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The Science
of SelfDefense

Examining
Aging at
Ferkauf

4Page 3

4Page 5

Focus on
Faculty

YU Goes
Global

4Page 6

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YUTODAY

YESHIVA UNIVERSITY

∞ SPRING 2015
∞ VOLUME 19 • NO. 2

Dean Bacon to Lead Unified Arts and Sciences Faculty
Effort to Improve Education and Efficiencies; Yeshiva College and Stern to Remain Separate
will serve as the inaugural Dr. Monique C.
Katz Dean of the undergraduate faculty of
arts and sciences at YU.
“The faculty, individually and collectively, is the lifeblood of this critical institution and we will now advance to rightsize
the administrative parts of the University,”
said YU President Richard M. Joel. “For
several years, we have been discussing the
need for a more unified undergraduate faculty of arts and sciences. Dean Bacon is a
valued educator of integrity and has served
with distinction in the highest levels of academic leadership. I look to her and all our
faculty to continue to exercise their prerogative in shaping what is a fine curriculum
still further.”
Over the next three years, faculty at the
Dr. Karen Bacon will serve as the inaugural Dr. Monique C. Katz Dean of the
undergraduate faculty of arts and sciences
two colleges will work together to create
unified departments and curricula, where
appropriate,
as well as more blended courses and crosseshiva University recently announced that it will
campus collaborations that will enhance the efficiency
unify the undergraduate faculties at Yeshiva Coland quality of student learning. “This new model reprelege and Stern College for Women as part of its
sents an important change in the way we function and the
effort to improve student education and create efficienway our students can derive even more value from their
cies. The campuses and classes will remain separate, but
YU experience,” said President Joel.
the faculty will combine its resources. Dr. Karen Bacon

Y

Bacon will draw on her substantial administrative
experience and deep knowledge and understanding of
Yeshiva University and its values as she guides this academic process.
“My entire career as an administrator has been
shaped by my respect for faculty and the academic enterprise and by an appreciation for the difference a firstrate education can make in a student’s life,” said Bacon.
“A unified undergraduate liberal arts faculty, collaborating and innovating, has the potential to fashion a Yeshiva
University education that is even stronger than it is today.
I feel honored to have a role in actualizing this next stage
in the development of Yeshiva University.”
Bacon will have offices on both the Wilf and Israel
Henry Beren Campuses. She will be assisted by associate
deans for Yeshiva and Stern College, which will retain
their unique identities and function as separate schools,
as will the Sy Syms School of Business, which will continue its successful growth and partnerships with the two
liberal arts colleges.
Yeshiva College Dean Barry Eichler will retire in
June and return to his teaching and research after a sabbatical. “Dean Eichler has invested his heart and soul into
Yeshiva College after assuming the deanship at my request,” said President Joel. “We are honored to have him
return to teaching, which is his first love.” n

New Fund Gives Student Social Entrepreneurs a Boost

W

hile all entrepreneurs and startups begin with a good idea,
most are also driven by the bottom line. But at Yeshiva University, a new
fund is enabling students to apply that hybrid of inspired innovation and business
acumen to endeavors that seek to make a
difference, not a profit.
Neal’s Fund, established in memory
of Neal Dublinsky z”l ’84YC, provides
micro-grants to student social entrepreneurs founding start-ups that will
benefit the broader Jewish and global
communities.
The grants range from $1,000 to
$2,000, with a maximum of $5,000 per
project. Student proposals are judged on
their uniqueness, creativity, projected impact and long-term vision by the Office of
University and Community Life and a
committee established by Harry Dublinsky, Neal’s brother.
“Neal’s Fund allows our students to
dream about changing the world through
their creative and entrepreneurial ideas,”
said Rabbi Kenneth Brander, vice president for university and community life.
“Neal cared very much about helping the
world around him. This fund established
by his family and friends is a very fitting
tribute to his memory.”
The start-ups receiving grants run

the gamut from Tech4Life, an organization, founded by Gabriel Simkin, seeking to help impoverished communities
achieve computer literacy, to Music Vs, a
volunteer network that forges relationships with hospital patients using the
universal language of music as a point of
connection.
“As college students infused with
idealism and a passion for healing the
world, we were frustrated with the limitations that our small budgets placed on
our efforts,” said Joe Teplow. “But we
realized that, while as individuals, our
power and impact is somewhat limited,
pooling our time, energy, and money as a
collective could truly make a difference.”
Together with three friends, Teplow created Good Street, an online community
where participants commit to giving just
a quarter each day to a handful of causes,
pooling thousands of people’s pocket
change into a donation with the potential
to create real, impactful transformation.
“We are so honored and excited to merit
Neal’s Fund’s support in our journey to
making Good Street the go-to place for
doing good every single day—we’re rolling out exciting new programs, features,
and events to help build a stronger, more
powerful community here on the street.”
Daniel Benchimol, who recently

Grantees Gabriel Simkin and Daniel Benchimol meld entrepreneurial spirit and social responsibility

moved to the United States from Argentina, conceived the idea for his organization, Enmunitos, after frustrating
searches for online Torah learning in
his native Spanish were unsuccessful. “I
had very little time on my hands so I was
searching online for short videos that
would teach me something that I could
take with me throughout my day and
week,” he said. “The more time I spent
searching, the less time I had to learn.”
Benchimol suspected he was not alone:
according to a study, close to half a million
Jews around the world speak Spanish. He
decided to take action.

“The goal is to bring Spanish-speaking Jews one step closer to their roots,
with concise, professional-quality Torah
videos,” said Benchimol. “We’re already
making an impact—many well-known
rabbis from Latin American countries are
reaching out to us to collaborate on videos, and we reach thousands of people
each day with hopes to grow. Neal’s Fund
believed in us and gave us the financial resources to make this idea a reality.”
The Fund’s namesake, Neal Dublinsky, grew up in Queens, New York, and
graduated with honors from Yeshiva
Continued on Page 4 ç

2

YUTODAY

Canarsie’s Sephardic Community
Establishes YU Scholarship Fund

YUTODAY WEB EXCLUSIVES

www.yu.edu/news
VIDEO

Turkey, Greece and, later, Cuba.
Rabbi Dr. Herbert C. Dobrinsky,
YU’s vice president for university affairs, helped found the
center as part of YU’s Sephardic
Community Program, and in
1969, suggested Rabbi Rakowitz
for the post of rabbi. The congregation elected Rabbi Rakowitz,
filling a position held previously
by Rabbi Chananya Berzon
’63YC, ’65R.
The Rakowitzes made
The Sephardic Jewish Center’s Rabbi Myron and Sarah Rakowitz
a personal contribution of
$200,000 to their alma mater as well, establishing
he Sephardic Jewish Center of Canarsie
a fund in memory of Rabbi Rakowitz’s parents. The
in Brooklyn, New York, recently closed its
Shlomo Shabsai and Ruth Rakowitz Tutorial Fund
doors after half a century of serving its once
for Talmudical Study at the Marsha Stern Talmuburgeoning Jewish community. To ensure that
dical Academy/Yeshiva University High School for
its legacy continues and in gratitude to Yeshiva
Boys will help pay the salary of a rabbi to provide
University for its role in the founding of the centutoring in Talmud for high school students. “My
ter, community members recently established a
father always helped his students catch up in Talscholarship at YU in honor of the center’s spirimud wherever we went,” said Rabbi Rakowitz. “I
tual leader of the past 45 years, Rabbi Myron Raappreciate what YU did for me, and I would like to
kowitz ’47YUHS, ’51YC, ’51IB, ’57R, and his wife,
see students advance. I am grateful for the educaSarah ’74F.
tion that I received.”
The Rabbi Myron and Sarah Rakowitz EnRabbi Rakowitz has been active in YU affairs
dowed Scholarship will provide financial assisas president of alumni, chairman of the rabbinic
tance in perpetuity for deserving and needy
welfare community and president of rabbinic
Sephardic students at YU’s undergraduate schools
alumni as well as on the placement committee for
and at the YU-affiliated Rabbi Isaac Elchanan
rabbinic alumni.
Theological Seminary. The donation of more than
“Rabbi Rakowitz is an outstanding rabbi and
$250,000 was spearheaded by Jeff Beja, the cena talmid chacham [scholar] and one of the most
ter’s president, and other community leaders in
devoted and loyal rabbinic alumni,” said Rabbi
tribute to the center’s dedicated and longtime
Dobrinsky. “He and his wife are very devoted to
rabbi.
the community, and we are excited that their legThe Sephardic Jewish Center served a Juacy will continue at Yeshiva University.” n
deo-Spanish Sephardic community, hailing from

T

Cardozo Site Offers Access to Israeli
Supreme Court Opinions

T

he Benjamin N. Cardozo
School of Law recently
launched its pioneering
Versa website, making English
translations of important Hebrew-language Israeli Supreme
Court decisions readily available to the public.
Matthew Diller, dean of
Cardozo, heralded Versa as “an
exciting milestone, not only for
the Cardozo community but also
for the legal profession and academia as a whole.”
Professor Michael Herz
Professor Suzanne Last Stone
Versa is a product of the
in the words of U.S. Justice Stephen Breyer, ‘one
Israeli Supreme Court Project (ISCP) at Cardozo,
of the world’s great legal institutions.’ We believe
established in 2013 and overseen by the Yeshiva
that making its opinions more generally available
University Center for Jewish Law and Contemwill benefit scholars, lawyers and judges around
porary Civilization in partnership with the Floerthe world.”
sheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy at
“Versa is a key component of the ISCP’s viCardozo. This was an outgrowth of a 2012 agreesion to become a leading center for the study of
ment between the Friends of the Library of the
complex issues facing multicultural democraSupreme Court of Israel and Cardozo to transfer
cies around the world,” said Suzanne Last Stone,
authority and funding to the law school to underdirector of the Center for Jewish Law and Contake translating significant cases of the Supreme
temporary Civilization.
Court of Israel into English.
The website, versa.cardozo.yu.edu, contains
The website content is important “to facilia searchable database of hundreds of translated
tate comparative legal study,” said Michael Herz,
cases, media from ISCP events, and links to items
codirector of the ISCP and the Arthur Kaplan Propertaining to the court.
fessor of Law at Cardozo, noting the difficulty of
The ISCP and Versa are supported by the
comparative legal study, especially when it is in a
David Berg Foundation. n
foreign language. “The Israeli Supreme Court is,

s

W W W.YU.EDU/NEWS SPRING 2015

A Conversation With YU Leadership
Watch President Richard M. Joel and members of the
senior administration address Yeshiva University’s financial,
educational and operational issues.
k yu.edu/leadershiptalk

WEB



WEB

YU in Israel

Get Your YU Gear!

Learn about programs and
opportunities available to
our students, alumni and
community in Israel.

