University's Censorship

To the Editor:

I write to you as a former Editor-in-Chief of the Commentator. Just want to let you know that I laud your efforts to seek justice over the whole newspaper throwing out issue. About five years ago, our board held a meeting to discuss this very same issue. In fact, we even had a picture of a YU Facilities worker throwing out the newspapers. (It might be buried somewhere in your office.)

We were downright infuriated by YU’s behavior. We also discussed the various steps we could take. Among them was threatening legal action, billing YU, and calling some of our friends in the local Jewish media to cover the story - all the things you guys did. In the end, we wrote an editorial about the issue, wrote a formal complaint letter (without invoice) to Rabbi Lamm and Dean Nulman. We also refilled the bins on the morning of the Open House. But we didn’t get anywhere with the letter.

My present concern is that Sheldon Sokol will continue to order the newspapers thrown out even with all the press coverage. He just doesn’t care a whit about all the media coverage and is not really controlled by anyone in the YU administration. For him, throwing out the newspapers is ironclad policy. I don’t know if even a NY Times article will make him change. I suggest that you, and the editors who follow you, stay on top of this story and publicize all attempts to throw out the newspapers.

Moshe Kinderlehrer
Editor-In-Chief, The Commentator 1994-95
YC’95, RIETS ‘00

To the Editor:

In regard to your article concerning the silencing of the YU staff writers........Do you regularly sit down with the Roshei Yeshivot as to the permissibility of publishing certain articles? I would hope to discover that in this center of Torah U’Maddah we actually believe and follow this philosophy to the fullest extent. If you do not sit down with these Roshei Yeshivot......well then, what are we all about?

To the Editor:

As an alum and a Hillel director at Northwestern University, I was appalled to read of the removal of the Commentator by members of the administration. While Yeshiva has improved in many ways since my days there 25 years ago, apparently the attitude of some administrators remains one of contempt for students. Such behavior would never be tolerated in other private universities. Simply saying the Commentator would be given compensation is not enough, it should be the responsibility of Rabbi Lamm to hold these administrators accountable.

Rabbi Michael Balinsky
YC,RIETS 74

To the Editor:

As another editor of a college paper threatened with censorship this past week, I can relate to what you are all going through. In our circumstance, the College President threatened us with a lawsuit after seeing my quote in the New York Times about how our newspaper was going to take a stand against him for allegedly lying all the time.

Instead of letting it simply run its course in a small 5,000 circulated weekly campus paper, the president turned the issue into a local media frenzy. Newsday and the New York Times picked up the story instantly. Every single local newspaper picked up the story as well, running excerpts from the editorials in their papers.

In all, what started as a minor annoyance for administration ended up as a nightmare as more than 8,000,000 people had access to the editorial.

The power of the First Amendment was set up in part to keep authorities and their power in check. The authorities at both schools should note that as long as a newspaper is acting responsibly it is often more dangerous to quiet its voice than to not do so. For in the world of the student press, silence is NOT golden.

To the Editor:

As a former writer on the Commentator, I am appalled that the administration at Yeshiva would censor the news. But I am sadly not shocked. The school’s attitude toward the truth, and toward the undergraduates and the press, has never been quite what people might expect. I have never given any money to YU since my graudation as the adminstration and especially Rabbi Lamm himself seem less dedicated to acting on the principles of Torah U’Mada than on running just another bland and mindless college. I also have to add that I work in publicity and find YU’s actions quite dopey from that point of view as well. Didn’t their PR people realize that the actions of the school would inevitably make it into both The Jewish Week - where Joanthan Mark has an axe to grind against YU - and the Times?

At the same time, I am quite happy to see that the Commentator is continuing its stalwart tradition. I was a writer when Behnam Dayanim was editor-in-chief and the scandal of the day was the Shabbos TV raids, and I think the standards he set all those years ago have been surpassed by today’s writers and today’s willingness to take on the administration with a strong voice.

To the Editor:

I would like to express my displeasure with the continuing coverage of the confiscation of the Commentator in non-YU papers.

Obviously, this is an important issue that merits much discussion and exposure, but what benefit may be achieved by coverage in papers such as the New York Times (or why this issue merits discussion there, but that’s their issue) is beyond me. All that has been accomplished, as I see it, is a black eye given to a fine school by its own students (and possibly by a disgruntled former student), as well as some ill-gotten publicity and limelight for your paper and its staff.

Nachum Lamm

YC‘97, RIETS ‘00

To the Editor:

After an article appeared in the New York Times about the removal of newspapers from YU buildings, I heard some interesting reactions from current and past YU students. Several people expressed surprise that the New York Times would be interested in the story. Others assumed that the Commentator had somehow forced their way into the Times, and thought that it would have been better if they didn’t say anything. After all, why make the school look bad?

Folks, it’s time you realized that what you’ve been denying or not believing for years is true. That’s right: YU is a real school. And it has been for quite some time now. That means that you go there to get a high quality education, and you have a right to expect that. It means that professors have a right to be paid competitively, and treated fairly. And it means that when the administration tries to censor the main voice of student opinion, people are going to notice and care. And yes, censorship on a university campus is a big deal, at YU no less than at any other university.

When something like this comes up, I always here people say, "At any other university, this would never be allowed to happen." Well, as long as YU students continue to believe that YU isn’t a "real school," they will continue to short-change themselves. If you don’t respect the education you’re getting and the school you’re attending, why should anyone else?