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THE MAGAZINE OF YESHIVA UNIVERSITY WINTER 2003–2004 / HOREF 5764 YUReview SPECIAL ISSUE: Stern at 50 YESHIVA UNIVERSITY REVIEW YESHIVA UNIVERSITY TheWomen of Yeshiva: RONALD P. STANTON CHAIRMAN, BOARD OF TRUSTEES Stern College at 50 RICHARD M. JOEL PRESIDENT DANIEL T. FORMAN ALTHOUGH THE PHRASE “WOMEN OF YESHIVA” may seem singular to some, VICE PRESIDENT FOR DEVELOPMENT women are both central to all of Yeshiva University’s academic programs and are PETER L. FERRARA major participants at the faculty, administration, and board levels in the support and DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS development of the university. The women of Stern College, in particular, have been breaking new ground in the education of the Jewish woman for 50 years. YU REVIEW For Yeshiva University, steeped in history and tradition, our ambitions are and JUNE GLAZER have been no less consequential—to transform the world around us. In 1954, the EDITOR visionary leadership of President Samuel Belkin and YU benefactor Max Stern cre- NORMAN EISENBERG ated Stern College for Women. Stern’s founding was revolutionary, becoming the MANAGING EDITOR first college in which Jewish women could simultaneously pursue religious and sec- JUDY TASHJI ular studies in a rigorous academic setting. Today, a half century after its maiden CREATIVE DIRECTOR class of 32 students arrived at the one-building campus of 253 Lexington Ave., CONTRIBUTING TO THIS ISSUE: Stern’s 1,000-strong student body continues to embody the most enduring qualities KELLY BERMAN of Yeshiva University, in an environment that encourages the fulfillment of human ESTHER FINKLE ’98S DAVID HILLSTROM potential on multiple levels. CARA HUZINEC The theme for the Stern jubilee is “Five Decades. One Dream.” But its mean- HEDY SHULMAN ing is less a reflection of Stern’s illustrious past than a validation of the dynamic PHOTOGRAPHY growth of the college, its campus and its programs, and its proud membership YESHIVA UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES among the YU family of colleges. Stern’s vision expands daily and its achievements YU STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS: are embodied in its new Midtown campus, shared with the women’s division of Sym NORMAN GOLDBERG Syms School for Business—a complex of seven buildings covering an eight-block PETER ROBERTSON V. JANE WINDSOR radius in Manhattan’s historic Murray Hill district, with a superb honors program, a landmark graduate Talmudic learning program, and curriculum offerings and intern- ROBERT R. SALTZMAN ships that develop continually. Stern’s stature in our communities is anchored and UNIVERSITY DIRECTOR OF fostered by its 6,000 graduates, who give meaning and life to our most revered val- ALUMNI AFFAIRS ues—in their homes, communities, and in professional leadership roles across a Yeshiva University Review is published broad spectrum of fields. twice each year by Yeshiva University, This year, as Yeshiva University celebrates Stern College’s jubilee anniversary, let Department of Communications and Public Affairs. It is distributed by mail us together celebrate the dream and the vision, steeped in the values and principles to alumni and friends of the university of our rich heritage, as we advance new frontiers of learning and creative expression. and on campus to faculty and adminis- trators. 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 photo- graphs. All submissions are subject to RICHARD M. JOEL editing. Opinions expressed in the Review are not “official” university policy. PRESIDENT Send mail to: Yeshiva University Review, 500 West 185th Street, New York, NY 10033-3201. Phone: 212-960-5285. Email: [email protected]. 2 © YESHIVA UNIVERSITY 2003–2004 WINTER 2003–2004 / HOREF 5764 YUReview 8 3 17 From the President: 2 Stern at 50 Welcome to the Revolution 3 The establishment of Stern College for Women marked the first time in Jewish history that the frontiers of advanced Jewish scholarship opened up to women. Stern through the Decades 8 Slice-of-life remembrances by alumnae from six decades. Creating Women of Substance 17 Dean Karen Bacon reflects on how far Stern College has come, and where it is headed. Outstanding Alumnae 18 Reflections on their alma mater by some of Stern’s most prominent graduates. STERN COLLEGE FOR WOMEN AT 50 Welcome to the REVOLUTION BY JUNE GLAZER Historically, the tradition of yeshiva learning had always been primarily the domain of men. But in postwar America, a revolution was brewing that would defy convention, opening up advanced Jewish scholarship to women for the first time. And Yeshiva University, a flourishing institution by the mid 1950s, was the logical venue. YU was already an address for growth in the Orthodox world because of its self-defining philosophy of Torah Umadda. Stern College student Navah Rosensweig Sura (Schreiber) Katz YH,’58S STERN AT 50 n the heels of victory