Yeshiva University - Masmid Yearbook (New York, NY)

Page 18 text:

n Does YU do that? A reputation for academic ex- cellence is certainly requisite for such a purpose. The national average for acceptance to Law School is 30% and to Medical School is 35%. YU ' s placement record is well above 80% in each. That would certainly reflect a high educational standard. The reputations of the af- filiated graduate schools also enhance the prestige of Yeshiva, and thereby serve the vital interests of the American Jewish community. Serving those vital interests, in its own way, is again what Yeshiva University is all about. As times change so does the Jewish community and its needs, and Yeshiva must always remain tuned in to those needs. In the 1940 ' s Yeshiva was able to help Jews escape the hor- rors of Hitler ' s Europe; papers and teaching positions were supplied, and students enrolled. Later on, YU helped in the fight to establish the State of Israel. And today YU is constantly in the center of Jewish affairs. Former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin on a trip to Washington once commented that it was one of the few occasions on which an Israeli leader did not travel to Washington via Yeshiva University. YU has become more than just a school. It has become a voice of leadership for the American Jewish community, as well as a breeding ground for future Jewish leaders. There is a Department of Communal Services, which among other things, sponsors Yeshiva Seminars, programs designed to reach out to non- religious youths and bring them back into the fold of Judaism, to make them once again part of the tradition.

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The Jewish tradition has always emphasized scholarliness in worldly matters, in addition to Torah, in order to be a complete Jew. Maimonides, one mustn ' t forget, was also one of the greatest medical doctors of his day. The great beacon of Torah at YU today, the Rav, Rabbi Dr. Joseph Ber Soloveitchik, in addition to being one of the Gedolai HaDor has a tremendous store of knowledge in secular matters. He has completed a doctorate at the University of Berlin in epistemology and metaphysics. And so, acquiring secular knowledge together with Torah learning is in no way a deviation from what is halachically proper, even in the most ideal situation. That is why in 1928, it was sufficient to have a Yeshiva College as it was: the need was to keep rabbinic students from disrupting their learning to go to college. But today the need is greater than that: as the protector of the Jewish tradition, YU has to keep its eyes open as to what are the dangers to that tradition and act accordingly. In the American scene today, the danger to that tradition can be capsulized in the word assimilation. Thus, it is incumbent upon Yeshiva University to battle that demon. Many are the Jewish youth who have lost touch with their heritage and tradition through what they were exposed to on today ' s American college campus. And so YU in keeping with the higher purpose of its existence is obligated to present a suitable alternative to those same secular colleges.

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Which brings us back to tradition and change, what YU is all about. Doing what it can to preserve the Jewish tradition by trying to meet the changing needs ot American — and world — Jewry. Of course things change; that is the way of the world. But the objective re- mains the same; as Joseph Kaminetsky, the tirst editor ot AiASAlID wrote: Fe have striven these years to reach a common goal, to realize the same idea; the harmonization of secular learning with our Jewish culture. The student ' s appearance might be different from fifty years ago. He may dress dif- ferently, listen to different music, and use Vitalis Dry-Control instead of Bryl Cream, but he still attends Jewish study classes in the morning and secular college courses in the afternoon; trying, as per the dream of Dr. Bernard Revel, to synthesize the two.