In September of 1961, I left St. Louis, Missouri for my freshman year at Yeshiva College. I had just graduated from a public high school with over 2000 students, but less then a minyan of Shomer Shabbat peers. The 1,000 mile, five hour DC-9 plane ride was short in comparison to the culture gap between University City High School and Yeshiva College. I anxiously awaited the opportunity to be in a class of 200 students, where my friendships would not have to be defined by who understood my personal religious observances.
Over 80 percent of the students in my freshman class were from the tri-state area. Most of those students took in stride the Jewish amenities available in New York. For those of us from out of town, even establishments like Tov Me'od Cafeteria (aka The Greasy Spoon, across from the main building) and Chopsies Pizza were a luxury. I was in Teachers Institute and I can still remember the twenty minute morning break, when all the local eateries were a zoo with scores of students trying to catch an egg on a roll or some other late breakfast item.
In T.I., I had some memorable professors. Sitting in my first gemara shiur with R. Israel Wohlgelernter was an experience. His enthusiasm and ability to make a page of gemara come alive was infectious. As the pace of a class progressed, his rapid fire delivery engaged us in the topic of the day. When he wrote on the black board, his Hebrew verses went up quicker than the news tape in Times Square. It was in this class that I began on a track that led to a year in Israel after graduation and eventually on to RIETS. It is interesting to note that no one in my freshman class had spent a year in Israel as is common now.
Over the years in T.I., I had many memorable teachers. Many of them had backgrounds which included life in Europe and during Holocaust. In Chumash, Dr. Meir Hershkovics embodied an air of dveykut and emunah which permeated his classes. Dr. Moshe Carmilly, often spoke to us about his European experiences during our Navi classes. I remember when we studied Amos, which talks about the sins of all the nations and that God will not forget, Dr. Carmilly described walking almost shoeless over mountains to flee from the Nazis. We also had tastes of Eretz Yisrael. Memories of T.I. and Yeshiva come to mind every time I visit Israel and pass Ahad Ha'am Street. The great Hebrew writer came alive for me in the classes of Dr. Meir Havazelet. Having only heard Hebrew in St. Louis that came with a heavy American accent, his lectures in beautiful Hebrew were a treat to my ears.
After a few weeks at Yeshiva, I received a letter from my grandfather, R. Tuvia Geffen, who was the rabbi in Atlanta, Georgia for close to sixty years. Born in Kovno, Lithuania he came to the United States after receiving semikha there. In the letter, he informed me that R. Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor was his sandik [godfather] in Lithuania. My grandfather went on to say how pleased he was that his grandchildren were attending the yeshiva named after the rabbi of his former community. On a personal level this gave me a feeling of the continuity and unity of our people throughout the world.
Towards the end of the first semester I realized that I was truly immersed in a Jewish world. The out-of-towners did most of their shopping on 181st street. At that time, 181st still had a few nice stores there plus the local Carvel store which stayed open late and was frequented by many students. On one December day, I made my way down to 181st street to make some purchases but all the stores were closed. It then dawned on me that it was December 25 and of course nothing would be open. Despite having had a ten day December vacation in public school, at Yeshiva, it had totally slipped my mind that the secular world was having a day off.
During my first three years at Yeshiva I lived in the Rubin Dorm, then only a few years old. It is hard to imagine today, but there was then only one pay phone on every floor for over forty residents and no private telephones in the dorm rooms. When a call came in there was a scream down the hall from the person who had picked up the call and everyone listened to see if it was a call for them. Personal calls were constantly interrupted by people walking down the hall and kibitzing with the person on the phone. There were still two World War II vintage small barrack style buildings on Amsterdam Avenue where the library now stands. English classes were held there before the construction of Furst Hall. In my junior year construction began on the Morgenstern Dorm. It was supposed to be available for our senior year. The construction schedule ran late and at the start of our senior year there was a shortage of dorm rooms. I spent two months in Muss Hall with four people in a room until the "Morg" was open.
Those of us from out of New York developed our own Shabbat camaraderie. We did get invitations from classmates and we had shabbatonim which exposed us to the thriving communities of Far Rockaway, Flatbush, Eastern Parkway, the West Side, and other areas.
The social scene was also very different for Yeshiva College students in the 60's than it is today. There were social events with Stern College for Women on a regular basis. The major social event of the year was the Dean's Reception, which featured various entertainment programs and which was held in such places as the George Washington High School Auditorium. Many students brought dates to this event, as the term "shidduch date" was not heard in those days.
