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{{merge to|Yeshiva University|discuss=Talk:Yeshiva University#Merge proposal|date=June 2024}}
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[[Yeshiva University]], a United States private university in
==Foundation and early growth==
The [[Etz Chaim Yeshiva (Manhattan)|Etz Chaim Yeshiva]], a [[cheder]]-style elementary school, was founded on the [[Lower East Side]] of
▲The [[Etz Chaim Yeshiva (Manhattan)|Etz Chaim Yeshiva]], a [[cheder]]-style elementary school, was founded on the [[Lower East Side]] of [[Manhattan]] in 1886. Prior to its founding, Jewish education in the United States had been limited to supplemental and synagogue affiliated schools. Etz Chaim ("The Tree of Life," a reference to the [[Torah]] from the Biblical [[Book of Proverbs]], and a common name for yeshivas and synagogues) was the first [[yeshiva]] in America; that is, the first full-time, independent Jewish school focusing on the study of the [[Talmud]]. The primary impetus for its establishment was the influx of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe that began in the 1880s; the school was established along the lines of the Eastern European yeshivas, which themselves had begun to be established in the early 19th Century. However, the New York school, unlike its European counterparts, also offered some secular education, including classes in English. These were very limited at first, but eventually (partially due to New York State law) became a full co-curriculum, something almost unprecedented in the history of Jewish education.
The graduates of Etz Chaim had no place in the United States to continue their formal Jewish education after they completed elementary school, and some began studying Talmud with Rabbi Moses Matlin in his Lower East Side apartment. Soon, in 1896, this group formally became an advanced yeshiva, covering high school years and beyond. Rabbi [[Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor]], the chief rabbi of [[Kovno]] (later the capital of [[Lithuania]]), and widely considered the leading rabbi of Eastern Europe at the time, died in that year, and the yeshiva was named in his honor, as Yeshivat Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan ("The Yeshiva of our Rabbi, Isaac Elchanan"). A year after it was founded, the yeshiva was formally chartered by New York State in 1897 as the [[Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary]], which is known to this day by its acronym, '''RIETS'''. The first class of three rabbis was ordained in 1903.
Despite its name, RIETS began as a traditional Lithuanian yeshiva, not a rabbinical seminary, with classes focusing only on the traditional subjects of Talmud and Jewish law. However, many of the students desired careers as rabbis, and found themselves in competition with the graduates of the [[Jewish Theological Seminary of America|Jewish Theological Seminary]], at that time still seen as an Orthodox school (it would later become the flagship institution of the [[Conservative Judaism
Etz Chaim and RIETS, while separate schools, had a close relationship. There were a number of efforts to unite them, which finally succeeded in 1915, when they merged as the Rabbinical College of America. Both schools had each occupied a few locations on the Lower East Side, and now moved into a new building in the neighborhood. Shortly after the merger, the name reverted, for legal reasons, to RIETS, although the most common name used was simply "The Yeshiva." As a number of new Jewish elementary schools were opening at this time, Etz Chaim, the elementary division of the yeshiva, was phased out of existence over the course of the 1920s.
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==Later growth==
During one of
▲During one of Dr. Revel's absences in [[Oklahoma]], Rabbi [[Meir Bar-Ilan]], then head of the American branch of the [[Mizrachi (religious Zionism)|Mizrachi]] religious Zionist movement, served as temporary president. He merged into the Yeshiva the Mizrachi's Teachers Institutes for Men and Women. The men's school eventually evolved into the Erna Michael College, today the Isaac Breuer College, an undergraduate men's Jewish studies division of Yeshiva
The women's school was eventually folded into [[Stern College for Women]]. In 1922, Rabbi Shlomo Polachek began to teach at RIETS, being recognized as the top Rosh Yeshiva (teacher of Talmud). When he died in 1928, he was succeeded by Rabbi Moshe Soloveichik.
TA provided a college-preparatory education, but there was no college for its graduates to continue their Jewish educations as well. In 1928, the Yeshiva established [[Yeshiva College (Yeshiva University)|Yeshiva College]], which provides both an upper-level yeshiva education as well as a secular university curriculum, awarding a
Also in the late 1920s, Yeshiva left the Lower East Side and moved to its current location in [[Washington Heights, Manhattan|Washington Heights]], in upper Manhattan. The area centered on 185th Street and Amsterdam Avenue continues to be Yeshiva's main campus, containing the central administration offices, the main library, the undergraduate schools for men, the boys' high school, the rabbinical seminary, and other divisions. The 1928 building, by Charles B. Meyers Associates, is an extravagant [[Moorish Revival]] architectural romance of domes, turrets, and towers done in orange stone, copper, brass and ceramic tiles. It may be the only university campus to have been built in the Moorish revival style, a style widely in use in synagogues from the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth century. The [[Great Depression]] began at this time, and Yeshiva was faced with numerous financial difficulties, having to shelve its more extensive building plans in order to stay open. (The campus would not really expand until the 1960s.) Yeshiva established its first graduate school, in Jewish studies, in 1936. At this time, Revel began working to bring over from Europe numerous faculty, in both Jewish and secular subjects, in order to save them from the impending Holocaust.
