Richard M. Joel | |
---|---|
President Emeritus of Yeshiva University [1] | |
In office 2017- Present- Professor at YU | |
President of Yeshiva University [1] | |
In office 2003 - 2017 | |
Preceded by | Norman Lamm |
Succeeded by | Ari Berman |
Personal details | |
Spouse | Esther née Ribner |
Alma mater | New York University |
Occupation | attorney,professor,Leadership Guru |
Richard M. Joel is a Jewish scholar who was the fourth president of Yeshiva University (YU),a Modern Orthodox Jewish university in New York City. He has written on topics that include Jewish leadership,the BDS movement on college campuses,and civil discourse. [2]
Richard Joel received his BA and JD from New York University,where he was a Root-Tilden law scholar. He received honorary doctorates from Boston Hebrew College and Gratz College. He was an assistant district attorney and Deputy Chief of Appeals in the Bronx. His career continued as associate dean and professor of law at YU's Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. [3]
From 1989 to 2003,Joel served as President and International director of Hillel:The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life,an organization which supports Jewish life for college and university students throughout the world. In 1994,Joel orchestrated Hillel's independence from B'nai B'rith,its parent organization since 1925. While at Hillel,Joel attracted major philanthropists such as Michael Steinhardt,Edgar Bronfman,Sr.,and Lynn Schusterman and Charles Schusterman. During his tenure,Hillel partnered with Birthright Israel,launching the Steinhardt Jewish Campus Service Corps,a group of recent college graduates tasked with engaging unaffiliated Jews and drawing them to Judaism and Jewish events. Hillel also expanded to the former Soviet Union and South America. [4] Joel's tenure at Hillel has been criticized by some as providing stylish instead of substantive Judaism. [5] However,he also received praise for his "skilled management,magnetism,personal warmth," [4] as well as revitalizing the Hillel movement. [6]
During his tenure at Hillel,Joel served as the head of the special commission impaneled by the Orthodox Union (OU) to investigate allegations that community leaders had ignored charges against the abusive outreach rabbi Baruch Lanner,an executive with the OU's National Conference of Synagogue Youth (NCSY). The commission concluded that many OU and NCSY leaders had made serious errors in judgment.
Joel became president of YU in 2003,succeeding Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm,who had been president since 1976. He stepped down in June 2017. As YU President,Joel appointed new deans for Yeshiva College,the Albert Einstein College of Medicine,the Syms School of Business,and the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS),and added faculty positions throughout the university. He facilitated the construction of the Jacob and Dreizel Glueck Center for Jewish Study,and established the Center for Jewish Future. [7] Joel established the Katz School of Graduate and Professional Studies, [8] and restructured Yeshiva University’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine. [9] Joel also worked to strengthen the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein and S. Daniel Abraham honors programs. [10]
As president of RIETS,he established the Rabbinic Personal Development Program,a joint Graduate Program in Pastoral Counseling between RIETS and Ferkauf. The joint program provides opportunities for second-,third- and fourth-year RIETS students who plan to pursue a career in Jewish communal work. [11] Additionally,President Joel established various centers and programs including the university's centers for Ethics,Public Health and the Jewish Future,and the Glatt Program on Israel and the Rule of Law. He also established a Presidential Fellowship program that provides training and professional development to recent graduates to further their path toward communal leadership.
He was appointed President Emeritus and continues as the Bravmann Family University Professor,teaching leadership courses across Yeshiva University. [12]
Joel was raised in Yonkers,New York. He and his wife Esther (née Ribner),who holds a PhD from YU's Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology,have six children. [3] They currently reside in Riverdale,New York. [13]
Yeshiva University is a private Orthodox Jewish university with four campuses in New York City. The university's undergraduate schools—Yeshiva College,Stern College for Women,Katz School of Science and Health,and Sy Syms School of Business—offer a dual curriculum inspired by Modern–Centrist–Orthodox Judaism's hashkafa (philosophy) of Torah Umadda,combining academic education with the study of the Torah.
Norman Lamm was an American Modern Orthodox rabbi,scholar,academic administrator,author,and Jewish community leader. He was the Chancellor of Yeshiva University until he announced his retirement on July 1,2013.
Hillel:The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life,also known as Hillel International,is the largest Jewish campus organization in the world,working with thousands of college students globally. Hillel is represented at more than 850 colleges and communities throughout North America and globally,including 30 communities in the former Soviet Union,nine in Israel,and five in South America.