Show your school pride with
Yeshiva University apparel
and accessories. Shop at
YU’s official online store.

k yu.edu/jll/israel

k theYUstore.com

YUTODAY

YESHIVA UNIVERSIT Y
∞ SPRING 2015
∞ VOLUME 19 • NO. 2

DR. HENRY KRESSEL

Chairman, YU Board of Trustees
RICHARD M. JOEL

President
PAUL OESTREICHER

Executive Director of Communications and Public Affairs
YUTODAY
MATT YANIV

Director of Public Relations,
Editor in Chief


MALKA EISENBERG

PEREL SKIER HECHT

GISEL PINEYRO

Editor

Associate Editor

Art Director

Aliza Berenholz, Dina Burcat, Michael Damon, Caitlin Geiger, Bruce Lander, Tova Ross,
Suzy Schwartz, Ronit Segal, Adena Stevens, Devon Wade, Avi Zimmerman
Contributors
[email protected]

www.yu.edu/cpa

YUToday is published quarterly by the Office of Communications and Public Affairs and is
distrib­­uted free to faculty, staff, students, alumni, donors and friends. It keeps them informed
of news from across Yeshiva University’s undergraduate and graduate divisions and affiliates.
The quarterly newsletter covers academic and campus life, faculty and student research, community outreach and philanthropic support. It showcases the University’s mission of Torah
Umadda, the combination of Jewish study and values with secular learning, through stories
about the diverse achievements of the University community.
© Yeshiva University 2015 • Office of Communications and Public Affairs
Furst Hall, Room 401 • 500 West 185th St. • New York, NY 10033-3201 • Tel.: 212.960.5285
Stanley I. Raskas, Chair, Board of Overseers, Yeshiva College; Shira Yoshor, Chair, Board of
Overseers, Stern College for Women; Steve Uretsky, Chair, Board of Overseers, Sy Syms
School of Business; Roger Einiger, Chair, Board of Overseers, Albert Einstein College of
Medicine; David Samson, Chair, Board of Overseers, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law;
Froma Benerofe, Chair, Board of Overseers, Wurzweiler School of Social Work; Mordecai
D. Katz, Chair, Board of Overseers, Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies;
Carol Bravmann, Chair, Board of Overseers, Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology; Moshael J.
Straus, Chair, Board of Overseers, Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration;
Joel M. Schreiber, Chair, Board of Trustees, (affiliate) Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological
Seminary; Miriam P. Goldberg, Chair, Board of Trustees, YU High Schools; Michael Jesselson
and Theodore N. Mirvis, Co-chairs, Board of Directors, (affiliate) Yeshiva University Museum
Board listings as of March 12, 2015

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YUTODAY

3

U.S. Defense Agency Supports Faculty Research
ology and finance as well; the same
theory that could protect the United
States from a terrorist strike could
also be used to stop the spread of
Ebola or prevent a market collapse
like that of 2008. Undergraduate students at Yeshiva College have assisted
Buldyrev with his study. “They learn
programming and modeling of complex networks and how to work on
the high performance computational

Dr. Anatoly Frenkel (left) is improving materials to protect soldiers from chemical warfare

T

wo Yeshiva University faculty
members have been awarded grants
by the Defense Threat Reduction
Agency (DTRA), the U.S. Department of
Defense’s official Combat Support
Agency for countering weapons of mass
destruction.
Dr. Sergey Buldyrev, professor of
physics at Yeshiva College, is a principal investigator on a multiyear $450,000
grant analyzing the catastrophic cascade
of failures in interdependent networks.
Picture the connections between power
grids, waterworks, Internet cables and
other systems—if one part of one system
goes down, it initiates a domino effect on
each network it’s connected to, taking
others down with it. “Supposing a terrorist attacks a certain power station—
they’re smart enough to find the one most
likely to cause a computer shutdown,
which could shut off control of gas or
water,” said Buldyrev. “Everything could

shut down. This catastrophic
collapse of infrastructure—the
‘cascade of failures’—is what
people imagine when they think
about what might happen at the
end of the world.”
Using simulated computer
models, Buldyrev and his collaborators at Boston University
and Bar-Ilan University seek to
anticipate where and how these
Dr. Sergey Buldyrev
cascades might begin by uncluster in addition to many other skills,
derstanding the interdependence of the
which will be important for their future
many different networks that service the
careers no matter what path they take,”
basic everyday needs of modern society.
said Buldyrev.
“We have to understand what would hapDr. Anatoly Frenkel, professor of
pen if certain nodes were attacked and
physics and cochair of the physics departhow to design more resilient infrastrucment at Stern College for Women, will
tures which could sustain such an attack,”
serve as coprincipal investigator on a onehe said.
year $195,000 grant to improve materials
While Buldyrev’s research will be
used to protect soldiers from chemical
primarily used for military needs, he
warfare in the field.
noted that it has applications to epidemi-

“In war, because they could be
exposed to chemical agents, soldiers
breathe through masks with special filters that will treat these agents,” said
Frenkel. “There are two ways to disable
the warfare agent: to absorb it, making
sure it doesn’t penetrate the filter and by
extension the soldier’s airstream, or for
the filter itself to have catalytic properties that would decompose the agent into
harmless molecules. My role is to help the
chemists who design the filter material
understand if and how it’s working.”
In collaboration with scientists from
Virginia Tech, Emory University and
Kennesaw State University, Frenkel is
studying the impact of simulated warfare
agents on different filter materials. He
is employing a special technique called
X-ray absorption, in which X-rays are
beamed at the filter so their interaction
with metallic components within the filter—thought to be responsible for the filter’s capacity to decompose agents—can
be studied.
Stern College students will be able to
assist Frenkel with his research through
summer internships.
“The Division of Natural Sciences
and Mathematics is very proud of the professors for having secured support from
the DTRA, demonstrating the level of
research that is done at YU in this important area,” said Dr. Gabriel Cwilich, chair
of the division. “Since training students in
research is a crucial part of their education for future careers in the sciences and
medicine, we are glad that funding agencies like the DTRA are helping us make
those goals possible.” n

Jewish Genetic Health Initiative Creates Affordable BRCA Testing

A

n unprecedented initiative from
the Program for Jewish Genetic
Health, an affiliate of Yeshiva
University and the Albert Einstein College for Medicine, is enabling men and
women of Ashkenazi heritage age 25
and older to undergo testing for the most
common BRCA mutations at a significant
discount. In conjunction with Montefiore Health System, this effort—the first
of its kind in the United States—makes
BRCA testing affordable to individuals
regardless of their personal or family histories or their insurance or financial situations, which have been barriers to date.
Approximately one in 40 individuals of Ashkenazi Jewish descent carries
one of three founder mutations in the
BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes, a carrier rate
tenfold higher than that of the general
population. Females carrying a BRCA
mutation face a significantly higher risk
of developing breast and ovarian cancer
in their lifetimes, while male BRCA mutation carriers are at higher risk of developing prostate and breast cancers, among
other cancers. BRCA carriers also have a
50 percent chance of passing the altered
gene onto each of their offspring, who in
turn will have an increased susceptibility
for these cancer types. Individuals who
learn that they are BRCA carriers through
genetic testing have cancer risk-reducing
and reproductive options.

s

Today, most health insurance policies will only cover genetic testing for
those considered at high risk to carry the
mutation—those with a significant personal or family history of these cancers.
However, low-risk individuals or those
without health insurance are faced with
steep out-of-pocket costs, typically more
than $600. Thanks in part to a generous
grant from the Foundation for Medical
Evaluation and Early Detection, the Program for Jewish Genetic Health is now
providing low-risk and uninsured individuals with testing for $100, along with
complimentary pretest genetic counseling courtesy of Montefiore.
According to Dr. Nicole SchreiberAgus, director of the Program for Jewish Genetic Health, one of the primary
goals of the new initiative, that includes
a research component, is “to identify new
BRCA mutation carriers in this low-risk
group, who otherwise would have gone
undetected.”
“We have seen people who had no
idea that they were high risk for a BRCA
mutation until they completed our online
questionnaire,” said Dr. Susan Klugman,
medical director of the Program for Jewish Genetic Health. “This demonstrates
that it is crucial for the Jewish community to understand more about their family health histories and to be educated
about inherited cancer risk in general.”

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Klugman stresses that “the decision
to pursue genetic testing is a personal one
and not everyone is ready to handle the information, but we believe that an affordable and accessible mechanism should be
available to those who are interested.”
Even in this early phase, interest in
the initiative has come from as far away
as Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Los Angeles,
but there is still a lot of work to be done as
far as spreading awareness.

“Since BRCA mutations are so common in the Ashkenazi Jewish population,
there is a very low threshold for individuals of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry to
be considered at risk for having a BRCA
mutation,” said Klugman. “Unfortunately,
most people do not realize this, and they
don’t think of their personal or family history of cancer and their Ashkenazi Jewish
ancestry as being significant when in fact,
they both are.” n

k To learn more, visit yu.edu/genetichealth

SPRING 2015 W W W.YU.EDU/NEWS ß

YUTODAY

4

Sy Sym’s Master’s in Accounting Adds Up

A

t Sy Syms School of Business, a thriving master’s
in accounting program is helping new graduates
enter the workforce with state-of-the-art technical skills and management insight from top industry
leaders.
Now in its fifth year, the master’s program has more
than doubled its enrollment since its inception.
However, the program’s intimate atmosphere
ensures each student receives plenty of mentorship, creating opportunities for interaction with
faculty—one of many elements that has made the
master’s program in accounting so appealing to
students all over the world.
“We have students from China, Colombia,
Argentina and France as well as students from
universities across the United States with great
accounting programs, like Georgetown University and Ohio State University, as well as students
from our undergraduate schools,” said Professor
Joseph Kerstein, the program’s director. “In addition to offering cutting-edge accounting courses
and rare in-depth analysis of specialty areas, such
as hedge fund management and forensic accounting, we are known for our ethics component,
taught by our dean, renowned business ethics expert, Dr. Moses Pava. Especially with all the corruption in the world of business accounting over
the last several years, we feel the unique focus on both
ethics and leadership that we offer is important.”
He added, “Our program also benefits from belonging to Sy Syms, which has received accreditation from the
Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business—
the top accreditation body in the United States for business education—and its location in the heart of New York
City opens up many opportunities to our students. Everything combines to make our master’s an internationally
competitive program.”
The program, which can be completed on either
a full-time or part-time schedule to accommodate students’ busy professional lives, offers classes two nights

Stern College Student
Awarded Archaeology
Fellowship

Sima Fried, a sophomore at Stern
College for Women, has been
awarded the Ackerman Family Dig
Fellowship in archaeology for the
upcoming summer. The fellowship
covers the cost of room and board
for the entire field season at Tell
es-Safi/Gath in Israel, known as the
biblical Goliath’s hometown, where
Fried began her research last summer under the supervision of Dr. Jill
Katz, clinical assistant professor of
archaeology at Stern College.
“I have always had a passion for
history, and archaeology is a unique
and intimate way to interact with
the past,” said Fried of Woodmere,
New York.

s

W W W.YU.EDU/NEWS SPRING 2015

a week at YU’s Israel Henry Beren Campus in Midtown
Manhattan in areas ranging from advanced accounting
and taxation to business leadership. For those who come
to the program with a non accounting background, additional courses are available over the summer to quickly
bring students up to speed.

“We’re not only providing students with advanced
technical skills, but also helping them think about
broader managerial issues,” said Pava.
Ultimately, the program prepares all students for
the New York State CPA exam and the next step in their
careers, with graduates employed at firms like Citrin
Cooperman, Deloitte, Duff & Phelps, Grant Thornton,
Loeb & Troper, Marks Paneth, PricewaterhouseCoopers
and WeiserMazars.
“What makes these classes unique is the mixture of
both academic analysis and research with real-life practitioner experience,” said Francine Mellors-Rothenstein, a vice president and director at Ernst & Young,

who co-teaches a course on business ethics with Pava.
Sample topics in the class include how economic theories affect corporate behavior, the need for more stakeholder involvement, fraud prevention and detection and
the future role of the auditor as a result of various regulatory reforms in the United States and Europe. When
possible, Mellors-Rothenstein draws on real
experiences from her work at Ernst & Young to
illustrate class discussion. “I try to bridge the
distance between the academic and practitioner
viewpoints,” she said.
Chaoyi Liang, a Chinese student who earned
his undergraduate degree from Pennsylvania
State University, valued the balance of research
and professional experience the program offers.
“The master’s program in accounting provides
me with the best professors who have sophisticated experience within the accounting field,” he
said. “The real-world experience is very helpful
and practical to help me build my future career.”
The program’s reputation and network has already helped Liang—he found his current internship as a hedge fund research analyst through a
career fair on campus.
Brett Bar-Eli, a recent Sy Syms graduate enrolled in the master’s program, chose to pursue
his master’s at Sy Syms because of the program’s
flexibility—many other master’s programs hold classes
four nights a week, rather than two, which can be difficult to juggle while working in the field. He also wanted
to continue the quality education he felt he received
as an undergraduate. “Throughout my college years, I
had the opportunity to experience YU’s culture in the
classroom, with small classes, engaging discussions
and professors who take the time to learn the students’
names,” said Bar-Eli, who will begin a full-time position
as a transactions and restructuring advisory associate at
KPMG this August. n
k To learn more about the program, visit yu.edu/accounting

Online Master’s Attracts Jewish Educators Worldwide

A

zrieli Graduate School of Jewish
Education and Administration
is making cutting-edge Jewish education accessible to teachers and
communities across the globe with a
fully accredited online master’s degree
program.
“What’s most exciting about this opportunity is providing students around
the world with the same extraordinary
Azrieli content that in the past was only
available to those who could come in and
meet us,” said Azrieli Dean Dr. Rona
Novick. “Our online program combines

