Sep 14, 2009 By: yunews
Sep 14, 2009 -- In the two weeks since the opened on the Wilf Campus, its walls have vibrated with the hum of students learning in its two-storey beit midrash [study hall]. That 鈥渉armonic symphony of Torah study,鈥 to use President Richard M. Joel鈥檚 words, erupted into a rousing chorus of celebration as students and their rebbes, alumni and staff danced in the streets at the dedication of the new building on Sunday, Sept. 13.
鈥淭oday we celebrate a new chapter in the history of 91黑料 and the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS),鈥 said President Joel. 鈥淭he Glueck Center has already revolutionized this campus, adding a proud new space for scholarship and learning that is both timeless and timely, and a convening center for our thriving community.鈥
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鈥淩IETS was the first yeshiva to wave the flag of Yavneh on American soil,鈥 he said. 鈥淔rom an inaugural class of only a dozen students meeting in a small room on the Lower East Side, RIETS can now proudly boast of this wonderful state-of-the-art beit midrash, which serves as just one of many under its auspices.鈥
Vivian Glueck Rosenberg, the daughter of donor Jacob Glueck, said that her parents鈥 survival of the Holocaust motivated them to devote themselves to supporting Jewish community institutions. Rosenberg, together with her husband, Henry, was instrumental in realizing her father鈥檚 vision for a new beit midrash at YU that began under the administration of Dr. Norman Lamm in 1997.
鈥淢y parents believed in the primacy of education,鈥 said Rosenberg, a member of the Boards of YU and Stern College for Women. 鈥淥ur dedication of this building to YU is a statement of our belief in the importance of limud haTorah [the study of Torah] and the need for the vast majority of our youth to have the opportunity to earn a parnasa [a living].鈥
Addressing the students in the crowd, she said, 鈥淲e pray you use to the fullest the opportunity put in front of you and thus assure the continuity of our people and our traditions.鈥
Special guests at the dedication included Sheldon Silver 鈥65YC, Speaker of the NY State Assembly and recipient of an honorary degree from YU, and NY State Representative Herman 鈥淒enny鈥 Farrell, Jr.
Silver, who President Joel welcomed as 鈥渁 ben Torah [son of Torah],鈥 wished his alma mater congratulations. 鈥淚 am proud to see YU expand in its size and prestige,鈥 said Silver, whose three children are also alumni. 鈥淎s it grows, YU invigorates the city and the state and especially this Washington Heights community.鈥
President Joel paid tribute to the many supporters whose gifts made the building possible, including the Nagel family, after whom the Jack and Gitta Nagel Family Atrium and Student Commons in the adjoining Mendel Gottesman Library is named.
The new stone and glass structure, he said, is a 鈥渢angible symbol of our absolute optimism in the future of our yeshiva and our University.鈥
鈥淲e must fill this space with the best of our community,鈥 added President Joel. 鈥淎 YU education must be both aspirational and non-negotiable. This is where our children will learn and grow into proud leaders of a proud and purposeful people of our nation.鈥
