On Holy Ground
The door to the plane stood tantalizingly open, letting in the bright light and sweet air of a Tel Aviv Summer morning, but we were asked to wait in our seats. An Israeli customs officer boarded hesitantly, as though he almost felt unwelcome on our plane. The Nefesh B’ Nefesh staff handed over our passports to him – a bundle of brand new Israeli passports with my American one somewhere in the middle.
Perelis is New Sephardic Scholar
Though the words “Jewish History” evoke in most students’ minds visions of Medieval and Modern Eastern European sages and shtetlach, there is a whole other world of historic Jewish life, new Sephardic Studies professor Ronnie Perelis urges.
You may not have been aware when deciding on Yeshiva University and its dual curriculum that this decision would be the source of so many sleepless nights, jam packed days and just a little too much anxiety and stress that often leads one to fizzle away.
While perusing through the course listings for next semester, you may have noticed courses tucked into each of the respective departments with names like Research in Biology, Research in Chemistry, Research in Physics, and Research in Psychology. Many students do not even consider enrolling in these classes, yet they represent a unique and exciting learning experience for those select students that take advantage of them.
The question of how to approach homosexuality in our community is particularly vexing for those of us who try to walk the thin tightropes of centrism and moderation.
Issue 4
What Yeshiva students think about the fifth year scholarship and the clash between homosexuality and Judaism
An interview with Dr. Pelcovitz
Dr Pelkovitz speaks out on homosexuality
The recent resignation of Hebrew Department Chair Professor Shmuel Schneider has coincided with an unprecedented altering of its curriculum. Professor Shawn-Zelig Aster, the acting program coordinator of the department, said that he would not call the program “new.”
The second half of Eighth Grade. Pizza with friends! Bowling! The sweet, easy life of one about to finish a school – a feeling that, thankfully, comes again at the end of twelfth grade and presumably at the end of college as well – combined with the newfound freedoms and interests of being fourteen...So when a friend offered me five dollars to “help him” write an essay, I gleefully accepted. It started out that innocently, with me just pointing out a bunch of grammatical mistakes, then rewriting some of his sentences, and adding in a point of contrast between Lenny and George, but it got much worse.
The Need For A Student Honor Code
One evening in November of 1840, a ruckus brewed on the University of Virginia's central lawn. It was a truly southern temperature that night, balmy yet cold, a common inauguration of winter below the Mason-Dixon line. Cries could be heard across campus. The neighing of horses and the barks of pistols filled the air. A number of masked and slightly inebriated students were engaging in the unique pastime of calathumping, i.e. riding around on horses and shooting guns into the air.
As reported in the The Commentator’s first issue this year, Dr. James Otteson, YC professor of philosophy and former Director of the Honors Program, received a $10,000 donation from the Earhart Foundation to build the YC Honors Library.
Soccer Macs Looking Strong for Next Season
With players hailing from nine different countries, the soccer team can certainly boast that it is one of the most culturally diverse sports squads here at Yeshiva University. While English and Hebrew are the languages most commonly spoken, listen closely and you’ll catch tidbits of French, Russian, Spanish and even some Flemish. Combining styles from all over the world, the Yeshiva Maccabees have enjoyed their most successful season in history.
Our tradition prohibits sexual relations between two men. But no verse condemns homosexual individuals themselves – individuals who do exist in our community, both in Yeshiva and in the Orthodox Jewish world.
The recent changes made to the Fourth Year on Campus scholarship program are a positive step towards improving the undergraduate experience at Yeshiva. By simply committing early to remain on campus for a fourth year, students will now be guaranteed a half-tuition break in their final year.
The Gay Question and a response to an Apology
Letters to the Editor by Jo Jo Freundel and Sivan Kerem in response to the issue of homosexuality in Ortodox Judaism and a general letter by Akiva Fleischmann.
It’s that time of year again. The YU Basketball team is gearing up for the next season, which started Tuesday, November 17th . Hopes are high for returning to the playoffs after a missed opportunity last season. A conference battle against Purchase kicks off the season followed by a non-conference game against City College of New York. Fasten your seat belt for the home opener on Tuesday, November 24th, against Skyline Conference foe Minnows Bard. The men’s basketball team is one of the few teams that plays on the YU campus, therefore attracting a larger fan base than other teams.
