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Yeshiva University

Coordinates: 40°51′01″N 73°55′47″W / 40.85028°N 73.92972°W / 40.85028; -73.92972
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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 216.149.187.98 (talk) at 21:36, 19 April 2013 (Added "notable Staff" section to the notable section, and added Bernard Madoff. This information is relevant and important to the article, however perhaps a better method of inclusion can be thought of, I'm certainly open to ideas.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Yeshiva University
Mottoתורה ומדע (Hebrew)
Torah Umadda ("Torah and secular knowledge")
TypePrivate, Jewish
Established1886
EndowmentUS$1.1258 billion[1]
ChancellorNorman Lamm
PresidentRichard M. Joel
Academic staff
4,714
Undergraduates3,017
Postgraduates3,496
Location
New York
,
New York
CampusUrban
Slogan"Torah U'Madda"
NicknameMaccabees
Websitewww.yu.edu

Yeshiva University is a private university in New York City, with six campuses in New York and one in Israel. Founded in 1886, it is a research university not ranked in the Shangai ranking.

Yeshiva University’s undergraduate schools—Yeshiva College, Stern College for Women, and Syms School of Business— "offer a unique dual curriculum inspired by Modern-Centrist-Orthodox Judaism's hashkafa (philosophy) of Torah Umadda ("Torah and secular knowledge") combining the finest, contemporary academic education with the timeless teachings of Torah.”[2]

Yeshiva University’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, and other graduate and professional schools promote a “dual emphasis on professional excellence and personal ethics.”[2]

Yeshiva University is an independent institution chartered by New York State.[citation needed] It is accredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools[3] and by several professional agencies.[4]

History

Main article: History of Yeshiva University
David H. Zysman Hall, a Moorish Revival building on Yeshiva University's Wilf Campus, is home to the former main beit midrash (Torah study hall)

Yeshiva University is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States that combines Jewish scholarship with studies in the liberal arts, sciences, medicine, law, business, social work, Jewish studies and education, and psychology.[citation needed]

Yeshiva University has its roots in the Etz Chaim Yeshiva founded in 1886 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, a cheder-style elementary school founded by Eastern European immigrants that offered study of Talmud along with some secular education, including instruction in English.[citation needed]

As of August 2012,[5] Yeshiva University enrolls approximately 6,400 undergraduate students, 3,500 graduate students, and 1,000 students at its affiliated high schools and Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. It conferred 1,822 degrees in 2007 and offers community service projects serving New York, Jewish communities, the United States and Canada.[4]

Richard M. Joel is Yeshiva University's president, while Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm serves as chancellor. President Joel's nomination as president was unprecedented and considered by some to be controversial, because he is the first president of YU who is not a rabbi. The university's past leaders include Dr. Bernard Revel, Dr. Samuel Belkin, and "The Rav," Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik.

Campus

The University's main campus, Wilf Campus, is located in Washington Heights. A 1928 plan to build a spacious Moorish Revival campus around several gardens and courtyards was cancelled by the Great Depression of 1929 after only one building had been erected. Building continued after the Depression in modern style and by the acquisition of existing neighborhood buildings.[6] In the past 122 years, Yeshiva University has expanded to comprise some twenty colleges, schools, affiliates, centers, and institutions, with several affiliated hospitals and health care institutions. It has campuses and facilities in Manhattan (Washington Heights, Murray Hill, Greenwich Village), the Bronx, Queens, and Israel.