Neal’s Fund ç

all the knowledge, skills and affinities that
accrediting bodies believe is important
for modern teachers to have, but melds it
with an appreciation for Jewish tradition
and Jewish education that isn’t normally
available to many teachers in their local
communities.”
Incorporating new techniques, like
asynchronous discussion boards, online
case studies, high-tech animations and
simulations and multimedia source material in addition to readings and lectures
from Azrieli’s faculty, the program blends
seamlessly with the master’s courses Az-

rieli students take on campus. “We understand the importance of community,
cooperation and networking, and we’re
committed to harnessing the power of
technology,” said Novick.
As the program expands, Novick anticipates the inclusion of virtual cafés,
where teachers and students can engage
in asynchronous learning around the
clock, as well as in-person faculty visits to
students’ local communities. n
k To learn more about the online master’s program,
visit yu.edu/azrielimasters

Continued from Page 1

College before attending the New York
University School of Law. In 1987, at the
age of 24, he was diagnosed with an advanced stage of lymphoma just as he
was beginning his career as a corporate
attorney in Los Angeles, California. Despite medical setbacks, Dublinsky fought
his illness and succeeded in living a full
life for another 23 years, often providing
support based on his own experiences to
others struggling with cancer.
“My brother lived most of his adult
life as a cancer survivor and strongly believed in reaching out to help others,” said

Harry Dublinsky. “The social mission
of Neal’s Fund mirrors the life he led by
training a new generation of communal
leaders, teaching them to reach beyond
the daled amot [four cubits] of their own
communities to create positive change
for the world while emphasizing the need
for accountability and transparency in
the process. Neal’s Fund pushes to the
forefront these student entrepreneurs
who are using their ideas not for commercial gain, but to better the world around
them.”
Other recipients of Neal’s Fund in-

clude YU’s Counterpoint Israel program,
a summer immersive service-learning
initiative that works with at-risk Israeli
youth in impoverished towns in southern
Israel, and Project Teach, founded by YU
undergraduates and students at Albert
Einstein College of Medicine, which runs
fun educational programming based on
science and the humanities for hospitalized children and their families. n

k To learn more about Neal’s Fund or to make a
donation, visit yu.edu/cjf/neals-fund

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ALUMNITODAY

YESHIVA UNIVERSITY
SPRING 2015

An Accomplished Legacy
On May 17, the graduates of Stern College for Women, Sy Syms School of Business and Yeshiva College will participate in
Yeshiva University’s 84th annual commencement exercises. Later that day, YU alumni will gather to celebrate their 60th, 50th,
40th and 25th reunions at the Grand Hyatt in New York City. AlumniToday highlights a noteworthy member from each of the
classes of 1955, 1965, 1975, and 1990.

HENRY KRESSEL ’55YC

In September 2009, Dr. Henry Kressel was elected chairman of the Board of
Trustees of Yeshiva University. This milestone marked the first time an
alumnus was elected to serve as the board’s chairman.
Kressel’s life story has been and continues to be a notable one; he is a
renowned scientist, engineer, author, investor and philanthropist.
As a young child, Kressel survived the Holocaust with the help of a
brave French Catholic family, Andre and Eliane Traband. His parents and a
sister died in Auschwitz. After the war, Kressel and his older sister Clara
came to the United States where he enrolled in Chaim Berlin High School in
Brooklyn, New York. When he graduated in 1951, Kressel decided to continue his Jewish education at a place where he
could also receive a toprate secular education and
pursue a career in science.
“I knew YU was the only
place that could offer me
this,” said Kressel.
At Yeshiva College,
Kressel found dedicated
teachers, smart peers and
challenging courses. “I
majored in physics, but I
also took many other
courses, including those in
the liberal arts, with great
teachers,” said Kressel. “I
specifically remember taking English composition
with Herman Wouk, the
great novelist who taught
at YU when I was a student. I credit him with
igniting my interest and
later career in writing.”
After he graduated Yeshiva College, Kressel went on to study at Harvard
University, where he received an MS in applied physics; the Wharton School
of the University of Pennsylvania, where he received an MBA; and the
University of Pennsylvania, where he received his PhD in material science.
Kressel credits YU with helping prepare him for the rigors of these illustrious
graduate schools. “Thanks to my undergraduate education, I found that I was
better prepared in my graduate work than were most of my classmates,” he
said proudly.
He married Bertha Horowitz z”l ’56YUHS, ’56TI in 1956. She passed
away in 2012. They have two children, Kim ’90C, married to Zeev Ephrat,
and Aron, married to Lois Arenson, seven grandchildren and three greatgrandchildren.
Kressel’s professional career began in 1959 primarily at the RCA research
laboratory based in Princeton, New Jersey, where he rose to the position of
vice president responsible for electronics research. In 1983, he joined Warburg Pincus, a global private equity firm, and eventually became a senior partner, where he oversees investments in high technology companies.
A world-recognized expert in electronic devices, Kressel holds 31 U.S.
patents and led pioneering research on lasers, transistors, solar cells and
other devices. The recipient of several professional awards, he was elected
to membership in the National Academy of Engineering and is a Fellow of
the American Physical Society and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic
Engineers. He has penned more than 120 scientific publications as well as
four books, including, most recently, Competing for the Future: How Digital
Innovations Are Changing the World Press, and Investing in Dynamic Markets:

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Venture Capital in the Digital Age, both published by Cambridge University
Press. Kressel was appointed regents lecturer at the University of California,
San Diego, and serves as an adviser on technology commercialization at the
University of Cambridge.
In 2003, Kressel joined the board of the Sy Syms School of Business at
the suggestion of his good friend and YU alumnus Manfred Rechtschaffen.
This led to an introduction to President Richard M. Joel by another friend
and YU alumnus Irwin Shapiro.
Kressel joined the YU Board of Trustees in 2005 and chaired its Academic Affairs Committee before being elected to the chairmanship in 2009,
a position from which he will retire at the end of this academic year.
“It is the duty of every
alumnus to make sure that
future generations can
continue to benefit from
the YU experience,” said
Kressel. “I truly believe
that YU is the most important educational institution in the United States
for developing the successful leaders of the Jewish
community, and it is key to
helping sustain the future
of the Modern Orthodox
community both in the U.S.
and the world at large.”
In 2008, the Kressels established the Henry
Kressel Research Scholarship, a program that
offers students the opportunity to craft a yearlong
Dr. Henry Kressel
intensive research project
under the direct supervision of University faculty.
The Kressels became Benefactors of YU and endowed a chair in economics.
Kressel has played an integral role in charting the course of the future
of Yeshiva University and has been instrumental in its advancements over
the years as a university on the cutting-edge of education and reimagining.
“The mission of YU remains the same, but the educational process and
content has evolved over time to reflect new realities,” he said. “Like all
institutions of higher education today, YU must adjust its operations and
structure to reflect more efficiency in delivering its services, while at the
same time maintaining excellence and mission focus.”
In 2014, Kressel married Rina Uziel, a noted jewelry designer and entrepreneur who is very active in the Jewish community. Uziel has two children
in New York, Rami, married to Barbara Kukafka, and Ronit, as well as two
grandchildren.
“At the reunion, I hope to see old friends and share life experiences that
we’ve accumulated over the years,” said Kressel.
“Dr. Kressel is the poster child for the concept of hakarat hatov, recognizing the good,” said President Joel. “He is mindful of how his life was
shaped by his undergraduate years at Yeshiva College and has acted upon
those memories. He has recognized the role that Yeshiva University plays in
the future of the Jewish people and has committed many years of service,
leadership and philanthropy. For the past six years, he has led YU as the
Chairman of the Board of Trustees with grace, intellect, academic commitment and integrity and will continue beyond his chairmanship.”
Continued on Page 4 ç

ALUMNITODAY 1

ALUMNITODAY
CLASSNOTES
YOUR NEWS IS OUR NEWS!

Class Notes is where Yeshiva
University celebrates the milestones
and accomplishments of its alumni.
In this section, you can catch up on
everything your classmates have been
up to over the years, from marriages
and births to professional and personal
achievements.
Submit your class note by emailing
[email protected] with the subject
line “Class Notes” or by visiting
www.yu.edu/alumni/notes to complete
the online form. We hope that you enjoy
reading about your fellow alumni and
friends, and we look forward to hearing
about your achievements.

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Don’t miss out on exciting
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news and information.
Visit www.yu.edu/
alumnidirectory today!

1940s
Barbara and Rabbi A. Irving Schnipper
’48YC, ’50W announce the birth of their
great grandchild, Tehillah, born to Atara
and Efraim Marcus ’04YC.

1950s
Sandy and Nat Geller ’52YUHS, ’56YC
celebrated the Bar Mitzvah of their
grandson, Yosef Uzziel Rothenberg, son
of Amy ’86YUHS and Harry Rothenberg.
Gilda ’63S and Rabbi Jerry Hochbaum
’54YC, ’56R recently made aliyah to
Jerusalem.

Mr. Leon Wildes ’54YC, father of Rabbi
Mark ’89YC, ’93C, ’94R and Michael
Wildes ’89C was honored at the Benjamin
N. Cardozo School of Law Reception on
December 3, 2014 recognizing the
establishment of The Wildes Family
Scholarship. The scholarship was created
to offer financial assistance to enable
qualified students to attend Cardozo.
Naomi (Baumol) and Dr. Erich Zauderer
’59YC, ’63R announce the marriage of their
granddaughters: Tova to Shlomo Chaim
Todd, Dafna to Yehuda Gutkind and Adina
to Eli Kuhnriech.

2 ALUMNITODAY

Charlotte ’60YUHS and Rabbi Dr.
Mordecai Zeitz ’56YUHS, ’60YC, ’62R,
’74BR announce the marriage of their
grandson Ari Zeitz, son of Stacy ’88S and
Robert Zeitz ’90YC, to Chavi Mayer.

1960s
Sara and Rabbi Aharon Angstreich
’65YUHS, ’70YC, ’72F, ’72R announce the
marriage of their daughter Devora to Gadi
Yedidovitch of Haifa.
Helen ’65YUHS, ’70TI and Rabbi Meier
Brueckheimer ’63YUHS, ’67YC, ’70R,
’70F announce the birth of a son to Orit
’00S, ’03W and Aryeh Brueckheimer of
Beitar Illit, Israel.
Rabbi Herb Cohen, PhD ’64YC, ’70R, ’70F
has recently authored Kosher Movies: A Film
Critic Discovers Life Lessons at the Cinema,
published by Urim Publishers. The book has
been acclaimed by personalities such as
Vincent Coppola and Senator Joseph
Lieberman. Rabbi Cohen writes a weekly
movie review in The Jewish Tribune, and
his film reviews have appeared in The
Huffington Post, the Atlanta Jewish Times,
and The Intermountain Jewish News.
Stanley Fischman
’66YC, ’86A recently
served as Scholar
in Residence at the
Young Israel of
Hollywood, FL,
where he made
three presentations
including one on his
book, Seven Steps to Mentschhood:
How to Help Your Child Become a
Mentsch.
Arlene Press Goldis ’68S celebrated the
Bat Mitzvah of granddaughter, Eliana
Matana, daughter of Mira ’98S and Yakir
Wachstock, together with Hadassah
(Kessler) ’64YUHS and Jacob Wachstock
’63YUHS.
Dr. Eugene Korn ’68YC co-edited
Ploughshares into Swords? Essays on
Religion and Violence (Center for JewishChristian Understanding and Cooperation
in Israel, 2014, Kindle edition). He
contributed “Religious Violence, Sacred
Texts, and Theological Values” to that
volume. Dr. Korn’s 2012 essay, “Rethinking
Christianity: Rabbinic Positions and
Possibilities,” was translated into Hebrew
and published as an independent booklet
as Ha-natzrut B’einei Ha-yahadut: Avar,
Hoveh V’atid (American Jewish Committee,
2013) for use by the Israeli Rabbinate and
school system, and was recently translated
into Italian for use by the Italian Rabbinate
and Italian Catholic clergy.
Rabbi Jordan S.
Penkower ’60YUHS,
’64YC, ’67BS, ’69BR,
’69R, professor,
department of Bible,
Bar-Ilan University,
recently completed
Masorah and Text Criticism in the Early
Modern Mediterranean and co-authored
The Bible in Rabbinic Interpretation-Rabbinic
Derashot on Prophets and Writings in
Talmudic and Midrashic Literature, Volume
Two: Joel and Amos with Menachem
Ben-Yashar.
Ann and Rabbi Gary Pollack ’60YUHS,
’64YC, ’68R celebrated the Bar Mitzvah of
their grandson, Hillel Gedalia Neuman, son
of Liba and Heshy Neuman ’94YUHS,
’99SB, and the Bat Mitzvah of their
granddaughter Zipora Rachel Balter,
daughter of Dubby and Yekutiel Balter.