==1940s–present==
===First and second leaders===
The graduate school was named in honor of Revel after his
Revel was succeeded in 1943 by Rabbi Dr. [[Samuel Belkin]], also a European-born scholar, a graduate of [[Brown University]], and a professor of
▲The graduate school was named in honor of Revel after his untimely death, at the age of 55, in 1940. Shortly after, Rabbi Moshe Soloveichik died as well; his place was taken by his son, Rabbi [[Joseph B. Soloveitchik]], who would remain the leading Rosh Yeshiva for over forty years, teaching and ordaining thousands of rabbis, including many of the leading figures in American Modern Orthodoxy today.
▲Revel was succeeded in 1943 by Rabbi Dr. [[Samuel Belkin]], also a European-born scholar, a graduate of [[Brown University]], and a professor of [[greek language|Greek]] at Yeshiva College. Under Belkin, the institution began to expand greatly. University status was obtained in 1945, and over the following decades, many new schools and divisions were opened. [[Stern College for Women]], providing both an advanced Jewish education and full undergraduate curriculum, was established in the 1950s (its campus is in [[Midtown Manhattan]]), as was the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in the [[Bronx]]. Also established, among others, were a graduate school of education and the humanities (now the graduate school of psychology) and a graduate school of the sciences (now focusing on biomedical studies), a school of Jewish music for the training of cantors, and a division providing various services to the Jewish community at large. Belkin set in process the foundation of [[Cardozo Law School]], which opened, in [[Greenwich Village]], shortly after his death.
===Diversification===
{{Unsourced section|date=August 2022}}
[[File:Zysman yeshiva college.jpg|thumb|right|David H. Zysman Hall,
In 1970, in order to comply with laws regarding government aid to sectarian institutions, Yeshiva, in a move that aroused considerable opposition by some, including Rabbi Soloveitchik, officially became a secular university, changing the status of RIETS (the rabbinical seminary), the high schools, and related divisions to "affiliates." However, the two
Partly as a result of this, there is a higher than usual proportion of Orthodox students at these schools, although most students are non-Orthodox or non-Jewish. In addition, there are numerous Jewish-related programs and courses of study – for example, Jewish law classes at Cardozo Law School. On the other hand, conflicts have developed over the years of the exact definition of Yeshiva's educational and religious philosophy, and whether
===Third leader===
Belkin retired as president in 1975 and was appointed Chancellor. After Belkin died in 1976, Rabbi [[Norman Lamm]] was elected third president of Yeshiva University and, at the same time, president and [[Rosh Yeshiva]] of RIETS.
===Fourth leader===
In 2002, following
Joel is also the chief executive officer of RIETS (officially known as Chief Executive), but Rabbi Lamm serves as University Chancellor and [[Rosh Yeshiva]] of RIETS. While there has never been an official position of "top Rosh Yeshiva" at YU, and, in practice, there has not been an unofficial holder of this position since the death of
Under Joel's leadership, Yeshiva University's endowment was invested in high-risk investments, including the funds of [[Bernard Madoff]]. Losses of at least $110 million resulted.<ref>{{cite news |
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Joel
In December 2012, Joel apologized over allegations that two rabbis at the college's high school campus abused boys there in the late 1970s and early 1980s.<ref>{{cite web |title=Yeshiva University president apologizes for '70s and '80s molest allegations |author1=Blau, Reuven |author2=Rachel Monahan |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/yeshiva-university-president-apologizes-1970s-80s-molestations-article-1.1219938 |publisher=New York
===Fifth leader===
Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman began his tenure as Yeshiva University’s fifth president in June 2017.
Dr. Berman has articulated a new business model with investments in key areas such as science and technology, entrepreneurship and innovation, values and leadership and market ready graduates. During his tenure, the university has introduced over 20 new graduate degrees in emerging fields including artificial intelligence, cyber security, physician assistant, biotech management, real estate management, special education, marriage and family therapy, MBA and Masters in Holocaust and Genocide Education. He established new academic centers such as the Emil A. and Jenny Fish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. These efforts have produced growth in enrollment as well as in philanthropic gifts including funding for the Shevet Glaubach Center for Career Strategy and Professional Development, the Innovation Lab, new physician assistant and occupational therapy labs as well as state of the art computer science labs. Under his leadership, Yeshiva University has risen 29 places in the U.S. News & World Report.
Dr. Berman is widely published in outlets such as Forbes, Newsweek, and the Wall Street Journal. Dr. Berman graduated with distinction from four of Yeshiva University’s schools. He earned his B.A. from Yeshiva College, his M.A. in Medieval Jewish Philosophy from the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies, and his rabbinical ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS). His studies also included two years of learning at Yeshivat Har Etzion in Israel, under the tutelage of the seminal Jewish thinker and leader Rabbi Dr. Aharon Lichtenstein. After making aliyah to Israel in 2008, Dr. Berman completed his higher education with a Ph.D. in Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, supervised by philosopher Professor Moshe Halbertal.
== References ==
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