Student life

Yeshiva University maintains four campuses in New York City:

  1. The Resnick Campus in the Morris Park neighborhood of the eastern Bronx contains the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, along with dormitories, a library, a hospital and other medical facilities.
  2. The Brookdale Center in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of downtown Manhattan contains the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law, law clinics and office, and a dormitory. The Center for Jewish History, which includes the Yeshiva University Museum along with other institutions, is nearby in the Chelsea neighborhood.
  3. The Beren Campus in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Midtown Manhattan is home to the undergraduate schools for women, including Stern College for Women and the Midtown branch of the Syms School of Business, along with dormitories and other facilities. The Azrieli School has classes on this campus as well.
  4. The Wilf Campus is centered around the area of Amsterdam Ave and West 185th Street in the Washington Heights neighborhood of upper Manhattan. Yeshiva University's main office is located within the Wilf Campus, at 500 185th St.,[7] and Wilf is considered the main campus. It is home to the undergraduate schools for men, the rabbinical seminary, the Belz School of Jewish Music, the high school for boys, the Azrieli Graduate School for Jewish Education and Administration, the Wurzweiler School for Social Work, and the Bernard Revel Graduate school, along with other divisions, offices, libraries, dormitories, and other facilities.

The high school for girls is located in New York City as well, in the Holliswood neighborhood of eastern Queens.

S. Daniel Abraham Israel Program

The campus in Jerusalem, in the Bayit VeGan neighborhood, contains a branch of the rabbinical seminary and an office coordinating the S. Daniel Abraham Israel Program,[8] a formal arrangement between Yeshiva University and 42 men's and women's yeshivot in Israel that enables students to incorporate study in Israel into their college years. While studying in Israel, students are exposed to intense, concentrated study of Jewish subjects with top teachers while learning firsthand about Israel's land, people, history, and culture.

Yeshiva University Israel advisers visit each school regularly to offer academic guidance, career planning, and personal counseling. In addition, the program sponsors lectures and activities where students can gather under the auspices of Yeshiva University, and a guidance center to provide support to help ease the occasionally challenging adjustment to a year's study in Israel. Yeshiva University also cosponsors major events for American students in Israel, such as the Battle of the Bands and Inter-Seminary Choir Competition, and an annual career fair.

The program is headquartered at the Student Center at Yeshiva University's Israel Campus in the Bayit Vegan neighborhood of Jerusalem. Rabbi Ari Solomont serves as director of the program.[9]

Student government

Numerous clubs and activities are maintained by the students in each school, generally under the auspices of a student government. Activities are funded by a student activities fee collected by the school but freely distributed by the elected council. (Athletics are usually an academic department.) Each graduate school maintains a student council, such as the Student Bar Association at Cardozo, which, in turn, supports the many clubs and publications in each school.

At the undergraduate level, there are separate student governments on the two campuses. Although the two student governments are separate, they work closely in coordinating joint events. The men's schools are represented overall by the Yeshiva Student Union, and specifically by the Yeshiva College Student Association, the Syms Student Council, the Student Organization of Yeshiva (SOY, which represents both undergraduate MYP students as well as RIETS students), and student councils for SBMP, IBC, and JSS. The latter four run most Jewish-related activities on campus, including holiday celebrations and the famed SOY Seforim (Jewish book) sale annually around February, which is open to the general public and attracts large crowds from near and far. There are also individual councils for each class, council committees, a Student Court, and clubs.

The women's schools are represented by the Stern College and Syms Student Councils; there are also a Torah Activities Council, which coordinates Jewish-related events, and individual class councils, along with various clubs.

The various positions on all councils are chosen by elections open to all students (both as voters and candidates) generally held in the Spring (for the following year's councils), although Freshman and Sophomore class councils are elected in the Fall, the latter owing to the large number of students spending the freshman year abroad in Israel.

The undergraduate men's newspaper is The Commentator, and the undergraduate women's The Observer, as well as a co-ed satirical news site The Quipster; there is also a student newspaper (in addition to a number of law journals) at Cardozo. There are numerous other publications on a wide range of topics, both secular and religious, produced by the various councils and academic clubs, along with many official university publications and the university press. The call letters of the student radio station are WYUR, currently an Internet-only station, available at wyur.net.[10]

Dormitories and student housing

There are dormitory and dining facilities on each campus. Cardozo has a single dormitory building a block south of the classroom building, while Einstein has a number of student housing buildings on campus for single and married students.

Approximately 80% of the undergraduate student populations live on campus.