Dr. Sara Reguer ’63TI,
chair of the department
of Judaic Studies at
Brooklyn College,
published My Father’s
Journey: a Memoir of
Lost Lithuanian Jewish
Worlds (Academic
Studies Press, 2015).
Her father, Dr. Moshe
Aron Reguer, earned
all of his degrees at Yeshiva University, and
taught there for 40 years.

Carrie and Rabbi Dr. Morrie Klians ’76YC
celebrate the birth of a granddaughter
Ella Tamar, daughter of Daniella ’07S
and Jeffrey Remin ’07YC .

Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg ’69YC,
’74R, ’74F, ’92A has continued his life’s
mission of honoring his Holocaust survivor
parents’ memory with the publication of
The Holocaust as Seen through Film and
will donate the proceeds from the book to
Holocaust education and needy Holocaust
survivors and their offspring. Additionally,
Rabbi Rosenberg recently reflected on the
75th Anniversary of The Wizard of Oz in an
article titled “Somewhere Over the
Rainbow” from the perspective of its Jewish
composers, who published the Oscarwinning song on the eve of the Holocaust.

Cantor Yehoshua Redfern ’77BZ recently
performed before a sold-out crowd at
University of Maryland’s Clarice Smith
Center for the Performing Arts. Additionally
Redfern, accompanied by Cantor Daniel
Gildar, recorded a live CD album from the
event, “Yehoshua Live.”

Dr. Charles Sprung
’67YUHS, ’71YC,
Director of the General
Intensive Care Unit,
Hadassah Medical
Organization, was
recently awarded
the prestigious Bonei Zion Prize by Nefesh
B’Nefesh.
Rochel Sylvetsky-Tabak ’63TI celebrated
the Bar Mitzvah of three grandsons, who are
also grandsons of the late Dov Sylvetsky
’62R, ’66BR: Evyatar, son of Akiva (legal
advisor to the Shomron, Efrat, Gush Etzion)
and Dr. Noa Sylvetsky of Efrat; Nachum
Elimelech Nevies, son of Drs. Zehava (nee
Sylvetsky) and Naftali Nevies of Elazar and
Gush Etzion, will be a Bar Mitzvah the last
day of Pesach; Yonatan Yehuda Sylvetsky,
son of Rav Avraham (teaches in Merkaz
HaRav Yeshiva Gavoha) and Avital
Sylvetsky of Kiryat Moshe, Jerusalem will
be a Bar Mitzvah on April 18.

1970s
Rabbi Dr. Aaron Adler ’74YC, ’76R, ’77BR
recently served as the Religious Zionist
Slate Scholar-in-Residence at Young Israel
of Kew Gardens Hills. Rabbi Adler
addressed the community on Torat Eretz
Yisrael and explained the importance of
voting for the Religious Zionist Slate in the
World Zionist Congress elections.

Nechama and Elliot
Rosner ’72YC
announced the birth
of their grandson
Yaakov Baruch
(“Coby”) born to
their children Aliza
and Shmuel
Rosner ’11BS .
Dr. Samuel Schneider ’74BR, ’79BR,
associate professor of Hebrew, Yeshiva
College, recently publiched an article
“Yosef Chaim Brenner and Judaism,” in
the annual Hebrew periodical Hador
(Vol. VI, 2015, USA).

Dr. Joseph Trachtman, O.D., Ph.D.,
F.C.O.V.D.-A ’78F was recently featured in
NASA’s Spinoff magazine for a device that
was developed during his doctoral
dissertation research in experimental
psychology at Ferkauf Graduate School of
Psychology. The device is known as the
Zone-Trac®, which uses biofeedback to
improve concentration and train relaxation.
Esther (Gleicher) ’75YUHS and Rabbi
Dr. Mark Weiner ’78YC, ’79F, ’80R and
Janet and Dr. Josh Kunin ’83E celebrated
the marriage of their children Aryeh Dov
and Rivkah Leah.
Chana Reifman Zweiter
’72S, founding director of
Kaleidoscope/The Rosh
Pina Mainstreaming
Network, was recently
awarded the prestigious
Bonei Zion Prize by
Nefesh B’Nefesh.

David L. Ferstendig ’78YC, an expert on
New York civil practice and procedure, has
been named editor of the New York State
Law Digest.
Rabbi Dr. Aaron Glatt
’76YUHS, ’79YC served
as Scholar-In-Residence
at The Young Israel of
Stamford in their
“Medicine, Ethics and
Halacha” Shabbaton.
Rabbi Elimelech
Goldberg
’74YUHS, ’77YC,
’81R recently
published A Perfect
God Created an
Imperfect World
Perfectly.

Sharon and Dr. Daniel Gottlieb ’79YC,
’84F announce the marriage of their
daughter Eyelet to Danni Brenner.

1980s
Rabbi Baruch Simon ’81YUHS, ’85YC,
’89R spent Shabbat with the West Side
Institutional Synagogue and was featured
as the guest speaker.
Susan L. Abramson Mayer, EdD, RN-BC
’86W announces the birth of a granddaughter, Samara Chava (Ava Lily) and the
Bar Mitzvah of a grandson, Scott Michael.
Deena and Rabbi Morey Schwartz ’85YC,
’90R, ’91BR announce the birth of their
granddaughter, Ariella Chana, born to their
children Yoni and Suzy and the birth of a
grandson, Elai Yehuda, all of Hashmonaim,
Israel.

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Director of Yeshiva University in Israel and
director of YU’s S. Daniel Abraham Israel
Program Stephanie (Schechter)
’85YUHS, ’89S and YUIA Treasurer Alan
Strauss ’82YUHS, ’86SB announce the
engagement of their son Yehuda to Rivky
Bromberg, daughter of Izzy and Ruchie
Bromberg.
Alan L. Yatvin ’83C was recently named
to the board of directors of the American
Diabetes Association.
Robin (Goldstein) ’87YUHS, ’91S and
Fred Zemel ’89YC, ’92C announce the
marriage of their daughter Zahava to
Daniel Mark of Hashmonaim. Mazal tov
to grandparents Marianne and Alter
Goldstein, z”l ’60YUHS and Morton
and Yocheved (Judy) Zemel.

Rabbi Aaron
Goldscheider ’93R
recently published a
new Haggadah, ‫אחדות‬
‫ לילה של‬in Hebrew by
Yediot Achronot Press
in Israel. A second
printing of the English
version “The Night That
Unites” (Urim, 2015) has also just been
released in the U.S. and Israel after selling
out the first printing. The Haggadah is the
first book to feature the teachings of three
influential thinkers and religious leaders
of the past century–Rabbi Abraham Isaac
Kook, Rabbi Joseph Soloveichik and Reb
Shlomo Carlebach.

1990s
Rabbi Hayyim Angel ’93YC, ’93BR,
’95R,’96A recently published Jewish
Holiday Companion, a book of brief
essays on the holidays, their symbols,
and synagogue readings. The book is
published by Kodesh Press.
Freida and Rabbi Dr. Elihu Schatz
’50YUHS, ’54YC, ’57R of Hashmonaim,
Israel, announce the birth of a greatgranddaughter to Idit and Noam Freeman,
the birth of a great-granddaughter to
Becky and Amiad Gilor, and the birth of
a great-granddaughter to Shaindie and
Shai Markovich.
Mitchell First ’95R
recently published
a book, Esther
Unmasked: Solving
Eleven Mysteries of
the Jewish Holidays
and Liturgy (Kodesh
Press, 2015).

Dr. Scott J. Goldberg ’96SB, vice provost,
Yeshiva University and an associate
professor at YU’s Azrieli Graduate School
of Jewish Education, recently addressed
Mount Sinai Jewish Center in the
Washington Heights neighborhood
of Manhattan, NY.

Tamar (Parness) ’95SB and Jeremy
Lustman ’96YC recently celebrated the
Bat Mitzvah of their daughter, Avital Nina,
in their home community of Hashmonaim,
Israel. Mazal Tov to grandparents Chani
(Weissman) ’61YUHS and Jay Parness
’58YUHS and Elsa (Cantor) ’69S and
Mark Lustman ’67YC.

Dr. Dale
Rosenbach
’99YUHS, ’03YC
was invited to
lecture at the 2015
Greater Long Island
Dental Meeting on
the topic of “Dental
Implants: Where Do
They Go and How
Do We Get Them
There?” He also recently published a
technique article entitled “How to Extract
Teeth as Atraumatically as Possible” in the
March 2015 edition of Dental Products
Review.
Penina Rybak
’92S wrote the
book The NICE
Reboot: A Guide
to Becoming a
Better Female
Entrepreneur—
How to Balance
Your Cravings for
Humanity &
Technology in
Today’s Startup Culture (Maven House
Press, 2014). Penina’s second book,
Autism Intervention in
the iEra: The Socially
Speaking™ Program
will be published in
April 2015. She also
has a Socially
Speaking™ iPad App.

Rabbi Menachem Penner ’91YC, ’95R,
Max and Marion Grill Dean, RIETS and
Rav, Young Israel of Holiswood in Queens
recently served as Scholar-in-Residence
at Congregation Ahawas Achim B’nai
Jacob & David in West Orange, NJ.

Rabbi David Polsky ’96YUHS, ’01YC,
’05R, Rav, Anshe Sfard Synagogue of
New Orleans was recently featured in an
article on Nola.com.

Rabbi Eliezer Schnall, PhD ’95YUHS,
’00YC, ’02F, ’03R, ’06F, professor of
psychology at Yeshiva College, authored
“Virtues that Transcend: Positive
Psychology in Jewish Texts and Tradition”
as part of Springer’s new volume Religion
and Spirituality Across Cultures. Rabbi
Dr. Schnall’s chapter, co-authored with
two former Yeshiva College students,
Rabbi Mark Schiffman ’09YC, ’11A, ’12R
and Aaron Cherniak ’14YC, takes a Torah
Umadda approach to the cutting-edge field
of positive psychology.

Ari Zoldan ’99SB, CEO of Quantum Media
Group, LLC, recently attended Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech
to Congress on March 3, 2015 in
Washington, D.C.

2000s
Riva ’10S and Rabbi Alon Amar
’06YUHS, ’11YC, ’14R announce the birth
of a son.
Tova and Rabbi Noah Baron ’02YC,
’08A, ’10R announce the birth of a son.
Erica ’08S and Joshua Elsant ’08YC
announce the birth of a son, Dov Ber.
Mazal tov to grandparents Gail (Epstein)
’72YUHS, ’76S and Dr. Martin Elsant
’75YC and Helen and Reuben Davis.
Yehudit (Lerner) ’99YUHS, ’03S and
Rabbi Nachman Elsant ’04YC, ’07R
announce the birth of a son, Chaim Leib.
Mazal tov to grandparents Gail (Epstein)
’72YUHS, ’76S and Dr. Martin Elsant
’75YC, and Abigail (Dworetsky)
’70YUHS and Rabbi Yaacov Lerner
’71YC, ’73R, ’74F.
Sara Libby and Rabbi Shaul Epstein
’02YC, ’07R, ’07BR announce the birth
of their son, Ephraim Shmuel.
Malka ’05S and
Rabbi Maury
Grebenau ’01YC,
’04R ’07A
announce the
birth of their
daughter, Meira
Shira.

