The people who founded the state of Israel foresaw the profound need for a homeland. Believing that the Jews would be safe only if protected by their own, they set out to establish a haven for the Jews from the persecutions of the galut (exile). However, their national aspirations did not emanate solely from defensive reasons. Brotherhood, social unity, and a utopian vision all propelled these pioneers along their victorious path to the dream. They followed their classically Jewish instincts to form a tight-knit community which evolved into a country. They believed this political entity would eventually solidify into an unbreakable stone, a cast-iron nation.

And they succeeded.

The ingathering of the exiles began, and Jews from the four corners of the Earth converged in Palestine, the land of their forefathers. Quickly, their neighbors assembled against them and tried to destroy them. But this newborn nation, armed with idealism and a will to survive, fought with tenacity and miraculously overcame all odds. Soon after, they turned their attention to productivity, and turned a wasteland into an Eden. They worked closely together not only to cultivate the land, but to create the infrastructure of a vibrant, modern society. This was the generation of ideologues, the generation of émigrés.

Their children, the first to be born in the new state, preoccupied with hostile neighbors and the need to establish themselves, retained their parents’ strong beliefs in the importance of Jewish unity and the State itself. This generation still had a singular vision and a common goal to fight for.

A third generation was born unto them. In contrast to their parents however, these children inherited an established state with relatively safe borders. Thanks to their predecessors, they grew up without the hardships that their parents knew. Their reality differed drastically from that of the founders of the State and the people who fought for its existence. The new generation did not remember the tribulations of their parents, nor could they imagine a world without the country in which they had grown up. They looked around and saw nothing but a host of well-entrenched problems and social impasses, which had been ignored by the preceding generations while they focused on existential threats. They looked further to the West and saw a gold mine of opportunities–freedom from the constrictions of their tiny nation.

The post-Zionist Israeli emerged as a person lacking the historical perspective of the past. Nor did he care for the outmoded ideology of Zionism in a world in which the Jew was accepted equally without fear of persecution. For the first time Israeli youth repudiated the dying exclamation of Joszef Trumpeldor, "It is good to die for the sake of our country," replacing it with the cynically jaded aphorism of Aviv Gefen, " It is good to die for the sake of ourselves." As Moshe Rabbenu A"H prophesied: "But Yeshurun grew fat, and kicked... then he forsook G-d who made him." (Devarim 32:15)

To what is this analogous? YU.

A century ago, when the status of the Jew in the United States was not yet what it is today, the founders of Yeshiva University foresaw the need for a Jewish university, one with the ability to provide the student with a quality secular education while still staying true to Torah values. The architects of this dream realized that the Orthodox Jew struggled in the face of assimilation and discrimination. They wanted to insulate him from the seductive siren call of American society while providing a refuge from the prejudices of the day. However, as in Israel, the establishment of YU was not solely predicated on defensive reasoning, rather, they too were armed with an ideology and a positive vision. Torah U’Maddah emerged as the new philosophy enabling the Jew not merely to cope, but to thrive in the modern world. Armed with the educational philosophy of YU, he would enter the world as a strong religious man and an educated citizen of the modern era.

In all these endeavors Yeshiva University has succeeded.

For years there was no alternative to this great school, for America had not yet morphed into the philo-semitic and generally tolerant society that we know today. However, due to this institution’s far reaching influence and the rise of the Jewish socio-economic condition, new alternatives began to appear. Now you could be a religious Jew at Columbia or at Harvard and be just as well off. The YU persona began to question the worth of his institution in comparison to the world-class facilities of the secular universities. The students who chose to remain at Yeshiva University spent a large portion of their time complaining about the many shortcomings of their school and the modern amenities they perceived YU as lacking.

The post-YU persona emerged as a student who did not remember the hardships of earlier times. Nor did he appreciate the significance of Torah U’Maddah ideals, for they had so completely succeeded in the mainstream that it became hard to distinguish YU from any other institution of higher learning. He grew thankless and unappreciative.

The irony of it all is, that only due to the existence of the State of Israel as a national home for the Jewish people can the Jew feel safely at home abroad. So too, it is the existence of Yeshiva University that has allowed the modern-day Jewish youth to feel comfortable in the environment of secular academia. Without them, it would be impossible to venture out into the world beyond the borders of our country and beyond the walls of our school. Without Israel and YU, we would have no place of refuge, no shelter from the storms of assimilation and persecution. It is also ironic that the obituaries have been written for both Zionism and Torah U’Maddah, while in truth, their victory has been total and overwhelming. Israel exists after an interregnum of two thousand years, and Torah U’Maddah or some form of it is the prevailing modus operandi amongst Jews today.

That is the state of affairs in which we find ourselves. Israel, in many ways is in the best shape it has ever been, yet while its economy flourishes and its borders are relatively safe, its citizens are resentful and leave its shores to find their destiny elsewhere. For them, Zionism is dead, merely a relic of generations past. Similarly, here at YU, ours is the most privileged generation to appear in Jewish history. We command great wealth and respect in this benevolent country; Jews are to be found in the top echelons of business, government, and intelligentsia. Our University finds itself in the top rankings amongst secular universities and at the same time we are able to uphold our traditions and study our holy texts. Nevertheless, we jealously eye other schools and we are never content with our lot here at YU, a lot that Jews throughout history could have only dreamed of and prayed for.

Is this any way to repay our predecessors who dedicated their lives for our futures? Is this any way to thank the Master of the Universe who in his merciful kindness has granted us our wishes? Indeed it is not.

We Jews must not drown in the river of forgetfulness which washes away the efforts of prior generations in a flood of discontent and apathy. There is much to better in our Israel and our Yeshiva University. But we must carefully weigh our words and emotions before we express them stridently, or in a negative fashion. We must make sure that our actions emanate from love and that our outlook is modest and thankful. For we are truly a blessed generation, and let it not be said of us "But Yeshurun grew fat and kicked."