The Wilf Campus includes three main dormitory buildings: Morgenstern (nicknamed "Morg") Rubin, and Muss Halls. Many upperclassmen and some graduate students live in the surrounding independent housing that is run by the university or in other nearby buildings; there is also a small high school dormitory on campus, Strenger Hall, which houses some older students as well who serve as counselors.

The Beren campus includes four dormitory buildings: Brookdale, Schottenstein, the 36th Street and 35th Street Residence Halls. Many students live in university-administered independent housing nearby.

Athletics

Yeshiva University is home to a variety of NCAA-level sports teams. The teams, nicknamed "The Maccabees",[11] include: men's baseball, basketball, golf, volleyball, wrestling, women's basketball, Cross Country, Fencing, soccer, tennis, and volleyball.

One of the most successful teams in Yeshiva University sports history is the fencing team, known as the "Taubermen", named after the coach of the team, Professor Arthur Tauber, who served as the head coach of the team from 1949 through 1985.

Because of Yeshiva's dual curriculum, most of the sports teams practice at night, sometimes even as late as 11:00 pm. A few of the sports teams have been known to get in an early morning practice or workout before classes begin at 9:00 am.

One of the unique[citation needed] aspects of Yeshiva athletics is the way it connects with communities around the country. It is not rare for a team to participate in a weekend tournament outside of New York City and for the athletes to stay with local families in the area. Most recently this has taken place in Boston with the basketball and fencing teams, and in Hollywood, Florida with the baseball team in 2008. Yeshiva even maintains an international connection through the many international students who participate in NCAA sports. While some teams may only have one or two nationalities, others have as many as nine different nationalities representing the school on the sports field.[12]

Yeshiva has seen a few of its student-athletes go on to professional-level competition. Two members of the Yeshiva Maccabees Baseball team were drafted out of college by professional teams of the Israeli Baseball League. One of them, pitcher Aryeh Rosenbaum, even celebrated a championship with his team in the IBL's first year.[13]

Olympic gold medalist Henry Wittenberg was at one time the coach of the wrestling team.[14]

Yeshiva's Men's Basketball team is an annual playoff contender. The best era for Yeshiva basketball in recent history has been the first few years and last few years of the 1990s. Banners hang in the Max Stern Athletic Center commemorating seasons from both eras. The 2007–2008 season had particular note as Yeshiva was home to the NCAA Skyline Conference's Rookie of the Year.

The 2008–2009 season saw the men's NCAA volleyball team have its best season ever. Other teams that are quickly becoming contenders are the men's soccer, baseball, and tennis teams.[citation needed] In the 2009–2010 season, the men's NCAA volleyball team won the HVMAC (Hudson Valley Men's Athletic Conference) Championship.

In 2010, the Men's Cross Country team won the HVMAC Championship by a huge landslide. The team repeated as champions in 2011. YU Maccabee Sam Cohen won the individual championship.

Student groups and organizations

A wide variety of student clubs, groups, and organizations are run by the student body. The range of student groups includes the Commentator (a student newspaper) and the Yeshiva University Dramatics Society (YCDS) that puts on a performance each semester. A student-run group known as the Heights Initiative sponsors several outreach programs that work with the schools and organizations of the Washington Heights community. Student Government is run through YSU, YCSA, SOY-JSC, and SYMS. These four student run organizations hold weekly meetings with their respective councils and a weekly meeting with university administrators. Their goal is to help ensure that the student clubs and organizations are receiving the appropriate funding and support. Additionally, they run community events like the annual Hannukah Concert and a major carnival extravaganza celebrating Israel's independence day.