Remembering Rabbi Jacob Rabinowitz z”l

T

he Yeshiva University community mourns the passing of Rabbi
Jacob Rabinowitz z”l ’42YUHS,
’46YC, ’48R, beloved former dean of
undergraduate Jewish studies.
Rabbi Rabinowitz’s affiliation
and dedication to YU, from student
to dean, spanned several decades and
linked the administrations of Dr. Bernard Revel, Dr. Samuel Belkin and Dr.
Norman Lamm.
“Rabbi Yaakov Rabinowitz—a
gentle, warm, passionate teacher and
leader—informed Yeshiva University
since his student days for decades,”
said President Richard M. Joel. “For
an entire generation of Yeshiva life, he was amongst the handful of educators
who took responsibility for its mission.”
Rabbi Dr. Herbert C. Dobrinsky, vice president for university affairs, who
was close to Rabbi Rabinowitz for almost 50 years, recalled his “cherished friend
as a devoted administrator of YU whose foremost concern was for the well-being

s

of the students in the undergraduate Jewish studies schools and in his Yeshiva
College chemistry courses. He was kind, sincere and a wonderful role model worthy of emulation by students, faculty and younger colleagues.”
Rabbi Rabinowitz was born in New York City on June 1, 1926. He majored in
chemistry and was a student for two years in Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik’s shiur
[lecture] at Yeshiva College. He joined the faculty at YU’s James Striar School
of General Jewish Studies in 1957 and the chemistry faculty at Stern College for
Women in 1961. From 1964 to 1966, he was assistant professor and director of
religious guidance at Stern and was appointed the first dean of students for the
undergraduate schools in 1966. He was named dean of the Erna Michael College
of Hebraic Studies in 1968 and was appointed dean of undergraduate Jewish
studies in 1977, serving as the chief administrator of Jewish studies programs at
YU’s undergraduate schools.
Rabbi Rabinowitz resigned as dean of undergraduate Jewish studies in 1989
and returned to teaching, retiring in 1999. He was appointed emeritus professor
of Talmud and awarded an honorary doctorate of Hebrew Letters by the University upon his retirement.
He is survived by his wife, Toby; two sons, Rabbi Baruch and Rabbi David;
and two daughters, Mrs. Esther Shulman and Mrs. Fayge (Safran) Novogroder.
His son, Rabbi Joseph z”l ’81R, passed away in 2013. n

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ALUMNITODAY 3

ALUMNITODAY
An Accomplished Legacy ç

Continued from Page 1

STANLEY RASKAS ’65YC, ’69BR, ’69R

For Stanley Raskas, chairman of the Board of Overseers of Yeshiva College, commitment to Torah Umadda is in his genes.
His family’s dedication to Judaism—his grandfather Louis was sent from the
United States to learn in the preeminent Eastern European yeshivot of Slabodka
and Radin—went hand in hand with the establishment of the family’s dairy busi-

Stanley Raskas

the business skills I had acquired, and this gave me that chance,” said Raskas.
Sheri passed away in 2009.
Raskas assumed the chairmanship of the Yeshiva College Board of Overseers
in 2010 and served as a member of the YU Board’s Strategic Planning Sub-Committee. From his vantage point, he has observed the positive transformations YU has
experienced over the last decade. “The college curriculum has been totally
revamped to give students much more varied and enriched courses,” said Raskas.
“The extracurricular offerings represent a very wide choice of opportunities, and
perhaps one of the greatest changes is in the area of career guidance and job placement. Our graduates obtain excellent entry-level positions and continue to be
accepted at all the top medical, legal, and professional graduate programs.”
In 2012, Raskas received an honorary degree at Yeshiva University’s annual
Hanukkah Convocation.
“In many ways, Stanley represents the happy warrior, a man of philanthropic
generosity and personal warmth,” said President Richard M. Joel. “He has led the
Yeshiva College Board beyond that and has been a source of wisdom to me and
countless others.”
Raskas is proud of his and Sheri’s five children, all of whom graduated YU and
are married to YU graduates: Michael, married to Karen Muth; Aliza, married to
Steven Major; Tamar, married to Ethan Benovitz; Ari, married to Robyn Scharaga;
and Jonah, married to Rachel Gelles.
“I am proud to say all of them are involved in Jewish communal life and live lives
of Torah Umadda,” said Raskas. One of their granddaughters, Elana Raskas, is currently enrolled in YU’s Graduate Program for Women in Advanced Talmudic Study.
Raskas is now married to Joyce Kurz; the couple plans to attend the upcoming
reunion.
“I’m looking forward to seeing many classmates and also remembering some
who are no longer around,” said Raskas. “I’m also grateful for the chance to display
hakarat hatov to an institution which was, and remains, an integral part of my life.”
RACHAYL (ECKSTEIN) DAVIS ’75S

ness by his great-grandparents, Isaac and Shifra Raskas, in the late 1800s in St.
Rachayl “Rock” Davis grew up in a small Jewish community in Ottawa, Canada,
Louis, Missouri. His maternal grandfather, Rabbi Tobias Geffen, was a rabbi in
but spent her summers at Camp Morasha, where she developed a wide circle of
Atlanta, Georgia, for more than 60 years and was responsible for the original Coca- like-minded friends and grew in her Jewish learning.
Cola kosher certification. And Rabbi Geffen’s sandek [godfather] in Kovno, Lithu“I really looked forward to being in such a vibrant, fun and strongly Jewish
ania, was the namesake of RIETS, Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Spektor.
environment, so when it came time for college, I knew I would attend Stern College
“I grew up in a Modern Orthodox home in St. Louis and attended the Epstein
for Women,” said Davis.
Hebrew Academy through eighth grade, but there was no yeshiva high school in “Chaya Orlian [associate
town, so I attended public high school and learned in an intensive after-school pro- dean at Stern] and Rivka
gram,” recalled Raskas. “I knew I wanted to go to college in a Modern
Orthodox environment, where I could achieve excellence in both Jewish and secular subjects as well as have the opportunity to make a wide
circle of Jewish friends.”
He found that and more at Yeshiva College, where he majored in
economics and enjoyed classes with outstanding professors like Dr.
Samuel Soloveichik, Rabbi Israel Wohlgelernter, Rabbi Harry Wohlberg
and Dr. Aaron Brody.
The 1960s—Raskas’s time at YU—was a notable decade for college
students, many of whom were caught up in various political and social
causes of the day. At YU many students took to activism on behalf of
Soviet Jewry. “Who can forget attending rallies led by Jacob Birnbaum
that took place in front of the Russian Embassy?” said Raskas. “Many of
the young leaders of Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry went on to
become outstanding members of the Jewish communal world and
remain active today.”
While at YU, Raskas served as a senior editor of The Commentator, as
Rachayl Davis
secretary treasurer of the Student Council and as a member of the debate
team. “Being on the debate team not only honed my speaking skills but
also gave me a chance to travel around the country and represent YU,”
said Raskas.
Behar z”l (founder of Stern’s early childhood department) were my mentors at
Raskas went on to attend the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies,
camp, too, so Stern was a natural progression.”
earning a master’s in Hebrew literature, and received semicha [rabbinical ordinaAt Stern, Davis majored in education, planning a career as a teacher. She grew
tion] at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. He was the founding rabbi
close with Peninnah Schram, professor of speech and drama, and continues to
of the Young Israel of Scarsdale, New York, in 1968.
maintain a connection with her. “I believe I might have been among Professor SchAfter two years in the rabbinate, he returned to St. Louis and worked for more
ram’s very first students, taking Speech 101 with her and continuing with storytellthan 25 years in the family business, Raskas Foods. The company produced cultured
ing classes,” she said. Davis was so inspired by the courses that she joined a group
dairy products and was the second-largest manufacturer of cream cheese in the
led by Schram at the 92nd Street Y called Kernels of a Pomegranate: The Art of
United States. As an owner and vice chairman, Raskas helped oversee the transi- Storytelling—which remains a highlight of her college career—and participated in
tion of the business from a small family-run organization with 25 employees into
several speech festivals including the International Jewish Storytelling Festival.
a professionally managed entity with both nationwide and international sales and
“I also fondly recall being in the dorm with friends and my time as a dorm counthree state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities. More than 500 people were work- selor,” said Davis. “For an out-of-towner to be able to live in Midtown Manhattan
ing there when the company was sold in 2002. Raskas was also an executive board
with so many good friends was a dream come true!”
member of the U.S. Dairy Export Council and a member of the International Dairy
Other college highlights included her classes, especially Tefillah with Rabbi
Foods Association.
Avi Weiss, Modern Jewish Problems with Rabbi Saul Berman, and Chumash with
Raskas and his wife, Sheri z”l, then moved to New Rochelle, New York, to be
Rabbi Pesach Oratz z”l, who also taught her when she was a camper at Morasha.
closer to their children and grandchildren. Shortly after, he met fellow alumnus
Davis was a vice president of student council and served on the first Counterpoint
Fred Gorsetman ’67YC, ’71R and eventually joined his boutique investment banking
program, along with a select group of rabbis, teachers and advisers, in Australia in
firm, Oxbridge Financial Group, as a director. “I wanted an opportunity to continue
the summer of 1974. “Rabbi Norman Lamm, the former president of YU, went to

4 ALUMNITODAY

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Australia the previous summer, and was so well received that the community
wanted to continue the YU educational experience,” said Davis. “Dr. Abe Stern z”l,
the father of YU’s Torah Leadership Seminar, which I participated in as an adviser
for several years, was the leader of designing and implementing that Counterpoint
experience. I found working with young high school students in a formative environment to be challenging, invigorating and incredibly meaningful. I met truly talented and inspiring people, many of whom I am still in touch with today.”
Davis also met her husband, Dr. Hillel Davis ’72YC, ’75BR, ’75R, at a Dirshu
Shabbaton. Dirshu was a grassroots, student-run organization that sent students to
colleges around the country to lead Jewish programming for the Jewish students
on campus.
After the Davises married, they lived in Brooklyn before moving to Oceanside,
New York, where they lived down the block from Richard and Esther Joel.
For a short time, Davis worked in the public relations office at YU and then as
the admissions director for a health care facility while beginning her studies
towards a master’s in educational theater at New York University.
Following graduate school, she worked in the dean’s office at Stern as an academic adviser for three years, taught at a local preschool and ran a Hebrew literacy
program in a yeshiva day school on the south shore of Long Island, which included
Hebrew storytelling and creative dramatics.
“My career has been varied, but virtually all of it has revolved around education,” said Davis. “Looking back, I always thought I wanted to teach, but I realized
over the years that my real interests are in more informal education. Traditional
teaching in front of a classroom didn’t play to my strengths, and experiential education, which is much more prominent today, didn’t really exist as a separate field
of study back when I was starting my career.”
Eventually, Davis became a freelance educator, providing programming and
extracurricular opportunities for local yeshivot, synagogues and community centers, often in conjunction with the Jewish holidays. “Using Tu B’Shevat (the new
year for trees) as an example, I would dress as a tree and ‘arrive’ from Israel and
include the children in interactive and educational storytelling experiences,” said
Davis. “For rosh chodesh [the new month], I would dress as a shiny, silvery moon
and tell stories revolving around the new month while including the children in
singing and dramatic exercises.”
Hillel served as YU’s vice president for university life for eight years before the
Davises made aliyah [emigration to Israel] in 2011, at the same time her parents,
Rabbi Simon ’46R and Belle Eckstein, made aliyah from Florida. The Davises now
live in Jerusalem and have reconnected with many of their YU friends.
Davis utilizes her experience and skills performing and storytelling and as a
trained medical clown. The majority of her work now consists of volunteering at
local hospitals for Simchat HaLev, a medical clown organization, bringing smiles
to patients.
She continues to take classes in improvisational theatre. After moving to
Israel, she coauthored a book with Schram called The Apple Tree’s Discovery.
“I was blessed with having Rachayl as one of my first storytelling students at
Stern, and she has remained a dear friend throughout these years,” said Schram.
“Whatever Rachayl does, she shares her gifts with an open heart and whole neshama
[soul]. It has been a pleasure to be friends with Rachayl, be her coauthor and meet
her in Jerusalem when I visit. I look forward to continuing our friendship, sharing
stories and exchanging family news for many more years.”
The Davises have four children, all YU graduates: Nahva, married to Isaac
Maman; Ariel, married to Yael Zemelman; Leora, married to Ezra Blumenthal; and
Tali, married to Shaya Gartner. Three out of the four spouses are YU graduates,
noted Davis.
“One son-in-law grew up in Australia,” she said. “So I guess he gets a pass.”
LAURA (GREENFIELD) GOLDMAN ’90SB

For Laura Goldman, an active volunteer and Jewish lay leader in Silver Spring,
Maryland, community is a calling.
Goldman grew up in Pittsburgh, Pa., and after completing all of her high
school credits in 11th grade, decided to go to Yeshiva University through the early
admissions process. Aspiring to pursue a career in finance, she enrolled in the
recently opened Sy Syms School of Business.
Not one to remain content with going from class back to her dorm room, Goldman assumed many leadership positions in extracurricular pursuits—growing
close to Zelda Braun, then associate dean of students, in the process. She served as
a dorm counselor, the vice president of the Sy Syms Student Council, and president
of the Business Society, to name a few.
“Some of my fondest memories are of going uptown (to the Wilf Campus) for
the chagigas [holiday celebrations] and going out with friends on Thursday nights,”
recalls Goldman, who was a Dr. Samuel Belkin Scholar. “I also participated in a
Torah Umadda think tank, where students studied and discussed the challenges of
Modern Orthodoxy and how Orthodox Jews balance the Torah Umadda lifestyle.
“One of the best things about YU was the access afforded the student body to a
variety of internships in the professional fields,” she said. “It allowed you to
coalesce your ideas of what you might want to do after graduating and also gave
you the chance to develop relevant experience outside the classroom.” She gained
investment banking experience by working for Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette

s

in their retail brokerage department and for Bankers Trust on their currency
trading floor.
She met her husband, Yossi Goldman ’88SB, while the two were in college.
After graduating Sy Syms magna cum laude, Laura worked for the Federal
Reserve Bank of New York as a bank examiner. She studied banking law at Fordham University School of Law and worked at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey and the FDIC. She then accepted a full-time position at the Office of the
Comptroller of the Currency in Washington, D.C., where she stayed for 12 years
before entering private practice at Barnett Sivon & Natter, P.C., a D.C. banking and
insurance regulatory law firm.
Goldman’s other interest is education. She is a parent educator and volunteer
with the Parent Encouragement Program, a nonprofit educational organization for
parents, teachers and others who want to deal constructively with children and
teens and foster mutual respect and shared responsibility. Goldman volunteers at
her children’s school, the Berman Hebrew Academy, and served as a member of the
school’s Board of Directors and Development Committee. She also served as president of the Hebrew Day School of Montgomery County. She attends and teaches
Torah classes and tutors women and bat mitzvah girls.