SCW student Stephanie Kimmel has accomplished something never before done in Yeshiva history, Skyline Conference history and possibly NCAA history.
Issue 4
Seven things we like and dislike.
On Sunday, November 8th, twenty-seven Yeshiva University students took a bus from Washington Heights to Washington, D.C. to attend the annual General Assembly conference of the Jewish Federations of North America.
Sheds Light on the Experiences of the Tutors Themselves
On Sunday, November 15th, the writing centers of Wilf Campus, Stern College for Women, and the Fashion Institute of Technology combined in the Dubinsky Student Center of FIT to discuss their respective writing centers. This meeting was coordinated by the directors of each writing center, and featured different segments led by the tutors of each writing center meant to help facilitate discussion.
In Heir to the Glimmering World, Cynthia Ozick describes the activities of “a desperate creature,” one “bold enough to invade the very thresholds of human sancta” with “feral scratching, a clawing, a beating, a bleating” and “concentrated ferocity.” What mysterious critter provoked this dark description? Just ask a Rubin resident. He’ll tell you all about the raccoon.
A Review of “The Passage” by Yaakov Chesed
Yaakov Chesed, the Jewish rock band that took the Jewish music world by storm after winning the 2007 YU Battle of the Bands, has struck again with the release of its second album, The Passage. This CD impressively strives to improve on the experience of their first album – Rise Above – in almost every way, and demonstrates the growth and maturity that the band has developed over the past two years.
On Monday evening, October 2nd, more than sixty students, representing both Wilf and Beren campuses, squeezed into the cozy back lounge of the 36th St. Residence Hall to hear “Mahara”t” Sara Hurwitz, the first woman to be effectively ordained to a rabbinical leadership position within the Orthodox community, discuss her ordainment and the future of female leadership in the Modern Orthodox world.
“And, uh, if it’s all the same to you coach, that’s how we want to leave it”
Many students at Yeshiva are used to being carried on the shoulders of parents and communities for sub-par excellence in athletics. That's why Yeshiva Athletics have been at a place where people were happy just to compete. This degeneration of athletic competition angers me, and I think it’s time that the approach to athletics here changed for the better.
Something is on my mind that precludes me from progressing any further, and I know what I need to do. I whip out my pelephone and “SMS” one of the mashgichim: “REBBE – U HAVE A MIN TO TLK?” Within a few short moments, the phone lights up, emitting no sound but vibrating noisily on my wooden shtender. “COME ON BY :-)”, reads the message on the screen.
Sy Syms, eponym of Yeshiva University’s undergraduate business schools and the Wilf Campus’ fitness center, passed away on Tuesday from heart failure. He was 83.
It was an idea that Junior Jonathan Korman (YC ’11) had for a while. Now, as the Student Life Committee Chair of RIETS/Student Affairs, it was the first issue thrown his way, and Mr. Korman seized the opportunity. Student Life Committee members have spoken to RIETS Dean Rabbi Yona Reiss in an effort to create a new Mazer Yeshiva Program (MYP) shiur that would be given from 12:00 – 1:15 PM in place of the traditional 1:00-3:00 PM timeslot.
With the surviving generation slowly aging, the challenge to educate the public about the Holocaust grows day by day. The call to our community to respond, to increase the proliferation of Holocaust education and exist as a living memorial to our brothers and sisters whom the Nazis murdered, is stronger than ever.
Administrators have given the Fourth Year on Campus scholarship another face-lift in recent months. Under the new guidelines, students who, during their first year on campus after studying in Israel for one or more years, commit to staying on campus for four years, and who receive less than 50 percent financial aid prior to their fourth year on campus, are guaranteed that they will only pay half tuition in their fourth year.
One semester after President Richard Joel announced the new zero tolerance policy aimed at tackling cheating, many questions still remain. Students and faculty wonder how successful his policy will be, when it will take effect, and whether alternate approaches will ultimately be necessary to defeat cheating at YU.
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