Volume 67, Issue 2

Yeshiva Postpones Classes to Commemorate 9/11
Rabbi Lamm Conspicuously Absent from Ceremony

by Kevin Cyrulnik

Deviating from the majority of universities countrywide, Yeshiva postponed morning classes for a memorial service commemorating September 11th.   The ceremony included prayer, Tehillim, speakers, and a moment of silence, which concluded with a blast of the Shofar.  Notably absent from the Wilf Campus, however, was Yeshiva University President Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm, who spoke on the Midtown Campus instead. Students throughout the campus were perplexed as to the whereabouts of the Yeshiva President.   “Rabbi Lamm delivered a tremendous, invigorating speech last year on September 11th, and [the students] naturally assumed that he would be there for us this year again,” said Sy Syms junior Jonah Sobin.  Apparently, Yeshiva Student Union (YSU) President Shai Barnea had made a similar assumption.  Because the YSU did not reserve Rabbi Lamm as the key speaker on the Wilf Campus, it was decided that he would not assume his usual role of addressing the men but would instead speak at Stern.

According to Yeshiva administrators who usually work with students on such events, no one actually took the initiative to ensure that Rabbi Lamm would address the Wilf Campus. Yeshiva’s Director of Communications and Public Affairs Peter L. Ferrara relayed that “Barnea, along with the rest of the student leaders, just assumed that [Rabbi Lamm] would be [at the Wilf Campus].”  Ferrara did, however, attempt to absolve Barnea somewhat, by conveying that Rabbi Lamm had perused his calendar and observed that he had spoken at Wilf the last six times.   He therefore saw it as an imperative to finally speak on the Midtown Campus.

Surprisingly, the problems did not end there.  As a result of Rabbi Lamm’s decision, Barnea was forced to find an alternate speaker.  Until Monday morning, two days before the event, the keynote address on the program remained unfilled.   A number of candidates were named as possibilities but ultimately rejected the offers, due in part to the lateness of the request.   “When you ask someone as big as Malcolm Hoenlein to come to Yeshiva to speak on September 11th, you cannot honestly presume that he will accept when asked on September 4th, just one week prior,” observed Sy Syms Junior David Epstein.

At that point, Ferrara said that he was “forced to step in” and take charge.  “My job was originally to simply ensure that morning classes would be postponed, but I now had to assume the role of finding a speaker,” he said.  The problem, as he put it, was that the various student leaders all had different agendas and “could not get their efforts coordinated.”  On Friday, Erev Rosh Hashanah, his office, in conjunction with the YSU, secured Mazer Yeshiva Program (MYP) Rosh HaYeshiva Rabbi Hershel Schachter.   But on Monday morning, the schedule changed once again with MYP Rosh HaYeshiva Rabbi Michael Rosensweig being designated as the main speaker.  Ferrara also noted that he was puzzled as to why the Deans’ Office decided to hold a separate event, later that afternoon.  Students were invited to join the teachers, faculty, and administrators in First Hall to participate in various readings and recollections on 9/11. 

Barnea claimed that since this event had been out of his jurisdiction for a while, he was not to be held accountable.  “I was told that [Rabbi] Lamm decided to speak at Stern, and that it was a university-run event, as opposed to a student-run event,” said Barnea.  He therefore decided to take a back seat to the administration and allow them to secure a speaker.  One student leader pointed out, however, that it is precisely this attitude that invariably leads to such issues. “When we don’t follow up on our planned events but allow the university to take over, we run into problems.  The job of the student council president – and [that of] the rest of the student leaders for that matter – is to run these events in their own style,” he concluded.

According to the official Minutes of the Yeshiva College/Sy Syms School of Business Wilf Campus Senate, a similar incident happened last year.  As part of a Senate effort, Yeshiva College Dean Dr. Norman Adler had attempted to organize a six-month-anniversary memorial for September 11th on March 11th.  Since the student leaders did not follow through with Adler’s request, however, nothing had ever amassed.  “Last year’s incident is strikingly similar to what’s going on now,” noted one student leader. “Barnea should have known better than to allow the university to plan our events.  It seems as though it was merely an excuse on [Barnea’s] part so that he would not have to exert the extra effort.”

In addition, Stern College for Women President Sharon Weiss had asked Barnea, sometime in the summer, if he wanted to conduct a joint program of the two campuses, but he immediately declined.  “He told me that [the men] are doing our own thing in the morning – on the Wilf Campus,” noted Weiss.  Subsequently, she and a few other students resolved to get Rabbi Lamm to speak at Stern, concluding that it would be more apropos since their campus is closer to the site of the tragedy.  “It ended up being pretty ironic that Barnea had rejected Weiss’s offer because he thought we had already reserved Lamm – and now Lamm is actually speaking on their campus, not in front of us,” said Yeshiva College Junior Joshua Erez.

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