Laura Goldman

Goldman continues her community involvement in many organizational roles.
Currently, she serves on the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington’s Community & Global Impact Committee, has been nominated to the Federation’s board of
directors and participates in other Jewish organizations, including NCSY, Bikur
Cholim of Greater Washington, the Jewish Education Innovation Challenge,
Maryland Jewish Experience, Maryland Hillel and American Israel Public Affairs
Committee. She served on the executive committee of Kemp Mill Synagogue over
the last 10 years as a trustee and treasurer and, most recently, as vice president of
Klal Yisrael, where she was responsible for shul liaising with external organizations and programming related to Israel.
Goldman stays connected to YU by serving on the Center for the Jewish
Future (CJF) Advisory Council. She has participated in the YU ChampionsGate
leadership conference and the Washington Leadership Fellowship Program.
“Laura continues to represent the best of our alumni,” said Rabbi Kenneth
Brander, vice president for university and community life. “She plays leadership
roles in her local community and in the greater Jewish community, and she has
been a voice of clarity and wisdom on the CJF Advisory Council. We are lucky to
have her on board.”
“It’s challenging to balance everything,” admitted Goldman. “But I have found
that the best way to do so is to prioritize by first figuring out what’s most important
to you at any stage of your life. After I had my third child, I consciously decided to
step back from my legal practice to have more time with my kids and be able to stay
involved with the community. Since then, I have developed myself as a lay leader,
Torah learner and parent educator so that now I use my experience to help others.”
She noted, too, that balancing life is easier with good help and a supportive
spouse.
So what drives Goldman’s compulsion to give back to the community?
“Community doesn’t run without participation,” she said. “The ideal would be
to give because you’re passionate about whatever institution you’re giving to, but
there’s also a sense of responsibility and a calling to give so that the community
functions well. I believe we are here to contribute our particular gifts and talents
and utilize the experience we’ve gained for the betterment of this world. That is
meaningful and purposeful living.”
Goldman is looking forward to attending the reunion. “I think it’s always nice
to catch up with people who have played a role during a formative time in your life,”
she said. “My classmates became part of my imprint of early adulthood, and I’m
looking forward to hearing about where our lives took us and how we got there.”
The Goldmans have four children—Evan, Daniel, Zachary, and Kira. n

CHECK OUT WHAT ALUMNI EVENTS ARE HAPPENING ON CAMPUS AND AROUND THE WORLD AT WWW.YU.EDU/ALUMNIEVENTS

ALUMNITODAY 5

ALUMNI IN ACTION
TORAH LEADERSHIP SEMINAR REUNION IN ISRAEL (FEBRUARY 15, 2015)

More than 150 men and women gathered at Yeshiva University’s Jerusalem campus for the
first YU Torah Leadership Seminar (TLS) Reunion in Israel. Managed under the aegis of the
original Community Service Division of YU, TLS increased participants’ Jewish knowledge
and bolstered their faith while developing their leadership skills. Participants viewed video
greetings from YU President Richard M. Joel, and Rabbi Shlomo Riskin ’56YUHS, ’60YC,
’63R,’73BR, an early TLS advisor, delivered the keynote address.

ALUMNI MUSEUM TOUR (FEBRUARY 18, 2015)

YU’s Silver and Golden Shield Society, which celebrates alumni who graduated 40 and 50
years ago or more, hosted a special guided tour at the Museum of the City of New York of
its exhibition, “Letters to Afar: by Péter Forgács, Music by the Klezmatics.” The immersive
video art installation is based on home movies made by New York City’s Jewish immigrants
who traveled back to visit Poland during the 1920s and 30s. The group was accompanied by
Dr. Eric Goldman, YU adjunct professor of cinema.

q Chaya (Carol Spatz)
Passow ’70S,
Dvora (Doris Weinrib)
Kidorf ’70S

m Debi (Stern) Berko ’80S, Malka Stern,
Judi (Stern) Becker ’84S

o Miriam and Eddie
Abramson ’69YC, ’73R,
’73BR, Noa (Vivian
Alperin) Lev ’71S

m Ilana (Ellen Roberts) Mendlovitz ’69S,
Aviva (Dukoff ) Stanislawski ’68TI,
Judi (Riskin) Stern ’69S
o Lilly (Lubka) ’71S and Irving Cantor ’67HS

Tamar (Warburg) ’05S, ’08C and Yigal
Gross ’06YC, ’08BR announce the birth
of their daughter, Sara Aliza. Mazal Tov to
grandparents Chaye (Lamm) ’72YUHS
and David Warburg ’71YUHS, ’75YC, and
Ronit and Yaacov Gross. Mazal Tov to
great-grandparents Batya Haronian, Ilse
Warburg, and Mindella and Dr. Norman
Lamm ’49YC, ’51R, ’66BR.
Mr. Joshua Klarfeld ’02YC was recently
named partner at Ulmer & Berne LLP.
Joshua focuses his practice on product
liability litigation, pharmaceutical, medical
device and mass tort litigation. He is also
engaged in complex business litigation.
Lynn ’05S, ’08BR and Rabbi Aaron Kraft
’06YC, ’09R announce the birth of a son.
Rabbi Beni Krohn ’06YC, ’10R was
installed as rabbi at the Young Israel
of Teaneck.
Rabbi Levi Mostofsky ’00YC, ’03R
married Yifat Raz.

Leah (Kanner) ’08S and Shmuel Segal
’03YC, ’08R announce the birth of their
son, Avraham Netanel.
Sharon (Elsant) ’05S, ’08BR and Rabbi
Jay Weinstein ’05SB, ’09R announce the
birth of a daughter, Talia Esther. Mazal tov
to grandparents Gail (Epstein) ’72YUHS,
’76S and Dr. Martin Elsant ’75YC; and
Lenore and Stanley Weinstein.
Rivka and Rabbi Andi Yudin ’99YC,’02R
announce the birth of a son, Dovid Yair.
Mazal tov to grandparents Shevi and
Rabbi Benjamin Yudin ’69R, James
Striar School of General Jewish Studies
rebbe.
Ari Zak ’02SB was promoted to partner
at the New York office of Dechert LLP.
Ari focuses his practice on financial
services tax matters, with a particular
emphasis on registered funds and
alternative investment funds.

2010s
Jamie (Klein) ’10SB and Shmully Ash
’10SB announce the birth of their son,
Joseph Leo.

Rabbi Yehuda Sarna ’01YC, ’05R recently
participated in a solidarity delegation to the
French Jewish community.

6 ALUMNITODAY

Daniel Danesh ’13YC was elected to the
board of directors of the Iranian American
Bar Association’s New York Chapter and was
appointed chairman of its pro bono
committee.

m Dr. Eric Goldman

Abigail ’10YUHS, ’14S and Daniel Elsant
’12YC announce the birth of a daughter,
Elisheva Esther. Mazal tov to grandparents
Gail (Epstein) ’72YUHS, ’76S and
Dr. Martin Elsant ’75YC; and Lauren
and Joseph Hyman ’80C.
Tamar and Rabbi Effie Kleinberg ’12R
announce the birth of a son.
Craig Kohn ’12YC recently wrote an
inspirational article for aish.com titled
“My Life with Asperger’s”.
Aleeza ’14A and Avi Lauer ’85YUHS, vice
president and general counsel of Yeshiva
University, celebrated the marriage of their
daughter, Jennifer, to Josh Geffner
’07YUHS; she is the granddaughter of
Deborah Steinhorn ’56YUHS, ’60S;
Ilse ’60S, ’86W z”l and Rabbi Elias Lauer
’55YC z”l.
Margaret and Rabbi Leonard Matanky
announce the birth of a grandson, Yaakov
Levi, born to Aviva and Yitzi Matanky ’11SB.
Hundreds of
runners and
volunteers
attended the 4th
Annual Halachic
Organ Donor
(HOD) Society
Race on Sunday,
March 1 in Central
Park to raise
awareness about

halachic [Jewish legal] support for organ
donation. Steven Rosenbaum ’00SB
won the 5K Race for the male category
in 17 minutes and 18 seconds and
Sarah Mizrachi ’14S won the 5K Race
for the female category in 21 minutes
and 5 seconds.

In Memoriam
Dr. Joshua Fishman, former academic VP
Rabbi Emanuel Greenwald ’43YUHS,
’47YC, ’50R
Ms. Julia Packer ’15S
Wallace Pruzansky ’51YUHS, ’55YC
Rabbi Jacob Rabinowitz ’42YUHS,
’46YC, ’48R
Albee (Albert) Reingold ’55YUHS
Dr. Dan Vogel, former Stern College dean
Mrs. Batya (Levine) Weiner ’08S

Legend for school abbreviations:
A: Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and
Administration • BR: Bernard Revel Graduate School •
BS: Belfer Graduate School of Science • BZ: Philip
and Sarah Belz School of Jewish Music • C: Cardozo
School of Law • E: Albert Einstein College of Medicine
• F: Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology • R: Rabbi
Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary • S: Stern
College for Women • SB: Sy Syms School of Business •
TI: Teacher’s Institute • W: Wurzweiler School of
Social Work • YC: Yeshiva College • YUHS: Yeshiva
University High Schools

SUPPORT THE ANNUAL FUND AT WWW.YU.EDU/ONLINEGIVING ß

ANNUAL SEFORIM SALE ALUMNI FAMILY DAY (FEBRUARY 22, 2015)

Nearly 100 children and their parents took part in a special three-part program at the Annual
Alumni Family Day at the Seforim Sale. Programming included a magic show with magician
Ben Cohen; mask-decorating, assisted by instructors from the Yeshiva University Museum,
in preparation for Purim; and a soccer workshop with coaches from YU’s Men’s and Women’s
soccer teams.

m Assistant Athletic Director and Soccer Coach Shua Pransky holds court

m Alumni and their children enjoy the magic show

TORAH BREAK: ALUMNI MEET FOR MIDTOWN LECTURE (MARCH 12, 2015)

YU alumni gathered for a breakfast shiur [lecture] with Rabbi Jeremy Wieder, Joseph and Gwendolyn Straus Professor of Talmud, hosted by Terry Novetsky ’80YC, at midtown law firm
Kaye Scholer. The lecture, “Avid Inish Dina leNafsheih: Vigilante Self-Justice in Jewish Law,” is part of a quarterly alumni lecture series held at different business locations throughout
New York City.

m Rabbi Jeremy Wieder (right) delivers a lecture for alumni

s WE WANT TO HE AR YOUR IDE AS FOR PROGR AMMING IN YOUR REGION. CONTACT BARBAR A BIRCH AT BIRCH @YU.EDU OR 212 .960.0848 .

