A Commentator/Observer Presidential Special Joint Issue

The Making’s of a President: Joel’s Life in Focus
by Miriam Colton and Caryn Litt

Richard Joel, President and International Director of Hillel since 1988, has been a key player in reviving Jewish identity on college campuses around the world. During his fourteen years at Hillel, Joel demonstrated his skills in organizational management and fundraising, thereby rehabilitating the “moribound organization” and becoming a leading spokesman for young Jews.

Born in Yonkers in 1950 as the only child of Avery and Annette, Joel attended the Yeshiva University High School for Boys. His father, who passed away when he was 13, took enormous pride in his YUHS’s dual curriculum education. “My father came to school one day to visit, and with a tear in his eye kept saying that he can’t believe such a place exists,” said Joel.

Instead of continuing on to Yeshiva College after his high school graduation in 1968, Joel opted to enroll in the Metropolitan Leadership Program at New York University, an interdisciplinary course study for the future urban leaders. He concentrated in “National Priorities” and received his undergraduate degree in 1972. Joel was then offered a Root-Tilden Scholarship, a scholarship established in 1951 granting full tuition for law students’ training in public and community leadership, by the NYU School of Law, and he went on to receive his J.D. from NYU in 1975.

Although his formal Torah learning had in effect concluded in high school, Joel’s interest in Jewish communal affairs continued to grow. During college he served as the head advisor for Yeshiva’s Torah Leadership Seminars, biannual retreats designed to draw public school and day school students closer to Judaism. Through his involvement at the Torah Seminars, Joel began to nurture a relationship with his mentor, Dr. Abraham Stern, the director of such youth programs. Through Stern’s shrewd matchmaking, Joel met his wife, Esther Ribner, during their work in Jewish leadership. “I owe him my life,” said Joel.

After receiving his J.D., Joel worked as the Assistant District Attorney and Deputy Chief of the Appeals Bureau in the Bronx. In 1978, President Dr. Norman Lamm requested that he join Yeshiva as Director of Yeshiva Alumni Affairs, a new position geared toward reaching out to non-rabbinic alumni. Two years later, Joel was asked to become assistant dean at Cardozo and accepted the post.  Shortly thereafter, he was promoted to associate dean, a position he held for the next eight years.  Despite the administrative burden, Joel also managed to teach legal ethics.

When Joel applied for the Hillel directorate in 1988, the organization’s chief apprehension was his lack of rabbinical ordination. Nonetheless, Hillel accepted Joel for what was deemed “his charisma and vision,” and its desire to give the organization an overhaul. “Time was in favor of change,” said Joel. Under Joel’s motto, “Maximizing the Number of Jews Doing Jewish With Other Jews,” Hillel became the largest Jewish campus organization in the world, with over 500 regional centers.

During his tenure, Hillel’s budget grew from $16 to $36 million, and its headquarters were relocated to a new central building in Washington D.C. At Hillel, Joel cultivated relationships with major Jewish philanthropists Michael Steinhardt, Edgar Bronfman and Lynn Schusterman, who helped him raise millions for Hillel and found Birthright, a program that brings young Jews to Israel for free of charge.

Part of Hillel’s success has been its willingness to move away from its Orthodox roots to include input from other branches of Judaism. Hillel’s mission states, “Hillel is committed to a pluralistic vision of Judaism that embraces all movements.” To that end, Hillel has accepted numerous female rabbis as chaplains at university centers.

Joel, 52, lives with his wife of 29 years, Esther, and six children in Silver Spring, Maryland. His eldest daughter Penny, 26, graduate Stern College for Woman (SCW) in ’97;  Avery, 23, YC ‘00 is currently studying at Yeshiva’s Gruss Institute in Israel; Ariella, 21, is a senior at SCW;  Noam, 18, is studying at Shaalavim in Israel; the two youngest children, Nachum, 15, and Kira, 12, attend the local Jewish schools in Silver Spring.

Joel was one of the first presidents of his synagogue, Kemp Mill Synagogue (KMS), and has remained active in his community, helping to secure speakers and run shabbatons for students at KMS. He has also served as a ba’al tefilah, leading services on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

Within the greater Orthodox world, Joel recently served as the chairman of the NCSY Special Commission that conducted an independent investigation of the Orthodox Union regarding Baruch Lanner, the former NCSY director charged with sexual abuse. Under Joel’s guidance, the nine-member committee published a report criticizing the OU, stating that it had direct knowledge of the abuse and failed to act appropriately. In the months following the publication of the report, Joel became a vocal critic the OU’s failure to respond appropriately to the report.

Because of his strong and outspoken stance, Joel has at times been at odds with Lanner supporters, including some Roshei Yeshiva of YU and RIETS Board members.

Joel is also on the eleven-member editorial board of the Edah Journal, a triennial publication on Orthodoxy’s engagement with modernity that was founded two years ago. Edah is under the leadership of Rabbi Saul Berman, a liberal Orthodox rabbi who has spearheaded numerous efforts on such issues as the plight of agunot.

What do you think? Click here to send a letter to the editors.
All content is copyright © Yeshiva University Commentator.

Questions or Comments About This Site?  Please Email webmaster@yucommentator.com