In 2009 students gathered together to create a "Tolerance Club", the purpose of which was to promote the idea of there being a diversity of people within the Yeshiva University community. The group was controversial on the Yeshiva University campus. This controversy came to a head when the Tolerance Club sponsored a panel discussion entitled "Being Gay in the Orthodox World" in December 2009. Several hundred people attended this panel discussion. Numerous Jewish news sources covered the panel and the conflict that enveloped the Yeshiva campus in its wake. The Tolerance Club disbanded in May 2010. " [15]

The Yeshiva University Medical Ethics Society (MES), is an undergraduate student-run organization of Yeshiva University which was founded by students in the fall of 2005 with the help of the Center for the Jewish Future toward the goal of promoting education and awareness of Jewish medical ethics in the university itself and the community at large. Since that time, MES working closely with the CJF has grown from a small group of students with common interests to running large-scale events with university-wide participation. In the first several years alone, they have hosted a diverse program of on-campus lectures by leading experts in the field of medical ethics and Halacha (Jewish law). Topics covered have included stem cell research, cloning, do not resuscitate orders, genetic testing, pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, and birth control. They also host genetic testing events to help combat the high incidence of various genetic diseases in the Jewish community. The Society hosts many events throughout the year, including a large, annual conference focused on a chosen medical ethics topic. The events are open to all those who have an interest in learning more about Jewish medical ethics. Students, teachers, rabbis, physicians, and laymen are welcome.

Rankings

The U.S. News and World Report's 2011 "America's Best Colleges" ranked Yeshiva University as the 45th best national University. In 2009 "America's Best Colleges" ranked Yeshiva University as the 50th best national university rising from the 2008 rank of 52nd. YU was also ranked 41st "Best Value" Colleges, and 5th in percentage of students studying abroad (90% of the class of 2007). Yeshiva University's Albert Einstein School of Medicine was ranked 41st in the nation.[16]

The Washington Monthly 2007 College Rankings placed Yeshiva University 94th nationally.[17] In a similar list, The Center for Measuring University Performance found Yeshiva University 45th nationally among the Top American Research Universities.[18]

YU has also received worldwide recognition. The Times Higher Education Supplement of the UK ranked it as 68th in the world in 2011,[19] a substantial jump from the 172nd top world university ranking it received in 2006 and the 254th ranking the school received in 2005.[20] According to Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the university is ranked in the 151–200 category among world universities and 76–98 among universities in the Americas.[21]

The university's national research impact has also been evaluated. The university's rank of research impact in Biology & Biochemistry placed 5th in the US by Thomson Reuters, surpassing Washington University, Stanford, Duke, and UCSF.[22]

Notable faculty, staff, and alumni

Notable Staff

  • Bernard Madoff, Prior Chairman of the Board of Directors, prior Treasurer. He was the operator of a Ponzi scheme that is considered to be the largest financial fraud in U.S. history.