The Orthodox Union is one of the largest Orthodox Jewish organizations in the United States. Founded in 1898,the OU supports a network of synagogues,youth programs,Jewish and Religious Zionist advocacy programs,programs for the disabled,localized religious study programs,and international units with locations in Israel and formerly in Ukraine. The OU maintains a kosher certification service,whose circled-U hechsher symbol,U+24CAⓊCIRCLED LATIN CAPITAL LETTER U,is found on the labels of many kosher commercial and consumer food products.
The Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy,also known as Yeshiva University High School for Boys (YUHSB),MTA or TMSTA,is a Modern Orthodox Jewish day school and the boys' prep school of Yeshiva University (YU) in the Washington Heights neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is the brother school to the Samuel H. Wang Yeshiva University High School for Girls.
Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary is the rabbinical seminary of Yeshiva University (YU). It is located along Amsterdam Avenue in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan,New York City.
Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School (YCT) is a Modern Orthodox yeshiva,previously self-described as Open Orthodox,founded in 1999 by Rabbi Avi Weiss.
Rabbi Mark Dratch served as the Executive Vice President of the Rabbinical Council of America from 1993-2024. He is the founder of JSafe. In 2010 he was named as one of Newsweek's Top 50 Rabbis in America. He was number 13 on Newsweek's list in 2013. He was married to Sara Lamm,the daughter of Rabbi Norman Lamm,the long-time president and Chancellor of Yeshiva University. In December,2017 he married Rachel Levitt Klein. In July,2023 he made Aliya.
The Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology is a division of Yeshiva University. Along with the Albert Einstein College of Medicine,it is located at the Louis E. and Doris Rousso Community Health Center on Yeshiva University’s Jack and Pearl Resnick Campus in the Bronx,New York.
Yeshivat Kerem B'Yavneh is a youth village and major yeshiva in southern Israel. Located near the city of Ashdod and adjacent to Kvutzat Yavne,it falls under the jurisdiction of Hevel Yavne Regional Council. In 2022,it had a population of 536.
Zvi Sobolofsky is a rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University in New York City.
Baruch S. Lanner is an American former Orthodox rabbi who was convicted of child sexual abuse.
Yeshiva University,a United States private university in New York City,with six campuses in New York and one in Israel,was founded in 1886. It is a research university ranked as 105th in the US among national universities by U.S. News &World Report in 2023.
Ezra Schwartz is a Rosh yeshiva and bochein at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary,an affiliate of Yeshiva University in New York City. In that role,he administers tests to incoming students and assigns students to classes. Schwartz is the fifth bochein in the history of RIETS. He succeeds Rabbi Yehuda Weil,Rabbi Mendel Zaks,Rabbi Shraga Feivel Paretzky,and Rabbi Eli B. Shulman.
The Rabbi Jacob Joseph School is an Orthodox Jewish day school located in Staten Island,New York that serves students from nursery through twelfth grade,with another branch in Edison,New Jersey. The school was founded in 1903 by Rabbi Shmuel Yitzchok Andron and named in honor of Rabbi Jacob Joseph,chief rabbi of New York City's Association of American Orthodox Hebrew Congregations.
Julius "Julie" Berman is an American attorney and Orthodox rabbi. He is involved in many large Jewish organizations,many of which non-denominational,and has served in key leadership positions.
Zevulun Charlop was an American rabbi,who served as dean of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS),an affiliate of Yeshiva University (YU). He was also president of several major Jewish organizations,in the United States and Israel.
Zvulun Lieberman served as spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Torah in Brooklyn,New York,for half a century and was a Rosh Yeshiva at Yeshiva University. He was also a principal at the Yeshivah of Flatbush High School in the late 1960s.
Rabbi Daniel Fridman שליט"א is an Orthodox Jew who is the S'gan (Deputy) Rosh Yeshiva of TABC and the Rabbi of the Jewish Center of Teaneck.
Menachem (Marc) Penner is an American Modern Orthodox rabbi and executive vice president of the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA). He formerly served as the Max and Marion Grill Dean of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University and Dean of Men's Undergraduate Torah Studies Program at Yeshiva University. Penner is the Rabbi Emeritus of the Young Israel of Holliswood.
Riverdale resident Richard Joel compares his job—president of Yeshiva University—to the presidency of the United States.