ALUMNITODAY 7

ALUMNITODAY
From the NFL to Local Politics,
Ora Kornbluth ’89S Has Tackled it All

O

ra (Ruttner) Kornbluth ’89S, of Bergenfield, New Jersey, is a master
juggler of multiple jobs and is angling to take on one more—mayor of
her New Jersey borough.
Kornbluth is the director of business and operations for Yeshivat
He’Atid, a Bergenfield day school; a statistician for the National Football
League (NFL); and an official statistician for
CBS Sports at MetLife Stadium when the Jets
and Giants play their home games. She is also
the programming director for a Passover program and, until 2013, was director of sports
at Camp Regesh, a day camp in Monsey, New
York, for 15 years. Up next, Kornbluth, currently a Bergenfield councilwoman, hopes to
win the borough’s November mayoral race.
“I drink a lot of coffee,” Kornbluth offers by
modest way of explanation for her numerous
roles. “I leave the house early, and I come home
late. But I need to keep busy—that’s just who
I am.”
Proof positive is her college career. As a
student at Stern College for Women, Kornbluth
served as senator of the student council during her junior year and president in her senior
year; played forward for the women’s basketball team; and was a member of the computer
science club. She was also editor of the Guide
for the Perplexed, an annual yellow pages-like
listing of people at college, restaurants in town,
and activities and events. In her spare time, she
worked first for an accountant and then for a
food stylist while still a student at Stern, and
as a counselor for Bais Ezra, which operates
residential homes for adults with mental disabilities, on the weekends.
“I was able to do so much as a college student, and I think a lot had to do with the fact
that Stern was a smaller school,” said Kornbluth, who majored in economics and minored
in computer science, while planning for a
career in finance. “I found that Stern was able
to nurture the student-mentor relationship
because of its size, and I grew very close to
Zelda Braun, who was dean of students at the
time.”
She continued, “I also really loved the dorm life at Stern. It was exciting
to be able to walk outside of your room at two or three in the morning and
have friends up and hanging out in the hallways.”
After graduation, Kornbluth took a job with AT&T in its management
training program, before securing a job as a tax assessor for the New York City
Department of Finance. Later, she worked for a commercial property litigation firm, where her knowledge as an assessor helped her fight property tax
assessments.
During this time, Bat Torah–The Alisa M. Flatow Yeshiva High School
in Monsey, reached out to Kornbluth, one of its graduates, to gauge her interest in coaching its basketball team. A longtime sports enthusiast, Kornbluth
couldn’t say no. Eventually, she added teaching to her roster as well as directing student activities at the school.
In 2000, her husband, Aaron ’87YC, discovered that his software firm,
Blueflame, was redoing the statistics system for the NFL to capture, consolidate, process and deliver game day data. He heard through the grapevine that



the NFL was looking to hire statisticians to monitor games and ensure that
each play is recorded and processed correctly. Ora quickly applied and, out of
the hundreds of applicants, was one of eight people hired.
It was a dream job for Kornbluth, especially as it only required that she
work on Sunday during football season. She monitors the games and sees
that all the relevant information of each play is
recorded properly. She was also hired to work
at MetLife Stadium by CBS Sports, thanks to
a referral by the NFL, as an official staff member of the New York Jets. There, she feeds the
broadcaster the statistics about that particular game to run on television. Kornbluth, who
already knew the rules of football pretty well,
had to study a formal guidebook to become
as well versed as possible in the minutia of
the game before taking a test with different
examples of potential plays to determine how
she would score them. She passed with flying
colors.
“It’s definitely one of the cooler things on
my résumé,” said Kornbluth. “I call this one my
football season job.”
In 2012, Kornbluth was hired as the
director of business and operations at Yeshivat He’Atid. “I was looking for a full-time job
and this one combined my finance, management and yeshiva administration backgrounds perfectly.”
Since moving to Bergenfield, Kornbluth
took active roles in her local community. She
was president of the sisterhood at her shul,
Congregation Beth Abraham (led by YU Rosh
Yeshiva Rabbi Yaakov Neuburger); served as
a member of the shul board numerous times;
and has chaired the shul dinner for the past
eight years.
Kornbluth also served on committees for
the Police Athletic League and the Zoning and
Planning Boards. She was approached by the
Democratic Party to run for council for several years, but it was only when her youngest
child started middle school that Kornbluth
felt she could take the time to dedicate to yet
another position.
“Because I didn’t campaign on Shabbos, I had to work harder the rest of
the week,” Kornbluth said of her bid to become councilwoman in 2010. She
won and was elected council president in 2013. She is currently the chairwoman of the Recreation Committee, police commissioner and ambulance
commissioner.
Unsurprisingly, Kornbluth also makes time for giving back to YU. She
helped organize her 25th reunion last year and also spoke at the YU Math
Club about her NFL job—to great acclaim by math enthusiasts and sports
fanatics alike.
“It’s hard to balance everything,” said Kornbluth of her many roles. “But
I have an amazing husband who regularly pitches in to help with whatever
needs to be taken care of.”
Though she concedes her lifestyle doesn’t make allowances for a whole
lot of sleep or relaxation, Kornbluth wouldn’t have it any other way. “I’m an
energy junkie, and I honestly don’t think I’d be very happy if I wasn’t busy.”
Ora and Aaron are the proud parents of Hindi, Nicki and Talya. n

I was able to do so much
as a college student, and I
think a lot had to do with the
fact that Stern was a smaller
school, I found that Stern was
able to nurture the studentmentor relationship because
of its size...



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ALUMNITODAY 8

YUTODAY

5

Examining the Effects of Aging at Ferkauf

J

thors together on the article “Psychometric Properties
Yuan’s article, “Functional Connectivity Associennifer Yuan, a doctoral candidate at Ferkauf
of the Brief Fatigue Inventory in Community-Dwelling
ated With Gait Velocity During Walking and WalkingGraduate School of Psychology, recently published
Older Adults,” published in the Archives of Physical
While-Talking in Aging: A Resting-State fMRI Study,”
an article about her predoctoral research as a first
Medicine and Rehabilitation, which validated a subjecwas the first study to use resting-state fMRI, a method
author in Human Brain Mapping, a high-impact peertive measure of fatigue that could be used when studying
of functional brain imaging that can be used to evaluate
reviewed scientific journal. It’s a rare and significant
community-dwelling older adults. This study extended
activity in the brain when the person is not performing
achievement for a student in a PhD program—but in
findings from previous self-report inventories of fatigue
a specific task, to examine neural correlates of gait perYuan’s case, as a researcher in Dr. Roee Holtzer’s Neuin older adults by establishing its relationship with imformance. Her research allows for a new perspective
ropsychology and Cognition Lab, she’s actually in good
portant functional, cognitive and health
company.
outcomes.
Over the course of the last academic
England was already a trained silyear, four of Holtzer’s doctoral students—
versmith working for a designer when
Yuan, Sarah England, Janna Belser-Ehshe decided to apply to Ferkauf’s PhD
rlich and Elyssa Scharaga—and recent
program after becoming fascinated with
alumna Melissa Shuman-Paretsky were
the connection between the mind and
listed as first authors on articles in peerthe body. She found the impact of brain
reviewed scientific journals.
injury and neurodegenerative diseases—
“Our students consistently achieve
a common side effect of simply getting
high clinical competence levels, as eviolder that is studied in Holtzer’s lab—
denced by our higher than 90 percent
particularly intriguing.
match rate for competitive yearlong clini“I want to understand the mindcal internships around the country,” said
body connection better so I can help
Holtzer, professor of psychology and neuthe greater population, which is aging,”
rology at Ferkauf and director of its PhD
said England, who now hopes to become
program in clinical psychology with a
a neuropsychologist. Her research—
health emphasis. “But to have this num“Three-Level Rating of Turns While
ber of students publishing first-authored
Walking,” published in Gait & Posture—
empirical studies in peer-reviewed jourMelissa Shuman-Paretsky, Janna Belser-Ehrlich, Jennifer Yuan, Elyssa Scharaga, and
Sarah England were all listed as first authors on articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals
focuses on mobility in the elderly.
nals constitutes a major accomplishment
For Scharaga—first author on the
for our doctoral students.”
article “Preliminary Findings of the Brief Everyday Acinto the connectivity of brain networks at rest and their
Holtzer’s group seeks to identify cognitive, psychotivities Measurement in Older Adults,” published in the
relation to mobility. She says Holtzer’s mentorship has
logical and brain mechanisms of major public health
Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging—the decision to
been key. “Dr. Holtzer has been both an outstanding adconcerns in populations struggling with aging, dementia
study functional abilities and the effect of aging on cogviser and supporter,” Yuan said. “As an experienced reand diseases that influence the central nervous system.
nitive functioning in Holtzer’s lab was personal. “Being
searcher in the field, he is able to guide our projects and
As they explore the frontiers of neuropsychology and
a caregiver for family members with neurological disshare knowledge, but just as important, he encourages
cognition, students also receive close mentorship and
orders made me interested in treating and conducting
and challenges students to develop their own indepenguidance from Holtzer that enable them to dive deep into
research in the field of neuropsychology, specifically in
dence. As a young clinician and researcher, having an
their own areas of interest.
older adults,” she said. “Training in Dr. Holtzer’s lab has
inspiring, innovative network of students and faculty at
“Part of my role is to identify the student’s strengths
given me firsthand experience working within a collabFerkauf has made a world of difference.”
and research interests, developing the right project toorative interdisciplinary team.” n
Belser-Ehrlich and Shuman-Paretsky were first augether with the student,” said Holtzer.

Revel Student’s Research Examines Daily Legalities of Biblical Life

J

udaism relies heavily on its legal
library: written discussions of the
law are almost synonymous with
the religion, describing practices that
date back to the beginnings of the Bible.
But what did those practices actually
look like in the day-to-day lives of ancient
Israelites? Like many civilizations of the
time, the Jews of the biblical era used papyrus for everyday business affairs; few
artifacts from the era survive to illustrate
how the rules and regulations found in
the canonical Torah were observed.
For Yael Landman Wermuth, a doctoral student at Bernard Revel Graduate
School of Jewish Studies, the key to understanding these texts is not so much in
the history of ancient Jews but in that of
their neighbors.
Landman Wermuth’s doctoral thesis
examines areas of biblical law through a
comparative lens, drawing on examples
from the contemporary Mesopotamian
and Hittite law codes, which contain
many similarities to that of the Bible as
well as ancient Near Eastern contracts,
letters, trial records and other documents
that offer a glimpse of legal practice in everyday Mesopotamian life.
“Few documents like these from
ancient Israel have survived because
they were written on perishable materials—but in Mesopotamia, everything was
inscribed on clay tablets. These tablets

s

provide a window into the legal practice
of the day, which would have looked similar to that practiced in ancient Israel,” said
Landman Wermuth. “I use these different
texts and sources to try to illuminate the
difficulties that emerge from the biblical
text to get a sense of what the legal practice would have looked like and what legal
issues would have arisen. I’m trying to understand the structure of the law and how
everything fits together and would have
functioned in everyday life.”
Landman Wermuth is closely analyzing a section of the Bible that deals
with “bailment laws”—known in Hebrew
as the “shomrim” laws—when one person
guards another’s property for a temporary period of time and is responsible for
its safe return. “I use biblical narrative
and prophecy as additional sources to understand the institution of bailment and
what it would have looked like in biblical
Israel and Judah because archeologists to
date have not unearthed any texts from
ancient Israel that speak to this area of
law,” said Landman Wermuth. “I’m trying
to mine texts from other genres and stories in the Bible to shed light on it.”
Landman Wermuth had also served
as a graduate fellow in Jewish law and interdisciplinary studies at the Center for
Jewish Law and Contemporary Civilization, under the auspices of the Benjamin
N. Cardozo School of Law and as a Tikvah

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Revel doctoral student Yael Landman Wermuth searches ancient Near Eastern documents for clues
to Jewish legal practice in biblical times

Scholar in the Tikvah Center for Law &
Jewish Civilization.
This year, Landman Wermuth was
awarded a doctoral scholarship by the
Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture,
which seeks to train qualified individuals for careers in Jewish scholarship and
research. She also received the Gorgias
Press Book Grant, an annual award to two
promising scholars of $500 in Gorgias titles, which specialize in religious studies.
Ultimately, though, Landman Wermuth

wants to be the one writing the books: she
hopes her dissertation will become a definitive guide to her field.
“I’m hoping to contribute something
that will be the most up-to-date study of
this specific topic and also at the cuttingedge of the field in terms of synthesizing
methodologies and connecting sources
that haven’t been brought together in
a way that I think will be fruitful,” said
Landman Wermuth. n

SPRING 2015 W W W.YU.EDU/NEWS ß

6

FOCUS | ON FACULTY
YUTODAY
Dr. Lauren Fitzgerald, director of the
Wilf Campus Writing Center and associate professor of English, coauthored The
Oxford Guide for Writing Tutors (Oxford
University Press, April 2015), a guide for
undergraduate writing tutors, that covers the basics as well as theoretical and
practical aspects of writing center work.
It includes scholarship by undergraduate
tutor-researchers as well as references to
scholarship in the field, bibliographies,
research citations and assignments.