Notable faculty

Notable alumni

See also

References

  1. ^ "U.S. and Canadian Institutions Listed by Fiscal Year 2011 Endowment Market Value and Percentage Change in Endowment Market Value from FY 2010 to FY 2011" (PDF). Copyright 2012 National Association of College and University Business Officers and Commonfund Institute. Retrieved March 10, 2012.
  2. ^ a b "Mission Statement". Yeshiva University. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
  3. ^ "Yeshiva University Accredited". Retrieved July 20, 2009.
  4. ^ a b This is Yeshiva University: 2007–2008
  5. ^ "About Yeshiva University". YU.edu. August 2012. Retrieved October 16, 2012.
  6. ^ "Building Bust, The unbuilt synagogues of the Great Depression". Tablet Magazine. August 20, 2009.
  7. ^ "Yeshiva University Campus Map" (PDF).
  8. ^ S. Daniel Abraham Israel Program Home Page
  9. ^ Rabbi Ari Solomont Named New Director of Israel Program
  10. ^ WYUR.net
  11. ^ "Yeshiva Maccabees homepage". Yeshiva Maccabees. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
  12. ^ "Players From Nine Countries Find Common Goal in Men's Soccer Team". Yeshiva University News. Yeshiva University. November 11, 2008. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
  13. ^ Mike Spinner (December 6, 2007). "Two former Yeshiva University Baseball players to compete in new Israeli Baseball League". Yeshiva Sports Information. Skyline Conference. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
  14. ^ Goldstein, Richard (March 10, 2010). "Henry Wittenberg, Champion Wrestler, Dies at 91". The New York Times. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
  15. ^ http://newvoices.org/2009/05/05/0073-2/. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  16. ^ Top Medical Schools 2011, U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved July 30, 2011.
  17. ^ The Washington Monthly College Rankings, Washington Monthly. Retrieved April 14, 2008.
  18. ^ The Top American Research Universities: 2006 Annual Report, The Center for Measuring University Performance. Retrieved July 29, 2007.
  19. ^ The Times higher Education world university ranking 2011. Accessed December 4, 2010
  20. ^ THES – QS World University Rankings 2006 – Top 200 Universities, The Times Higher Education Supplement. Retrieved July 28, 2007.
  21. ^ Academic Ranking of World Universities 2006 Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Retrieved July 29, 2007.
  22. ^ US University Top Tens Thomson Reuters. Retrieved July 28, 2008.
  23. ^ Rabbi Benjamin Blech (October 13, 2003). "YU Professor Publishes Ninth Book: Taking Stock: A Spiritual Guide to Rising Above Life's Financial Ups and Downs". Taking Stock. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
  24. ^ Herbert and Florence Tenzer Professor of Jewish Law and Ethics. "J. David Bleich". Profile. Cardozo. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
  25. ^ "Rabbi Shalom Carmy". Yeshiva University. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
  26. ^ Rabbi David Berger (November 23, 2005). "Rabbi David Berger: Professor of History, Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY". Rabbinical Council of America. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
  27. ^ "Core Faculty". Bernard Revel, Gradual School of Jewish Studies. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
  28. ^ Dr. Adam Zachary Newton. "?". Yeshiva University Faculty. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
  29. ^ "?". The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Archived from the original on March 6, 2008. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
  30. ^ "Rabbi Eliahu Baruch Shulman of Brooklyn Joins Faculty of Yeshiva University's Yeshiva Program/Mazer School of Talmudic Studies". Yeshiva University News. October 6, 2005. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
  31. ^ "Rabbi Dr. Jacob J. Schacter University Professor of Jewish History and Jewish Thought and Senior Scholar at the Center for the Jewish Future at Yeshiva University, New York, NY". Rabbinical Council of America. June 6, 2006. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
  32. ^ Rabbi Benjamin Yudin, Congregation Shomrei Torah. Retrieved March 27, 2008. "He pursued a dual graduate study program, earning smicha (rabbinic ordination) from Y. U.'s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, as well as a master's degree in Jewish History."
  33. ^ "Candidates / Howard Dean". CNN. February 18, 2004.
  34. ^ "ITIM Staff". ITIM Life, the Jewish-Life Information Center. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
  35. ^ Rabbi Dr. Barry Freundel. "Kesher Israel's rabbi for the past eighteen years is Rabbi Barry Freundel". Kesher Israel. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
  36. ^ Clyde Haberman (July 3, 1994). "June 26 – July 2: Hebron Massacre; Israel Says Gunman Acted by Himself". New York Times.
  37. ^ Shell E (January 1, 2002). "Chapter 4: On the Cutting Edge". The Hungry Gene: The Inside Story of the Obesity Industry. Atlantic Monthly Press. ISBN 978-1422352434.
  38. ^ Shell E (January 1, 2002). "Chapter 5: Hunger". The Hungry Gene: The Inside Story of the Obesity Industry. Atlantic Monthly Press. ISBN 978-1422352434.
  39. ^ Ephross, Peter (June 23, 2002). "Chaim Potok dead at age of 73, was literary pioneer and scholar". Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved August 27, 2010.

External links

Undergraduate schools

Graduate schools

Affiliates and centers

Scholarly and cultural resources

Student organizations

Other YU resources

40°51′01″N 73°55′47″W / 40.85028°N 73.92972°W / 40.85028; -73.92972

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