Richard Joel

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Richard M. Joel (born September 9, 1950) is a Jewish scholar who was the fourth president of Yeshiva University (YU), a Modern Orthodox Jewish university with some 7,000 students at its undergraduate and graduate divisions in New York City. He has written on topics that include Jewish leadership, the dangers and challenges of BDS movement on college campuses and civil discourse.^[2]

Academic and professional credentials[]

Richard Joel received his BA and JD from New York University, where he was a Root-Tilden law scholar, and has received honorary doctorates from Boston Hebrew College and Gratz College. He was an assistant district attorney and Deputy Chief of Appeals in the Bronx. His career continued as associate dean and professor of law at YU's Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.^[3]

At Hillel[]

From 1989 to 2003, Joel served as President and International director of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, an organization which supports Jewish life for college and university students throughout the world. In 1994, Joel orchestrated Hillel's independence from B'nai B'rith, its parent organization since 1925. Joel also increased the organization's financial stability and prestige by bringing on board major philanthropists such as Michael Steinhardt, Edgar Bronfman, Sr., and Lynn Schusterman and Charles Schusterman. During his tenure, Hillel partnered with Birthright Israel, and launched the Steinhardt Jewish Campus Service Corps, a group of recent college graduates tasked with engaging unaffiliated Jews and drawing them to Judaism and Jewish events. Hillel also expanded to the former Soviet Union and South America.^[4] Joel's tenure at Hillel has been criticized by some as providing stylish instead of substantive Judaism.^[5] (See also: Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life#Criticism) However, Joel has also been credited for his "skilled management, magnetism, personal warmth" and "clarity of vision".^[4] Joel is credited as the one who "transformed this movement (Hillel) and put Jewish renaissance at the forefront of the community's agenda", and his contributions to Hillel have been defined as "immeasurable" by its past and present leadership.^[6]

Investigating abuse[]

During his tenure at Hillel, Joel served as the head of the special commission impaneled by the Orthodox Union (OU) to investigate allegations that community leaders had ignored charges against the abusive outreach rabbi Baruch Lanner, an executive with the OU's National Conference of Synagogue Youth (NCSY). The commission concluded that many OU and NCSY leaders had made serious errors in judgment.

At Yeshiva University[]

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President Joel at YU Commencement

Joel became president of YU in 2003, succeeding Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm, who had been president since 1976. He stepped down in June 2017. President Joel appointed new deans for Yeshiva College, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Syms School of Business, and the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), added faculty positions throughout the university, and spurred wide-ranging improvements to campus life, including the construction of the Jacob and Dreizel Glueck Center for Jewish Study, which opened in August 2009, established the Center for Jewish Future,^[7] whose mission is to have students engage in service learning programs that foster leadership and serve to enrich the Jewish community through the student body of Yeshiva University, established the Katz School of Graduate and Professional Studies,^[8] and restructured Yeshiva University’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine.^[9] Joel has strengthened the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein and S. Daniel Abraham honors programs ^[10] and has focused on maximizing student success. With these advancements, Richard Joel expanded the reputation of the University as Yeshiva started reaching a broader student base, honored current American political leaders,^[11][12] and helped spread its reputation through such ventures as the Maccabeats.

As president of RIETS, he spearheaded efforts to reinvigorate professional education for rabbis, continuing education and rabbinic placement, and established the first of its kind in its field, the Rabbinic Personal Development Program, a joint Graduate Program in Pastoral Counseling between RIETS and Ferkauf. The joint program is an exciting new opportunity designed for second-, third- and fourth-year RIETS students who plan to pursue a career in Jewish communal work.^[13] President Joel spoke of a Yeshiva University education as "ennobling and enabling" a generation of leadership. Additionally, President Joel has established various centers and programs including the university's centers for Ethics, Public Health and the Jewish Future, and the Glatt Program on Israel and the Rule of Law. He has also established a Presidential Fellowship program that provides training and professional development to recent graduates to further their path toward communal leadership.

Joel was voted ‘no confidence’ by Yeshiva University faculty citing a lack of communication from administration and uncertainty for their failures. He was appointed President Emeritus and continues as the Bravmann Family University Professor teaching leadership courses across Yeshiva University. ^[14] Joel Defines leadership as "it means you matter and you have obligations. Someone who takes responsibility. It is a vision with an implementation strategy."

Personal life[]

Joel was born on September 9, 1950, and was raised in Yonkers, New York. He and his wife Esther (née Ribner), who holds a PhD from YU's Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, have six children all of whom have attended Yeshiva University schools, and thirteen grandchildren. They currently reside in Riverdale, New York.^[15] Richard Joel has also performed for the Maccabeats.

References[]

External links[]

• "Biography of Richard M. Joel". Yeshiva University.
• "Office of the President". Yeshiva University.