On Tuesday, May 1, 2001, Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm delivered the first in a series of evening lectures - sponsored and coordinated by the Office of Alumni Affairs - dedicated to the memory of Rabbi Samuel Belkin, the University's previous president. Rabbi Lamm delivered the lecture to a packed Wiessbeg Commons audience, which included a number of family members of the late Dr. Belkin. At the onset of the ceremony, Mr. Stewart Verstandig, President of the Yeshiva College Alumni Association, presented Belkin's widow with an elaborate floral arrangement. Verstandig then introduced Rabbi Lamm, who opened by recalling his personal encounters with Dr. Belkin and went on to give a brief history of Dr. Belkin's background and introduction to Yeshiva University.

Lamm's lecture continued on the topic of the great Greek historian Philo, a figure about whom Dr. Belkin spent most of his academic life studying and writing. Rabbi Lamm proceeded to speak about Dr. Belkin's book, In His Own Image, which discusses the subject of man and his servitude to G-d. Lamm mentioned that Rabbi Eliezer Hurvitz, a YC Bible instructor, is in the process of publishing much of Dr. Belkin's works. Dr. Lamm concluded by stating that, regardless of the identity of his ultimate successor, he hoped that Yeshiva's future president would continue the tradition of giving lectures and classes in memory of Dr. Belkin.