The informal educational experiences at Yeshiva College left as great a mark on me as the formal ones. I attended the 1962 literary presentation where author Phillip Roth was challenged on his Jewish presentations. While all three authors in attendance were prominent writers, only at Yeshiva could the Roth challenge have taken place.
During this time, the Pope and the Catholic Church began a major ecumenical thrust and everyone debated how we should respond. I recall the Rav, R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik, announcing that he would deliver a lecture on the topic. Lamport Auditorium was packed that night as people from far and near came to get a sense of his direction.
On the international scene, the issue of Soviet Jewry had become an active cause for us. The question at that time was whether quiet diplomacy or active demonstration was the route to take. As an active participant in the student councils, a number of us visited different rabbis in Brooklyn who had extensive ties with the USSR. We were curious to hear their opinions. Subsequently many of us participated at the first major rally on behalf of Soviet Jewry outside of the Russian Embassy in Manhattan.
But some of these informal educational experiences even took place during class. My most vivid recollection was during my freshmen chemistry class. We had the privilege of having the famous Dr. Samuel Soloveichik as our professor; we fondly called the Rav's brother "Solly" when we were not in class. Dr. Soloveichik was quite nervous and I can still picture the chemistry room on the fourth floor of the original main building. On occasion he ran experiments in the class and all those in the first row had a tendency to move their desks towards the rear as he lifted the beaker of Hydrochloric Acid to pour into another substance. But the incident which always comes to my mind was not a laboratory mishap. It was the middle of the winter and our chemistry class took place between 5 and 6 pm. In the midst of one class, Dr. Soloveichik stopped and asked us to excuse him for a few minutes. He proceeded to a corner of the room when we realized he was davening Maariv. When he finished, he opened a thermos and poured himself a cup of coffee. He explained he had been observing Yahrzeit that day, and, in the true Lithuanian custom, he had fasted. He did not want to miss the class, but he needed the drink to finish the lecture. To me this was the living embodiment of Torah u-Madda.
After my four years at Yeshiva College, I went on to learn at Yeshivat Merkaz Harav Kook in Jerusalem and then returned to RIETS. After serving as the founding rabbi of the Young Israel of Scarsdale, I returned to my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri and the world of business for the past thirty years. The Yeshiva University tradition has continued in our family as our four married children and their spouses all graduated from Yeshiva and Stern. Our youngest son now attends Yeshiva. Our oldest son continued the out-of-town tradition at Yeshiva by starting a club called the "Rest-of-the-Country Club." This group even had T-shirts printed with a map of the USA with only 48 states -- missing were New York and New Jersey.
Today, Yeshiva is blessed by both professional and lay leadership which recognizes the importance of Yeshiva to the rest of the USA and its potential to assist those cities outside the tri-state area. Indeed President Richard M. Joel spent many years living out of New York and had extensive ties to many communities in his previous very successful tenure at Hillel. Our Chairman of the Board, Mr. Morry J. Weiss, has always been a Midwesterner. His own children attended Yeshiva and he can truly relate to a perspective which is not confined to the metropolitan area. Today 40 percent of the college is from out-of-town, including many foreign students from outside the USA. Ironically, I now live in New Rochelle, NY, and all my children live in New York.
I am amazed at the leadership positions in both the Jewish World and in the secular world, occupied by people who attended Yeshiva with me. There is hardly a Jewish organization which has not benefited from both the lay and professional leadership of Yeshiva graduates. In the areas of medicine, law, accounting, and education, names of Yeshiva graduates pop up constantly. In the financial and business world, I find that I have an automatic rolodex just based on the people I met through Yeshiva. As I traveled for business, I knew that I could always find a friendly Yeshiva graduate to help me navigate the local scene.
If I have any regrets, it concerns our alumni. It appears to me that not enough of our alumni show hakarat hatov to our Alma Mater. While not everything was perfect including facilities and course offering, we still received an educational foundation in Torah u-Madda to last a lifetime. We also gained friendships and experiences which were not available in many other places. My hope is that as we celebrate the 75th anniversary of Yeshiva College, more alumni will join us in this celebration. Take this opportunity to reminisce and reconnect. As a member of the Yeshiva College Board, I have had the enjoyable experience of visiting the campus several times lately. There is a wonderful sense of excitement as changes are being instituted by the new leadership. I strongly suggest to all alumni to be a part of this new chapter in Yeshiva College History.
Come Home and Shep Nachas!
Mr. Stanley Raskas, YC '65, RIETS '69, is a partner in The Oxbridge Group, a boutique investment banking house. He is secretary of the Yeshiva College Board of Directors and coordinating the college's 75th anniversary celebrations.
2008 Woodie Awards
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