Volume 67, Issue 2

Presidential Search Down to Two Candidates 
by Yehoshua Levine
 

Commentator sources confirmed late last week that the search for the next Yeshiva President is now down to two candidates: Drs. David Schnall and David Shatz. This revelation follows the resignation of long-time Presidential candidate Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, who "finally acknowledged," according to a top Yeshiva administrator, that it would be impossible to lead the university from 6000 miles away in Efrat, Israel.

Although Riskin has been a popular choice for over a year, insiders had always considered his candidacy doomed due to his unwillingness to leave his post as Chief Rabbi of Efrat. “Riskin was hoping for a while that he’d be able to commute … to go back to Israel every weekend and work in YU during the week,” said the administrator. “Now it’s crunch time, and he realized that this plan [to commute back and forth] is just impractical.”

Others have associated Riskin’s resignation with the imminent departure of Board of Trustees Chairman Robert Beren, who is known throughout University circles as a supporter of Riskin’s candidacy. Since Beren is stepping down on September 18th, Board members are speculating that Riskin has already lost a great deal of his backing. According to one source on the Board, “Riskin would not be selected as our next President anyway with [Chairman-elect Ronald] Stanton leading the [Selection] Committee.”

The Search Committee for Rabbi Lamm’s successor is currently preparing to submit these two names to the Executive Council of Yeshiva’s Senior Board of Trustees, functioning as the Selection Committee, to make the final decision. According to Search Committee Chairman Michael Jesselson, this submission will likely occur in mid October, “a few weeks” after the Succos holiday.

Until then, Yeshiva’s top administrators and Board members will have the opportunity to confer with both Schnall and Shatz in order to familiarize themselves with each candidate’s specific aspirations as President. This past Friday, September 6th, in fact, Yeshiva Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Morton Lowengrub, who is also Chairman of the Advisory Committee, organized a University Deans’ Meeting with Schnall, and a similar conference will occur next Friday with Shatz. These meetings have been arranged in order to fulfill the promise of an August 5th letter sent to members of the Advisory Committee and cosigned by Jesselson and Lowengrub. “When the process [of conducting background checks] is completed, we shall be certain that members of our various constituencies have an opportunity to meet with the potential candidates,” the letter stated.

By mid August, after a summer of what Jesselson referred to as “frequent meetings and careful deliberations,” the Search Committee had narrowed down its list to “two to three” names, reluctant to identify the third – presumably Riskin because of his place of residence – as a clear possibility. Now, the list includes Schnall and Shatz, only.

In reference to the two candidates, a Yeshiva administrator with close ties to the incumbent President noted that “one is a friend of Rabbi Lamm’s [Shatz] and one is his relative [Schnall].” Both, however, are ordained rabbis and well-known scholars with extensive publications in their respective fields.