Volume 67, Issue 5

Yeshiva Boards to Elect Richard Joel on Thursday, December 5
by Yehoshua Levine

 Barring unforeseen circumstances, President and International Director of Hillel Richard Joel will be officially elected President of Yeshiva University and President of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary on Thursday, December 5, The Commentator has learned.

On Thursday afternoon, the Executive Committee of Yeshiva’s Board of Trustees, then the Board itself, and finally the Board of Trustees of RIETS will vote for Mr. Joel, who has already garnered the support of nearly all Board members and Yeshiva administrators. As one top Yeshiva insider put it, the few Roshei HaYeshiva who have opposed Mr. Joel’s candidacy throughout the past two weeks – specifically on the grounds that he is not an ordained rabbi – are outvoted.

Mr. Joel, who lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, spent last week and this week meeting with Yeshiva’s many constituents, from students to faculty to administrators from the University’s various undergraduate and graduate schools, for the sole purpose of “getting to know” the institution. As Chairman of the Board Ronald P. Stanton noted, “Joel wouldn’t accept the job without officially meeting [the members of the Yeshiva community].”

Contrary to popular conception, the meetings were not intended as an opportunity for Yeshiva’s constituents to have input in the search process. On Tuesday, November 26, in an informal straw vote, 15 out of the 16 members of the Executive Committee of the Board and most of the 39 members of the Board itself voted for Mr. Joel’s appointment as Yeshiva President. From the University’s perspective, therefore, Mr. Joel’s meetings before and after Thanksgiving were a “charade,” according to a Board member, because the Board’s decision was, from the very beginning, all but official.

As of press time, Tuesday, December 3, Mr. Joel had the full support of 15 members of the Executive Committee and 37 Board members. The RIETS Board also seems to be in support of Joel, especially since its Chairman, Julius Berman, has as of late been “coming around,” realizing that he cannot isolate himself in opposing Mr. Joel for much longer, according to a top Yeshiva insider.

“Mr. Joel enchanted the Board,” Mr. Stanton recalled. “And he’s the choice of the entire community [as well]. He’s the best available man.”

Although accepted as an ideal candidate by nearly every group in Yeshiva, a small core of RIETS Roshei HaYeshiva, including Rabbis Michael Rosensweig, Mayer Twersky, and Mordechai Willig, opposed Mr. Joel’s candidacy because he is not a rabbi. When he met with all the Roshei HaYeshiva on Monday, December 2, they voiced this opposition alongside their general frustration with the fact that they were not consulted in the process.

In terms of Mr. Joel himself, the rabbeim felt that symbolically, the President of RIETS must be a rabbi just as the President of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine must be an MD. Some argued that by having a non-rabbi serve as the President of RIETS, a slippery slope would develop in which somewhere down the line, even a non-Jew could be considered for President. Insiders have noted that Mr. Joel will not accept the Presidency of Yeshiva University if he were not the President of RIETS as well, for that would entail splitting the two institutions, a potentially disastrous effect for YU.

“They told me that they’d state their objections but [that] they wouldn’t do anything about it,” Mr. Stanton said, referring to the Roshei HaYeshiva. “They realize that they’re going to have to face the fact that this is what’s going to happen.”

 Mr. Stanton stressed that by electing a non-rabbi as President, the Board would not be defeating the Roshei HaYeshiva but would be creating what he called a “temporary diversion.” He explained that Mr. Joel is planning to establish an undergraduate administrative training department meant to train future leaders of the Jewish community and, by extension, of Yeshiva. With impressive rabbi-scholars coming out of this new program, Mr. Stanton projected, “in ten years or so we’ll have a slate of possible successors” to Mr. Joel, most of whom would fully satisfy what the Roshei HaYeshiva want.

Mr. Stanton revealed that at the Hanukkah dinner on Sunday, he will publicly introduce Mr. Joel as the next President of Yeshiva University. For the next 5-6 months, Mr. Joel will stay as Director of Hillel but will be coming up to Yeshiva a couple of days a week. His formal inauguration as President is slated to occur sometime in June.¨

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