87,and his brother, Steven YH ’86 and Steven’s wife,Leslie, by Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills. TheSocols were recognized for their dedication andcommitment to the organization.

■ WURZWEILER SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK HOSTS

an Open House on the Wilf Campus, Jan. 11, 2004,12:45 pm – 3 pm. The Open House enablesprospective students to meet with faculty, alumni,and current students and to learn about WSSW’smany programs. For more information contact theWSSW Office of Admissions at 212.960.0810.

■ A STUDY CONDUCTED BY RESEARCHERS AT

Einstein shows that people who live to be 100appear to have larger-than-average cholesterol-car-rying molecules or lipoproteins. The study, pub-lished recently in The Journal of the AmericanMedical Association follows other evidence that thesize of the lipoproteins may spur longevity. Eightypercent of centenarians surveyed by researcherspossessed an unusually high proportion of largelipoproteins, while only 8 percent of a controlgroup in their 60s and 70s had the larger lipopro-teins. Dr. Nir Barzilai, director of the Institute forAging at Einstein, who led the study, said, “Largeparticle size seems to give people an extra 20 yearsof life, with very little disability to go along withit.” The large lipoproteins appear to have geneticorigins as opposed to diet or exercise.

■ THE ISRAELI NATIONAL WRESTLING TEAM WAS

in New York recently to attend the World FreestyleWrestling Championship at Madison SquareGarden. The team visited YU on Sept. 10, workedout in Muss Hall on the Wilf Campus, and helpedthe YU wrestling squad and the Marsha SternTalmudical Academy wrestling team with theirpractices. YU wrestling coach Neil Ellman, whotrained under YU’s first wrestling coach andOlympic gold medallist Henry Wittenberg, said theIsraeli team was impressed by the welcome YU pro-vided. In fact, Coach Ellman said that at theChampionship in Madison Square Garden the

Israeli wrestlers wore YU T-shirts given to them bystudents.

■ THE 58TH ANNUAL OPERA BENEFIT AND 21ST

Après Opera Gala of Yeshiva University Women’sOrganization took place Nov. 8, at the New YorkState Theater at Lincoln Center. Following the NewYork City Opera’s performance of Puccini’sTurandot, YUWO honored Beatrice Peyser and pre-sented the Distinguished Leadership Award to SCWboard member Toby Gotesman Schneier and FutureBuilders Award to Jodi (Mintz) Weisleder YH’85.Dinah Pinczower, National Chairman of the Boardof YUWO, presented President Joel with a check for $250,000 for the YUWO Torah Chesed Fund to help deserving and needy undergraduates withspecial needs.

■ THE YESHIVA UNIVERSITY HIGH SCHOOL FOR

Boys’ class of 1953 celebrated its 50-year reunionon the Wilf Campus at Weissberg Commons, Nov.2. More than 70 guests attended the event, whichwas chaired by Judah Mansbach YH’53 and includedan address by Herbert C. Dobrinsky YH,’54Y,R,F, vicepresident of university affairs and a 1950 graduateof the boys high school.

■ TWO EXHIBITIONS OPENED IN SEPTEMBER

at the Yeshiva University Museum. On Sept. 7, anexhibition geared toward young audiences,“Traders on the Sea Routes: 12th Century TradeBetween East and West,” opened at the museum.The exhibition explores the trade routes ofmedieval Jewish merchants via the Indian Oceanand the Mediterranean Sea. The exhibit includestwo expertly crafted model sailing vessels commis-sioned especially for this show. On Sept. 10,“Remembrance: Russian Post-Modern Nostalgia,”opened with works by the foremost Russian artistsof their generations.

■ THE STUDENT-RUN RADIO STATION WYUR IS

back “on the air” after a three-year hiatus. The sta-tion will be heard via the Internet atwww.yu.edu/stern/wyur_radio.htm. WYUR broad-casts from the third floor of the SchottensteinCenter, Wilf Campus, and features varied entertain-ment, including a rock-and-roll history show thatstation manager and YC student David Weinberg

says aims to teach listeners about the evolution ofrock. Approximately 40 men and 15 women areinvolved in WYUR’s rebirth and will serve as on-airpersonalities and producers.

■ MICHAEL BROWNLEE, MD, ANITA AND

Jack Saltz Professor of Diabetes Research and pro-fessor in the Department of Medicine (endocrinolo-

gy) and the Department of Pathology at AlbertEinstein College of Medicine, received the 2003Claude Bernard Medal from the EuropeanAssociation for the Study of Diabetes (EASD). Theaward was given to Dr. Brownlee for his contribu-tions to the understanding of diabetic complica-tions. The medal is considered the highest scientif-ic honor bestowed by the EASD and is recognizedas one of the world’s most prestigious awards fordiabetes research.

■ EINSTEIN’S CANCER CENTER IS OFFERING A

low-cost, six-session, smoking cessation programcreated by a licensed health psychologist. The pro-gram features a warm, supportive atmosphere,pharmacotherapy discussion with hospital physi-cian, self-hypnosis and relaxation training, guestspeakers, lips for breaking the habit, and tools for conquering urges and temptations. Groupsmeet at the Montefiore Medical Park and at theMontefiore Medical Center; day and time based onmembers’ availability. For more information call(718) 430-2200.

■ MICHAEL JAY WILDES, A GRADUATE 1989

graduate of YU’s Cardozo School of Law, and a for-mer assistant US Attorney in New York, was electedNov. 4 to a three-year term as mayor of Englewood,NJ. Mr. Wildes, a Democrat, is the son of LeonWildes’54Y, IBC.

■ JEFFREY M. ROSENGARTEN YH’69, WAS

appointed associate vice president of administrativeservices. Mr. Rosengarten, a 30-year veteran of YU,now oversees administrative and support servicesthroughout the university’s three Manhattan cam-puses. His responsibilities also encompass the man-agement of facilities, capital and infrastructureimprovements, security and safety, production-mailservices, food services, and community outreach.

■ CONDOLENCES ARE EXTENDED TO THE FAMILY

and friends of Judah Schwarz, a sophomore at SySyms School of Business who passed away inAugust. Judah spent a year and a half in Israel atShaarei Mevasseret Zion and entered Syms lastspring where he established a 4.0 GPA. Judah wasworking as a camp counselor at Camp Moshava inPennsylvania when he died from heart failure.

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