Dr. Ruth Macklin, professor of epidemiology & population health and the Dr. Shoshanah Trachtenberg Frackman Faculty Scholar in Biomedical Ethics at the Albert
Einstein College of Medicine, received the Hastings Center’s 2014 Henry Knowles
Beecher Award, given annually in recognition of a lifetime contribution to ethics and
the life sciences. Macklin was also honored by the Global Forum on Bioethics in Research, which presented her with an award for contribution to progress in international research ethics.

A three-volume set coedited by Dr. Louis
Feldman, Abraham Wouk Family Chair
in Classics and Literature, was recently
awarded the Nahum M. Sarna Memorial Award and the 2014 National Jewish
Book Award winner in scholarship by
the Jewish Book Council. Titled Outside
the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture (JPS, December 2013),
it is the first of its kind in a Jewish context—a vast collection of extra-biblical
texts that comprise ancient Israel’s excluded scriptures.

Dr. Jeffrey S. Gurock, Libby M. Klaperman Professor of
Jewish History, recently published The Holocaust Averted:
An Alternate History of American Jewry, 1938–1967 (Rutgers
University Press, April 2015). In the book, Gurock imagines
what might have happened to the Jewish community in
the United States if the Holocaust had never occurred and
forces readers to contemplate how the road to acceptance
and empowerment for today’s American Jews could have
been harder than it actually was.

Dr. Margarita Vigodner, associate professor of biology at Stern College for
Women, recently published an article,
“Can Your Protein Be Sumoylated? A
Quick Summary and Important Tips to
Study SUMO-Modified Proteins,” in Analytical Biochemistry (November 2014).
The article focuses on the optimization
of important techniques used to study
protein modifications. Daniel Pollack,
a recent Yeshiva College graduate, and
Abby Winchell, a current Stern College
student, contributed to the article’s research, which was supported by a grant
from the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. S. Abraham Ravid, professor of finance at the Sy Syms School of Business, recently
published an article in the Quarterly Journal of Finance. Titled “Location Specific Styles
and U.S. Venture Capital Contracting,” and co-authored by Ola Bengtsson of Lund University, the article documents a study that found significant differences between startup contracts in California and similar contracts in other states. Across 1,804 contracts,
Ravid’s study found that California-based entrepreneurs received more lenient contract terms from venture capitalists.

Wurzweiler Receives $1.4 M Training Grant to Help
New York City At-Risk Youth

W

urzweiler School of Social Work
is currently implementing a $1.4
million training grant from the
U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services to fund more than 100 social
work students in clinical field placements
with at-risk youth in New York City.
“The primary purpose of the project
is to increase the number of social workers with strong clinical competencies
who will work with adolescents and transitional-age youth at risk for developing
or who have developed a recognized behavioral health disorder,” said Dr. Ronnie
Glassman, Wurzweiler’s director of field
instruction and the principal investigator
for the grant. “This will be accomplished
by the creation of increased social work
clinical internships.”
The grant was effective September
2014 and continues through 2017.
“Wurzweiler is one of three graduate

Dr. Ronnie Glassman

schools of social work in New York receiving this grant,” said Dr. Carmen Ortiz Hendricks, Dorothy and David I. Schachne
Dean of Wurzweiler. “And it will have a

far-reaching impact on our field education, the curriculum and Wurzweiler’s
mission to change the world.”
“It’s a workforce enhancement grant,
meaning that students commit to actually
obtain jobs working with that population
for two years after they graduate,” Glassman added.
Part of the grant will also focus on research and evaluation to determine how
effective the program is and to identify
goals and improvements for its implementation in the future.
The grant will be implemented with
the support of several additional Wurzweiler faculty members, including Dr.
Nancy Beckerman and Dr. Jay Sweifach,
who will be involved in training and development in clinical practice and group
work, and Eugene Tomkiel, assistant director of field work instruction, who will
work on arranging student internships. n

Ferkauf Wins
Innovative
Training Award

F

erkauf Graduate School of Psychology’s Older Adult Program (FOAP)
has received the 2014 Award for Innovative Geropsychology Training from
the Council of Professional Geropsychology Training Programs. The national
award is given to one program each year
that demonstrates excellence and creativity in geropsychology training and is
meant to encourage innovative training in
the field.
“The program’s goal is to bridge the
growing gap between demand for geropsychology services and an under-supply
of well-trained psychologist practitioners,” said Dr. Richard Zweig, director
of FOAP. “It’s a real honor to receive this
award from the national organization that
sets the standards for training geropsychologists around the country.” n

RIETS Dinner Pays Tribute to Communal Leaders
At its March 8 Annual Gala Evening of Tribute, Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological
Seminary (RIETS) honored the memory of Herb Smilowitz z”l for his lifetime of
commitment to enhancing Torah learning at RIETS. Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Menachem
Genack ’65YUHS, ’69YC, ’73R (left) and Rabbi Ronald Schwarzberg ‘80YC, ’82F,
’83R, director of the Morris and Gertrude Bienenfeld Department of Jewish Career
Development and Placement (right), received the Harav Yosef Dov Halevi Soloveitchik z”l Aluf Torah Award and the Distinguished Rabbinic Leadership Award,
respectively.

s

W W W.YU.EDU/NEWS SPRING 2015

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YUTODAY

NEWS | BRIEFS

p
President Richard M. Joel joined Catholic University of America President John
Garvey and Baylor University President Ken Starr at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on February 4 to discuss the state of higher education and the unique roll
of faith-based universities. n

7

p
During the fourth annual Thank A Donor Week, grateful students across both campuses wrote thousands of thank you notes to the donors who make a Yeshiva University
education possible for so many of them. More than 75 percent of undergraduates receive
scholarship assistance. To support YU scholarships, visit yu.edu/giving. n

u
From March 28-29, the Heights
Lounge became the base of operations for YU’s first-ever Hackathon, an
event that brought computer programmers together for 24 hours of non-stop
collaboration on computer software and
hardware. More than 70 students from
colleges across the tristate area joined
forces to create a host of new programs
that ranged from an interactive Daf Yomi
website to developing code to teach a
robot to sing “Happy Birthday.” n

p
YU’s National Model UN conference marked its 25th anniversary February 8-10
when 450 young men and women from 44 Jewish high schools worldwide met to enact
the roles of delegates at the Stamford Plaza Hotel and Conference Center in Stamford,
Connecticut. n

p
For the fourth consecutive year, the Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy/ Yeshiva
University High School for Boys varsity hockey team joined Team Lifeline to run the
Miami, Fla. half marathon. The 14 students raised more than $50,000 for Chai Lifeline,
an organization that assists seriously ill children and their families. Senior Zev Markowitz
was the first student to finish with a time of 1:48. n

p
Senator Joseph Lieberman, Chair in Public Policy and Public Service and Rabbi
Lord Jonathan Sacks, Kressel and Ephrat Family University Professor of Jewish
Thought, discussed “The Haggada’s Politics: From 2,000 Years Ago to Today,” moderated by Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik, director of the Zahava and Moshael Straus Center
for Torah and Western Thought, on March 22 at Lamport Auditorium. n

p
Nowhere But Here! Yeshiva University students celebrated Purim on campus at women’s and men’s chagigot [festivities]. View additional photos at yu.edu/purim. n

s

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SPRING 2015 W W W.YU.EDU/NEWS ß

YUTODAY

YESH IVA U N IVE RSITY • 500 WEST 185TH STR E ET, N EW YOR K, NY 10033 • SPR I NG 2015 • VOLU M E 19 NO. 2

YU Goes Global With Online Initiative Launch

I

n the coming months, Yeshiva University will launch a
number of online courses, degrees and certificate programs through a new online initiative, YU Global.
YU Global seeks to translate the creativity, beauty
and academic rigor of a YU education to the online learning space. It employs a variety of methods that combine
cutting-edge educational theory and technology, such as
blended classrooms that feature a mix of online lectures
and in-person interactions, and immersive online courses
whose innovative design encourage creative problemsolving and learning.
“YU Global is an important evolutionary step for Yeshiva, offering an innovative approach to the delivery of
advanced education and training,” said Dr. Selma Botman, vice president for academic affairs and provost.
Beginning in May, YU Global will also offer four
online certificate programs in the areas of agile web ap-

plication development in Ruby on Rails, big data/data
analytics, e-commerce technologies and mobile application development. Students in the programs will work
with faculty mentors on real-world team projects to
build the practical skills and experience employers are
looking for.
“These programs will help students meet the growing demand for high-tech careers and capitalize on the
richness of resources that are available online,” said Botman. “In addition, our focus on mentoring will provide
students with an unmatched Yeshiva University education as well as the opportunity to study at a pace that enriches their learning experience.”
Another example of the unique kind of learning
available to students through YU Global is a microeconomics course in the newly revamped executive MBA
program at the Sy Syms School of Business. Now offered
with support from YU Global, the program meets in person on campus as few as two Sundays each month and
conducts other courses and class discussions online to
allow its busy student-executives more flexibility and
greater interaction in the learning process.
“Our executive producer, Abby Russell, and our instructional designers worked with the course’s professor to create a hypothetical video case study about a
Brooklyn coffee company,” said Akiva Covitz, YU Global’s executive director for strategy. “The learner is
brought into the life of the company, meeting its founders, employees and customers, then asked in the course
to think about the whole range of decisions they are
faced with as managers.”

In addition to the EMBA program, YU Global offers
advanced degrees in partnership with other YU graduate
schools, including an online master’s degree from the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration and a blended master’s from the Wurzweiler
School of Social Work.
At the undergraduate level, many YU Global courses
are already underway, with a planned catalog of 10 online
courses this summer in subjects that range from accounting to literature and speech science. These online courses
will be available for current YU students as well as for
students outside the University.
YU Global’s online catalog will eventually include
graduate degrees, professional development programs
and lifelong learning programs as well as additional certificates. These courses will feature faculty members
from Yeshiva University and will also draw on new pools
of talented teachers and experts in various industries.
“In this online venture, Yeshiva is combining its
deep educational expertise with transformative new
teaching and learning technologies so that students and
lifelong learners all over the world can now access YU
courses and programs,” said Lydia Lazar, executive director for global partnerships at YU Global. “The learner
is at the center of this process, and the tools we are making available to faculty members allow the professors to
add levels to their teaching that were previously unimaginable.” n
k To learn more about YU Global and upcoming information sessions
or to register for the certificate programs, visit global.yu.edu

Maccabees Net Scholar-Athlete Awards
which earned a program-best 10
wins and went 10–7–1 overall. Braun,
a native of Weston, Florida, and a
freshman business and management
major, attained a 3.83 GPA.
Hava earned a spot as a first-team
All-Skyline member and was named
the Skyline Conference Rookie of
the Year this past season. Her skill on
the court was pivotal in leading YU women’s tennis to its
first playoff spot in more than
a decade. This past fall, she
held down the number one
single position and went 6–2
there. As a doubles player, she
teamed with Jannah Eichenbaum, going 6–3 at the number
one position. A freshman from
Petach Tikva, Israel, Hava is
studying business intelligence
and marketing analytics, and
earned a 3.94 GPA.
“I am so proud of Shani
and Aaron. They are stars
both on and off the court and
an inspiration for all our student-athletes,” said Director
of Athletics Joe Bednarsh. n

Shani Hava

Y

eshiva University men’s soccer’s Aaron Braun
and women’s tennis’s Shani Hava were each
named Scholar-Athletes of the Year by the
Skyline Conference for the 2014 fall season.
The duo earned their awards for achieving the
highest grade-point averages (GPA) amongst all firstteam All-Skyline members in their respective sports.
Braun earned first-team All-Skyline honors
after netting 11 goals and offering six assists for 28
points this year. He played an integral role in the
success of this season’s Yeshiva men’s soccer team,

Aaron Braun

k Get the latest athletics news, stats and schedule information at yumacs.com

Ritholtz Named
First Team Academic
All-American

For the second time in as many
years, men’s basketball’s Benjy
Ritholtz has been named a College
Sports Information Directors of
America/Capital One Academic
All-American.
The senior guard, who was a
third team Academic All-American
last year, was named to the first
team this year, becoming just the
second student-athlete in Yeshiva
history to earn the honor in consecutive seasons.
Ritholtz, of West Hempstead,
New York, led the Skyline Conference in points per game and threepoint field goals made. The history
major has amassed a 3.97 GPA.

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