Former United States Ambassador to the United Nations Richard C. Holbrooke will deliver the keynote address to Yeshiva's graduating class of 2001 at the University's 70th Annual Commencement Exercises. Holbrooke's address will come at a historic ceremony witnessing the first undergraduate scheduled to address a Commencement audience in over a decade.

Ambassador Holbrooke, who was the architect of the Dayton Peace Accords, which ended the war in Bosnia, will stand with over 1,800 undergraduate and graduate students who will receive degrees and diplomas from Yeshiva President Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm on May 24th. This will be the thirteenth time since his own graduation that Holbrooke will be conferred by the president of a university.

Last spring, Holbrooke was awarded the inaugural International Advocate for Peace Award created by students at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law to recognize the efforts of those in the international dispute-resolution community. This award gained national notoriety this past year, as law students voted to bestow former U.S. President William Jefferson Clinton with the honor.

Holbrooke's work is highlighted by the Dayton accords, his contribution to the Kosovo conflict, and the repayment of U.S. debt to the United Nations. He will stand with several other honorees including Rabbanit Chana L. Henkin, Stern College graduate and founder of the Nishmat Institute that controversially ordained the first female Yoatzot Halakhah last year.

Rabbi Ephraim Z. Buchwald, a Yeshiva College graduate and REITS rav, will be honored for his extensive outreach work, founding the National Jewish Outreach Program. Eli Zborowski, founder and chairman of the American and International Societies for Yad Vashem and endower of the Eli and Diana Zborowski Professorial Chair in Interdisciplinary Holocaust Studies at Yeshiva, will join the other honorees.