in World War “For years we have been playing the melody of Judaism in II, the 1950s in America seemed a America on a defective instrument. For generations some time of prosperity and great possi- strings have been missing and the symphony has lacked full- bilities. An urge to build and ness and harmony.” Absent was the participation of Jewish expand was impelled by the hope women—other than as individuals—in the intellectual life of of a more stable world. Judaism. Hence the revolution, which gained momentum in For Jews, rebuilding was an im- 1954; that was when YU’s second president, Dr. Samuel perative after the Holocaust, and this Belkin, convinced his good friend Max Stern to support the country seemed a safe haven in which to create anew the start-up of a school to replicate the Yeshiva College experi- Oinstitutions of Jewish learning destroyed in Europe. In the ence for women. postwar period, Jews worked assiduously to cultivate Jewish scholarship, on the very soil that European Jewry had once A Natural Outgrowth deemed a Torah wasteland. Dr. Belkin, an authority on rabbinic and Hellenistic litera- Historically, the tradition of yeshiva learning had always ture, sought to expand and develop Yeshiva University. Under been primarily the domain of men. But his leadership, several YU schools and in postwar America, a revolution was programs were established, including brewing that would defy convention, the Harry Fischel School for Higher opening up advanced Jewish scholar- Jewish Studies, Institute of Mathema- ship to women for the first time. And tics, boys’ and girls’ high schools in Yeshiva University, a flourishing in- Brooklyn, a Community Service Divi- stitution by the mid-1950s, was the log- sion, and a School of Education and ical venue. YU was already an address Community Administration. The cam- for growth in the Orthodox world pus also expanded physically. In Dr. because of its self-defining philosophy Belkin’s presidency, YU acquired its first of Torah Umadda. Dr. Samuel Belkin Max Stern additional property since it had arrived The notion of an organized university- in Washington Heights in 1929. In level program for women that incorporated advanced Jewish 1950, the university charter was amended to authorize grant- studies did not materialize in a vacuum. There were, after all, ing Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Dental Surgery de- existing women’s colleges. And YU had established the prece- grees. This opened the way for establishing a medical school, dent for amalgamating general academics and Jewish studies today’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine—another of Dr. under one roof in 1928, when it founded Yeshiva College for Belkin’s dreams. men. The university later applied the same formula to the Dr. Belkin, who had a daughter, had another dream: a girls’ high school it opened in Brooklyn in 1948. In 1952, the women’s college. He often spoke with Mr. Stern about the idea. university subsumed the Hebrew Teachers Training School Max Stern, a German émigré who was YU Board of Trustees for Girls, begun by the Mizrachi Organization in 1928, and vice chairman at the time, was president of Hartz Mountain reopened it as Teachers Institute for Women. (Central, YU’s Products—he arrived in the US in 1926 on the same ship girls’ high school in Manhattan, opened in 1959.) that carried his first shipment of canaries—and also the Still, as Dr. Leo Jung, spiritual leader of The Jewish father of a daughter. A visionary philanthropist, he felt he Center and then professor of ethics at YC, once lamented, owed much to his adopted country. As a Jewish communal “For years we have been playing the melody of Judaism in America on a defective instrument.” STERN AT 50 • YESHIVA UNIVERSITY REVIEW • 2003–2004 5 STERN AT 50 leader and president of the former Hebrew Teachers Training and Caroline. The gift represented the largest single contri- School for Girls, he understood that a college for Jewish bution to the institution in its then 58-year history. women at Yeshiva University was a natural outgrowth of its During Passover 1954, Dr. Belkin and Mr. Stern decided high school for girls and its Teachers Institute for Women. to open Stern College the following September, as YU’s 12th “My loyalty to traditional Judaism, my interest in Jewish school. The two walked the length and breadth of midtown and general scholarship, and above all, my desire to give the Manhattan seeking a suitable site, and found it in the Murray opportunity to young women and young men to receive an Hill section: Packard Junior College, 253 Lexington Avenue, integrated education in divine wisdom and human knowl- at 35th Street, a school of commerce that was going out of edge, I owe to my parents,” he said at a dinner feting him for business. Very quickly—seemingly overnight—the two men his contribution of $500,000 toward the founding of Stern shaped their idea into a concrete college program.