Volume 67, Issue 8

It’s hard to walk around campus these days without catching wind of discussion about “Yeshiva’s shift to the Right” and the “polarization of the student body.”  In previous years, I, like many other good Yeshiva boys, used to shrug my shoulders upon hearing such chestnuts and continue on my way, oblivious to their consequences and irritated by their overuse.  They don’t really affect me anyways – the reasoning went – right?  Wrong.  And I’ve only begun to understand their true import.

First things first though, the student body is polarized, and a large portion of Yeshiva has turned obediently to the Right, marching lockstep to a tune that sounds eerily similar to the drumbeat of a charedi yeshiva.  Only this tune isn’t emanating from a charedi Yeshiva.  It’s coming from our own Beis Medresh.  This is leaving many students wondering how to respectfully disagree with their rebbeim on certain critical issues and, in extreme cases, forcing students to look toward the rebbeim for Talmud and in any other direction when it comes to desirable character traits.

Now, let’s be very clear here: this isn’t to say that the vast majority of our Roshei Yeshiva preaches an extreme right-wing form of Judaism, or that they are not paradigms of chareter.  From what I’ve gleaned over the past few years – and I’d like to believe this is the case – the majority of our Roshei Yeshiva promotes Torah U’maddah and are sought-after role models.  But just because most of the Roshei Yeshiva don’t espouse Charedism, doesn’t mean that such a vision doesn’t thrive here. 

So, how is it that a vision at odds with our own sacred Torah U’Maddah took root here when a preponderance of Roshei Yeshiva neither preach nor personify it?  The answer is because a small, widely revered cadre of Roshei Yeshiva does.  And, what it lack in numbers, it more than make up for in strength, particularly when it comes to grass-roots power.  So much so, that with only a few hours notice, they were able to gather over 100 of our fellow students into the Beis Medresh on Wednesday, December 5, to participate in a tehillim rally whose chief aim was to pray that Richard Joel not be appointed president.     

But their power does not only stem from their ability to engineer the beliefs and actions of so many of our peers.  Their power also stems from the fact that many years back President and Rosh HaYeshiva Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm decided that he didn’t really want to be responsible for the Rabbi Issac Elchanan Theological Seminary, so he picked a small group of Roshei Yeshiva to meet with him regularly and, in the process, effectively handed them the reigns to RIETS and, by extension, MYP.

There is a sad irony in the fact that Rabbi Lamm, one of the architects of Torah U’Maddah, formed the coalition of rabbanim that would be responsible for supplanting his vision with one of their own.  It should also come as no surprise that most of this coalition was involved in carrying out the anti-Joel tehillim rally – a campaign that many deemed “not in the spirit of Torah U’Maddah” – and opposed the candidate (Joel) that Rabbi Lamm himself endorsed. 

Thanks to years of laissez-faire leadership, however, many of us are wondering how to relate to some of our most respected Roshei Yeshiva when they opt for a course of action that runs contrary to our most guarded beliefs?  Is it as simple as censuring the act vociferously and then falling back in lines of the Roshei Yeshiva’s rank and file?  Moreover, what happens when certain situations that require action are left undressed?  Recent events – not just the tehillim rally –  are spurring these questions.

 A short time ago, a respected Yeshiva University Rosh Yeshiva had the opportunity to cleanse his name of a reputation that he has contracted in many Jewish circles, ever since chairing a beit din thirteen-years ago that was perceived as having absolved Rabbi Baruch Lanner – who has since been convicted to seven years in prison for sexually abusing two females – of having repeatedly molested teenagers while working for the Orthodox Union and NCSY.  In the aftermath of the original ruling, allegations of having witnesses withheld, manipulated and interrogated abounded.  Furthermore, this Rosh Yeshiva was said to have deliberately ignored the unmistakable licentiousness of Rabbi Lanner to protect the rabbinate.  To make matters worse, he hasn’t even apologized to the victims who were molested as a consequence of the court’s ruling.  And then there’s also the small matter of his categorically rebuffing the press. 

Faced with this web of allegations, we can only speculate as to whether the Rosh Yeshiva’s self-imposed gag order is being adhered to in self-defense or in defense of a guilty molester.  But the silence has a deafeningly incriminating ring to it, one that will   echo in the halls of Yeshiva and in ears of many Jews around the country in deciding whether to approach a beis din in cases involving rabbanim for years to come. 

Some of you might be piecing the puzzle together.  What emerges is what Yeshiva students are left to struggle with: Although certain Roshei Yeshiva may be revered for their mastery of Torah, some may have undesirable traits that make us wonder as to why they should serve as role models in the fullest sense of the word.  Many people feel that certain Roshei Yeshiva “lack menschlechkite” or have “Kanai” (loosely translated as extremist) tendencies at the expense of all else.

Once we broaden our discussion to include other pillars of the community, though, we’re left with a daunting dilemma: How are students supposed to mediate between a respected rabbi’s reputation as an acclaimed talmid chacham, on the one hand, and his reputation as someone lacking the traits a talmid chacham should have on the other?

What do you think? Click here to send a letter to the editors.
All content is copyright © Yeshiva University Commentator.