Sources on the Presidential Search Committee, the body charged with finding suitable candidates to succeed departing Yeshiva President Rabbi Norman Lamm, have revealed that the committee has made the ability to capably direct Yeshiva's finances a primary criterion in potential candidates.

Thus far, the committee has kept the progress of the search veiled from the public eye, refusing to identify candidates it has strongly considered. Nevertheless, committee members have confirmed that one prospect highly touted in media coverage of the process, Chief Rabbi of Britain Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, has never been a candidate, despite Sacks' own numerous high-profile demurrals to accepting the post.

"Sacks' public refusals of the position in venues such as Lincoln Square Synagogue are not really relevant," remarked one committee member, on condition of anonymity. "He was never actually seriously considered, since we are looking for an operating President who can appreciate and manage many of the financial details of an institution, and not a chief rabbi model. While Sacks is a brilliant speaker and writer, we need a President of Yeshiva University, and not a Chief Rabbi of Washington Heights."

Committee members have divulged that their thinking derives from a statement prepared by the 50-member Presidential Advisory Committee that convened last summer to delineate the requirements for serious candidates for appointment to the presidency. In its final draft of the statement, the committee, consisting of representatives from every school in Yeshiva, as well as communal rabbinic leaders and RIETS Roshei HaYeshiva, called for a president to possess "skill as an administrator…reflected in his prior experience and success which should prepare him to play an active role in the management of complex enterprises." The document clearly stressed such administrative ability alongside the more intuitive need for a president with "scholarly Torah erudition and spiritual stature, [and] strong academic credentials."

The question of religious qualifications for the incoming president remain vital to many, as the university president will also presumably serve as Rosh HaYeshiva of RIETS, a position viewed as the prime pulpit in Modern Orthodoxy.

Despite these concerns, the presidential electors remained confident that their most heavily weighted criteria were well-grounded. "It would be a terrible thing for YU to compromise on someone without a strong religious and scholarly background," exclaimed one committee member, "but the advisory committee, which did include [RIETS Rosh Hayeshiva] Rabbi Michael Rosensweig, understood the need for a president with the skills necessary to run a complex university like Yeshiva, and we have taken this consideration very strongly into account."

Committee members pointedly declined to provide further details about the search, admitting only that the committee has been meeting "regularly - every two or three weeks" to consider candidates since its formation last September.

Such secrecy has troubled some members of the Yeshiva community. "I have never seen an operation this leak-proof in all my years in YU," complained one long-time Yeshiva insider. "It appears as though the board members are keeping the decision process entirely to themselves, and are appropriating the right to unilaterally choose our next president."

One Search Committee member explained the tight secrecy differently, however. "We need to maintain strict confidentiality," he explained. "Many of the candidates we have considered hold positions in other institutions, and would be forced to withdraw their names from consideration if their candidacy became public. Our silence is in the best interests of the search process and of Yeshiva," he asserted.

Such aggressive silence, however, has spawned a number of rumors circulating in the Modern Orthodox community regarding possible decisions and considerations of the committee. One recent rumor suggested that the selection had already been made at a board meeting last week, leaving pundits scrambling to predict whom the choice had been. Other rumors placed the presidency at the feet of Stern College for Women Dean Karen Bacon, in a move that would potentially send shockwaves through the hitherto male-dominated Modern Orthodox hierarchy.

Committee members scoffed at such suggestions, however, providing only that no decision has yet been made, and that an uncertain number of candidates are still being reviewed. A committee member refused to confirm that Bacon had even been considered for the job, merely noting tersely that "Yeshiva remains an equal opportunity employer."

Despite protestations of secrecy, though one committee member predicted that the committee would reach a decision in time for Lamm's retirement. "There is no time set in stone," he cautioned, "but we expect to forward our recommendations to the selection committee sometime between March and May. Regardless," he continued," we are trying to do the best job possible."