Volume 67, Issue 3

News Briefs

Library Begins Saturday Night Hours
by Zalman Abramchik

 Beginning on October 5, the Yeshiva administration instituted Saturday night hours for the Mendel Gottesman Library.  This development comes as a result of intensive lobbying by student leaders.

“It’s great to see the University administration do things that benefit the student body,” said Yeshiva Student Union President Shai Barnea.  “Students have been coming up to me and telling me how great it is that the library is open Saturday nights.”

Dean of University Libraries Pearl Berger, who made the decision because “students have been pushing this issue for many years,” advised that this was merely a trial period.  The library will stay open on Saturday nights only if there is a need for it, explained Berger.  Security will be monitoring the number of students using the library on Saturday nights, and only if the number is significant will it remain open.

In the first two weeks, the number of students making use of the library has been “surprising,” according to Chief of Security Donald Sommers.  The first Saturday night of the trial period, 176 students used the library, while the second Saturday night, 174 students did.

Dr. Honigswachs Named University Registrar
by Zalman Abramchik 

Yeshiva promoted Dr. Lea Honigwachs to the position of University Registrar, filling a void that has lasted for the last two years.  Honigwachs has been working for Yeshiva since 1997, first on the Midtown Campus, and subsequently at the graduate schools on the Wilf Campus.

Honigwachs is not new to the job, having fulfilled the duties of registrar for the past two years.  The University Registrar is in charge of providing record-keeping services and course schedules.

A top priority of Honigwachs’ is to further develop web registration and web grading.  “We’re giving web registration top priority,” she says.

Director of Enrollment and Management Dr. John Fisher, who was responsible hiring Honigwachs, explained that Yeshiva had been advertising for a new registrar for a while.  There were some fairly good candidates, he said, but “Lea [Honigswachs] is exactly the right person.”

Psych Professor Contracts Tumor
by Ariel Brandwein

 In an unfortunate turn of events, Dr. Stephen Reschke, an adjunct psychology professor at Yeshiva, recently contracted a brain tumor.  Due to his illness, Reschke was forced to discontinue teaching, at least for the remainder of the semester.  Of the two courses he was teaching, Industrial Psychology and Organizational Behavior, a replacement was found only for the latter, a course taught in the Sy Syms School of Business.  A replacement professor with the proper credentials to fill the Industrial Psychology class was not found.

Through the help of the Office of Advisement, students in the psychology course were accommodated, mostly by being placed in other psychology classes.

As Assistant Dean Joyce Jesionowski noted, “I think the college has been extraordinarily responsive to student interest.”  Dr. Nada Glick, Director of Advisement in Yeshiva College, added that all the advisors were informed to assist all affected students in the most productive way possible.

For Your Listening Pleasure, an Expanded Torah Tape Library
by Jamie S. Hirsch

Have you ever sat on a subway or rode in a car thinking, “Wouldn’t it be perfect if I could hear some words of wisdom right now?”  If so, then you’re in luck – the Yeshiva Torah Tape Library is back.  With over 1200 tapes to choose from, you’re bound to find something to suit your tastes.  “There is a wide range of topics including halachah, mussar, Chassidus, hashkafah, and science and Judaism,” noted YC junior Etan Schnall, who is compiling the library.  He added that the point of the library is to focus on rabbeim who do not teach at Yeshiva in order to broaden students’ horizons and thus add variation to learning.

The cost of membership to the library is $5, which is spent primarily on maintenance and upkeep.  Members have a maximum of two weeks per tape, after which overdue fines are imposed.

Arthur Hertzberg Authors New Book
by Zalman Abramchik 

Noted author, activist, historian, and political visionary, Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg recently authored another book entitled, A Jew In America: My Life and a People’s Struggle with Identity.

This book, the newest in a long line of books authored and co-authored by Hertzberg, looks at the Jewish life in America through the eyes of Hertzberg.  The reader follows the author’s life from his adolescent years in Youngstown, Ohio, through his years of semicha study, continuing with the remainder of his life as an active Jew in America.

Hertzberg, who is in his mid 80s, is the author of other books such as, The Zionist Idea: A Historical Analysis and Reader, and And I Shall Dwell Among Them.  His new book will be available on October 22.

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