Volume 67, Issue 7

Mounting Opposition to Brill Firing
By Zach Abramowitz 

More than a month after Assistant Professor of Judaic Studies Dr. Alan Brill was denied tenure, many students and faculty are still furious and disillusioned with the administrations over the decision.  If not revoked, the verdict will terminate his Yeshiva career, where he teaches philosophy, Jewish philosophy, kabbalah, and Jewish History, at yeshiva College and mysticism and Chasidism at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies, at the end of the 2004 spring semester.

The administration chose to effectively fire Brill despite overwhelming support from the Yeshiva College faculty and unprecedented popularity amongst Yeshiva students.  Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Morton Lowengrub, acting with the approval of President Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm, was said to be siding with Revel, the lone voice of opposition, in withholding tenure.  In doing so, Lowengrub invoked a clause, which states that faculty members holding joint teaching appointments must obtain approval for tenure from both schools, despite the fact that, according to insiders, Yeshiva College was interested in hiring Brill full-time.  

Students have speculated that that the battle to overturn the decision is sure to be uphill – in large part because it is said to emanate from the President’s office – and are, nonetheless, beginning to mount their opposition.  Although they have yet to hit the streets in rallies and sit-ins, students close to Brill have made very clear that they do not accept his denial of tenure as set in stone. 

Sources have indicated that plans for public protests, such as crashing the annual Hanukah Dinner and Convocation, were considered but postponed.  Despite what some students considered the “University’s obvious vulnerability” at events such as the Hanukah dinner, making public statements at that time was deemed counterproductive and unprofessional.  “We’re not seeking revenge or retribution,” claimed YC Junior Yaakov Liss.  “We would just like to see Dr. Brill reinstated in the most peaceful and professional way possible.”

Another student pointed out that demonstrating at the Hanukah dinner would have been imprudent, since this year’s Dinner was devoted to the instating of President-elect  Richard Joel.  “The last thing we want to do is alienate the president before he even gets here,” remarked YC Junior Naftalie Wolfe. 

One student in the graduate school keenly articulated, “While we certainly feel committed to overturning the university’s decision, we have to keep in mind Richard Joel’s feelings as a newcomer in an unfamiliar environment.  We certainly don’t want his first greetings at YU to be ones of opposition,” he said.

Instead, students have quietly banded together in a collective letter writing campaign that has included sending daily emails to Lowengrub and current President and Rosh HaYeshiva Rabbi Lamm.  Students chose to target these administrators in particular because they are said to be responsible for rendering the final decision.  As one student put it, “they are the only administrators in this process that carry any weight.”

Letters have come and will likely continue to be sent from undergraduates, graduates, and alumni.  Taken as a whole, the letters seek to convey Brill’s popularity, indispensability, and scholarly excellence.  Students were quick to note, however, that they are not authority on scholarship.  As one YC Junior writes, “As a student I cannot accurately speak about Dr. Brill's scholarship…However, as a student, I can express the incomparable effect that Dr. Brill has on me personally and the entire student body as a whole, an effect the administration might not have been privy to at the time of their decision,” he said. 

Although students to date have written over fifty individualized letters, the administration has yet issue a single response.  “I just hope that they’re at least opening my letters,” commented YC Sophomore Dov Huff.

Additionally, both Brill chasidim, as his core disciples have been affectionately dubbed, and students that have yet to take him in the past have flocked to register for his spring course offering: Twentieth Century Jewish Intellectual History.  YC Junior Amitai Bin Nun noted, “If they denied him tenure, what’s to say they won’t fulfill the responsibilities for his contract next year? This may be my last chance.” 

As of December 24, thirty-six students had signed up for his course, which had twenty-five person cap.  Some students were initially locked out of the course but waited on the fifth floor of Belfer Hall until registration advisers allowed them in. “I didn’t care how long I had to wait there,” said YC Junior Ariel Bayewits.  “I wasn’t going to miss what may be my last opportunity to take a teacher of Dr. Brill’s stature.” 

Faculty members have also begun to pipe up. According to Dr. Will Lee, Director of the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein Honors Program, “I continue to value Professor Brill as a colleague because of his manifold contributions to Yeshiva College,” which include “his honors courses on Maimonides and on Jewish Historiography; his mentoring of one wide-ranging Senior Honors Thesis; his contributions to other theses; his intellectual leadership as a shaper of the Book Project; and his ability to inspire students to read more, think further, and do their best work.”

Along the same lines, Jewish Studies Cluster Head Dr. Moshe Bernstein stated that “As a member of the YC faculty, not only as a faculty member in Jewish studies, I view the non-tenuring of Dr. Alan Brill as inimical to the academic growth and enhancement of YC, as well as to our unique Torah UMadah motto.”

Moreover, students known to enroll in Brill’s courses have been approached by other faculty members in the halls and probed for details relating to future action.  YC Junior Yonatan Miller revealed that in doing so “Different faculty members have voluntarily discussed their opinion with me, and the consensus is always the same: this decision was an academic nightmare.”

Insiders have confirmed that word of Brill’s tenure denial has reached the University’s Board of Trustees.  Although members of the Board were unavailable for comment, students noted that the prospect of their involvement “definitely raises the stakes.” ¨ 

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