Religion and Progress

These are trying times for our great nation. We have sustained a series of troubling assaults against diplomatic installations abroad. We are pitted against a leader who, in the name of his god, commands a small army of "holy warriors" willing to give their lives for their cause. Their animus toward our country is a function of their inability to reconcile their theological convictions with the changing of the times. The result is indiscriminate, tragic bloodshed in lands for whose residents the dispute is foreign.

The mission of this University is to harmonize the values espoused by our tradition with contemporary societal mores. The success of Yeshiva is a testament to the viability of the doctrine upon which it was founded.

Our responsibility as leaders in this world of competing spheres of influence, secular and religious, is to demonstrate that the two need not be at odds. Indeed, constructive engagement, in our view, is of benefit to the interests of both spheres. If only this insight was not lost on so many.