Top-Tier Graduate Schools Accept More YU Alumni Than Ever
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YESHIVA UNIVERSITY ∞ FA LL 2011 YUTODAY ∞ VOLUME 15 • NO. 3 Top-Tier Graduate Schools Accept More 50 YU Alumni Than Ever years of YU and community service by Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein and Rabbi Julius Berman PAGE 3 99 YU alumni who have served as Presidential Fellows PAGE 4 8 Community kollels and learning programs Yeshiva University welcomed over 600 new undergraduate students during Orientation 2011 run by CJF across the country this summer he new classes of 2014 and 2015 have arrived at Yeshiva in the health fields has grown substantially, and the acceptance rate PAGE 4 University (YU) armed with personal and academic goals and has gotten better and better,” said Dr. Brenda Loewy, who has been Ta desire to succeed in whatever career path they choose. For the pre-health advisor at Stern for close to seven years. “This reflects some inspiration and encouragement, they can simply look toward the high caliber of students that we are attracting, and is also indica- YU’s current crop of students and alumni. tive of the quality of education that they are receiving at Stern Col- At Stern College for Women, 30 students applied to medical lege, both in the overall curriculum and especially in the sciences.” school this past year, with 27 receiving offers of admission, including One Stern student will be pursing a Ph.D. at Einstein in the 17 to YU’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine, making them eligible biomedical sciences, while two others will be pursuing Ph.D.s in 21 to apply for up to a full tuition scholarship from the Anne Scheiber chemistry, one at Princeton and the other at Columbia. Thirteen years Sheldon Gelman Fund. Stern’s 90 percent acceptance rate to medical schools is well out of the 14 women who applied to dental school were also offered served as Wurzweiler above the national average of 60 percent. acceptance to top schools, including Columbia, Harvard and the dean, a record for “As the years have progressed, the number of students interested University of Pennsylvania. Continued on Page 6 ç social work schools in North America PAGE 5 Creating Sense From Tragedy: Remembering 9/11 hey felt helpless. “There was this terrible, over- Jessica Russak Hoffman, whelming sense of fear and dis- Tthen a senior at Stern College belief,” recalled Dr. Karen Bacon, 4 for Women, watched the two tow- Dr. Monique C. Katz Dean of Stern YU alumni selected ers of the World Trade Center fall to College. “It was like a science fic- for Wexner Fellowships the ground from the window of her tion movie. A bright, sunny day was last year apartment on Lexington Avenue. turned into one of tragedy and hor- PAGE 6 “One second you’re having a nor- ror, and I think for all of us it took mal morning, brushing your teeth,” days to internalize how things had she said. “The next you’re staring at changed.” the television, at the window, at the Former students remember a smoke, saying, ‘What do we do?’ ” city without hope, where three- Dodi-Lee Hecht heard the first hour-long lines to donate blood plane as it roared across Manhat- were suddenly dispersed because 116 tan before crashing into the South the projected casualties were all YU student athletes Tower. A freshman from Toronto, assumed dead and subway stations named to the Skyline she turned to her new roommates, were wallpapered with photos of Academic Honor Roll, also first-timers in New York City, the missing. Yet, with no wounded the most in the and joked, “If that pilot’s not careful, to aid, members of the YU com- conference he’ll fly into a building.” The joke left September 11, 2001 munity responded to the devasta- a deep memory. “It was the kind of tion of 9/11 with the ultimate chesed PAGE 8 joke that was never going to be funny again,” she said. shel emet (genuine kindness): They dedicated their efforts to those For students, faculty and staff of Yeshiva University on Sept. who perished. 11, 2001, those memories are as vivid today as they were a decade Rabbi Daniel Rapp, then associate dean for undergraduate Ju- Interesting new facts about YU all the time. ago. Their experiences differ profoundly, but together they cre- daic studies at YU, was tapped to serve on the committee investigat- Check in often at ate a shared narrative of shock and futility, marked by nightmarish ing the resulting aguna (chained wife) crisis. As one of the youngest blogs.yu.edu/news plumes of smoke, the constant wail of sirens, and dazed, ash-covered members of the Beth Din of America, his understanding of current masses of people walking uptown to escape the calamity. technology, including computer Continued on Page 6 ç 2 YUTODAY Packed House for Sen. Joseph YUTODAY ON THE WEB www.yu.edu/news Lieberman at New Straus Center he Zahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought played a key role in the launch of Yeshiva University’s Tnew academic year on Aug. 31, featuring an appearance by U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut. The program in Lamport Auditorium drew more than 1,200 students, alumni and community members. “I feel very much at home,” Lieberman said. “YU and the Straus Center stand for an important proposition, that our mission cannot be narrow.” Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik, the center’s director, interviewed the senator about religion in America, his historic political career Senator Joseph Lieberman and his new book, The Gift of Rest: Rediscovering the Beauty of the WEB EXCLUSIVE: Sabbath. ChampionsGate 2011 “The center’s theme for the year will focus on Jewish ideas, faith and American democracy,” said Look at our online photo gallery, with Rabbi Soloveichik. “We will be featuring public figures whose lives relate to that theme.” dozens of pictures from the conference. Future speakers will include former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey and Britain’s Chief k yu.edu/championsgate2011 Rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks, who will lecture on faith and democracy in the United States and Europe. k Download mobile reader at http://scan.mobi and enjoy additional Rabbi Soloveichik will engage each guest in dialogue at the events, which are geared “first and fore- web content throughout YUToday. most to the students, but will be open to the public as well,” he said During the year, Rabbi Soloveichik will teach a course for undergraduate honors students on PLUS Biblical ideas in American democracy and will lead a seminar for select semicha students, which looks 11 undergrad students participate in summer at how Jewish ideas appear throughout America’s foundational documents and helped shape the new research program at Einstein democracy. n k yu.edu/einsteinsummer2011 Meet the fresh faces on YU’s faculty k For full coverage of the event, please visit yu.edu/lieberman k yu.edu/newfaculty2011 Dr. Pava Leads New Team Forward at Syms PHOTO GALLERIES U’s Syms School of Business has a new advising and administration at the school, where director. Dr. Moses Pava, Alvin Einbender he has taught business courses for several years. YProfessor of Business Ethics and profes- Strauss is currently CEO of a company he founded sor of accounting at Syms, is now several years ago, BSafe Electrix, responsible for both the undergrad- Inc. and is also chairman of Sher- uate and graduate programs, report- wood Consulting Group, Inc., while ing directly to the provost’s office. serving on several advisory boards. Pava is the author of numerous books Dr. Avi Giloni has been named CJF Missions Orientation 2011 and articles on corporate account- associate director for academic re- The Center for the Jewish Future Over 600 new YU students ran several worldwide service arrived on campus during ability and is an expert on Jewish search of Syms. Giloni has been with missions this summer. Orientation 2011. To view our business ethics. He has been with Syms since 2000 and chaired the Check out photos from the full photo gallery, please visit the business school since 1988, has Information and Decision Sciences Counterpoint Brazil program at k yu.edu/orientation2011 chaired the accounting department Department since its inception. His k yu.edu/counterpointbrazil and served as chair of the Executive research is in robust forecasting, Faculty Committee. optimization, stochastic system de- “My goal as director for the Dr. Moses Pava sign and their applications to sup- Syms School of Business is to ply chain management. Giloni has YESHIVA UNIVERSITY strengthen our primary commitment to our en- published papers in top-tier journals, including ∞ FALL 2011 ergetic, bright, ambitious and very hardworking Management Science and the SIAM Journal on students,” Pava said. “I view Syms as a dynamic Optimization. YUTODAY ∞ VOLUME 15 • NO. 3 learning-community, dedicated—first and fore- Syms continues to pursue accreditation most—to preparing the next generation of highly through the Association to Advance Collegiate DR. HENRY KRESSEL Chairman, YU Board of Trustees successful Jewish business leaders and pro- Schools of Business International and recently RICHARD M. JOEL DR. NORMAN LAMM fessionals in accounting, finance, marketing, received New York State approval for an executive President Chancellor management and entrepreneurship.” MBA program. The growing Master of Science YUTODAY Michael Strauss, entrepreneur-in-residence program in accounting, which has graduated its MAYER FERTIG YAFFI SPODEK GISEL PINEYRO and clinical professor of management at Syms, second cohort, will continue under the director- Editor in Chief Editor Art Director has been appointed associate director of student ship of Dr. Joseph Kerstein. n Bruce Bobbins, Enrique Cubillo, Zev Eleff, Norman Goldberg, Aliza (Berenholz) Peled, Peter Robertson, Tova Ross Perel Skier, V.