Volume 67, Issue 3

Striking a Balance: Dialogue on a Censured Campus
by Jamie S. Hirsch 

As we plod through our daily routine at Yeshiva University – some of us longing for the “college experience” absent from this campus, others yearning for a purely spiritual environment shielded from the “evil” that is secularism – a certain observation creeps up.  For all our differences and varied backgrounds – ranging from the overly conservative right-wing traditionalist to the wildly liberal leftist – the Yeshiva student body’s external behavior is relatively homogenous.  Externalities notwithstanding, the majority of students who indeed espouse identical convictions deem all their peers uniform.

Van Situation

While “easy come, easy go” seems to be the laissez-faire attitude Yeshiva administrators have adopted when it comes to the major cutbacks in both inter and intra campus shuttle services, students are not amused.  In following the service changes with considerable interest, these pages have reported significant student condemnation of the curtailed service, and we fully identify with our colleagues.

From the Editors’ Desk

We like bucking the trend. Over the summer, we spent weeks revamping our Features, Arts & Culture, and Exchange sections. Facing the threat of angering Commentator traditionalists, we also recently decided to change our overall layout style through new fonts and more structured article placement. These developments stem just as much from the mounting demands of the paper as from past Commentator precedents, but in most cases of conflict the former wins out. If we had to choose whether to continue to churn out aesthetically-pleasing newspapers with well-researched and/or investigative articles within the framework of the status quo on the one hand, or to actively respond to relevant issues as they come up even if it means changing what’s usually done and making exceptions on the other, therefore, we would most likely select the second option. It just keeps things more interesting.

First Impressions

First impressions go along way.  That dictum summarizes a commonly held belief about the presidency fairly accurately.  The unabbreviated thought goes more like this: If our next president fails to begin implementing a coherent vision for the university immediately, his or her tenure is doomed.  Trite perhaps, but true.  The only thing bothering us is the fact that we haven’t heard the same rationale applied ipso facto to our new Chairman of the Board.

Ronald P. Stanton, who just became the most powerful member of the Yeshiva community, has his work cut out for him.

A Lesson in Journalism

On September 11th, The Commentator published an article written by our News Editor, Kevin Cyrulnik, that explored the planning behind Wilf Campus’ 9/11 commemoration and questioned why certain things were done the way they were done. For the purposes of clarification, we juxtapose Yeshiva Student Union President Shai Barnea’s comments on the article with the responses of our News Editor to those comments. As Barnea requested, no changes have been made to his comments. In the end, we leave it up to the reader to decide who is most worthy of a “Lesson in Journalism.”   

YSU President Shai Barnea: Serving or Severing the Student Body?
by Kevin Cyrulnik

All would agree that the President of the United States is elected to serve the people.  At all times, with each and every decision, he is obligated to uphold that which is in the best interest of his nation.  The Constitution was created to ensure that no President would ever have the power to take advantage of his country.  A university or large institution must function in the same manner if it wishes to succeed.  Unfortunately for the students of Yeshiva University, they have, indeed, been taken advantage of – and worse – many of them do not even know it.

Presidential Politics

"I am announcing my intention [to resign] ... so that the Board may put into action an appropriate succession plan, with sufficient time to identify appropriate candidates for the dual presidency of YU and RIETS ... I believe that the time is right to identify a President who can lead Yeshiva University into this century toward even higher goals and greater achievements."
--Dr. Norman Lamm, announcing his resignation to Yeshiva's Board of Trustees, March 13, 2001

Ramblings Stays Up Way Past His Bedtime
by Avi Mermelstein

It’s that time of the month again.  No, not that time of the month.  What’s wrong with you people, stooping to the lowest common denominator this early in a column?  Is that the type of column you want?  (I keep writing “article” instead of “column.”  Sad how I’ve been reduced to writing real articles as well as columns.  So much so that I keep writing “article” instead of “column.”  But I think I mentioned that already.  Not that I’m running out of material 83 words into a column.  Although I think this is the earliest I have ever resorted to the word routine.  This is already pretty ugly.  I think I had better close this parentheses before I pour more salt into my own gaping parentheses.  Or boiling oil.  Or anything not as soothing as an ointment.  Close, sesame!) 

From the SOY President
By Josh Goldman

“I.D.?”  It’s the first word you hear from the security guard when you enter any Yeshiva building.  As we get used to wearing these cards on our necks, key chains, and belts, we adjust to being identified by a piece of plastic.

YU’s Small Community: Integrating “Yeshiva Guys”
By Gavri Butler

I’m from a relatively small Jewish community, and that colors the way I approach certain aspects of Jewish life in New York generally and Yeshiva University specifically. For example, in my hometown, if a person sees somebody on the street wearing a kippah and does not recognize him, he or she stops and introduces him or herself. Therefore, there tends to be less of the religious intolerance that permeates the metro-New York communities. Minute differences are downplayed, and while many flavors of observance are represented, community members are forced to stick together, because otherwise the community would fall apart. I have found New York to be starkly different. Due to the sheer size of the population, each person can find a synagogue, a school, and even a community that can cater to his or her specific religious philosophy. Even Yeshiva University, long recognized as the flagship of “Modern Orthodoxy,” is no longer “modern” enough to satisfy much of its own constituency.

Torah U’Madda’s Cultural Challenge

Torah or Homophobia?

Terminate Schrecker! 

Arguing for Campus Debate

Chaim Potok: A Portrait of the Artist

Organizational Support For Israel

Unpardonable Rabbis

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