A Man of Vision

At the end of this academic year, Rabbi Zevulun Charlop will complete his tenure as the Max and Marion Grill Dean of The Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary and as Dean of the Mazer Yeshiva Program after serving in this capacity, or under some other nomenclature for 37 years. He will continue at Yeshiva on a fulltime basis as Dean Emeritus and special advisor to the President on yeshiva matters. He will continue to sign the Semikha klafim and a series of student interviews and “Talking in Learning” as well as being involved in our various kollelim. Finally, he hopes to be of assistance to his successor, Rabbi Jonah Reiss, during the transition and beyond. to serve as an bochein for semikha as well as maintain the title of dean emeritus and serve as the special advisor to Yeshiva President Richard Joel on Yeshiva matters, and be involved in our various kollelim, and being of assistance his successor, Rabbi Jonah Reiss. The Commentator interviewed Rabbi Charlop to gain insight and reflection into his lengthy and successful career at Yeshiva.

Describing his relationship as an intermediary between the Yeshiva and the College

There were different periods of my stewardship at Yeshiva. When Dr Belkin zt”l asked me to head the yeshiva, I was a member of Yeshiva college faculty teaching American history as well as a rebbe at JSS, in addition to my responsibilities as a rabbi of a growing congregation. Nonetheless, and tellingly, in spite of and possibly because of my appointment as head of the yeshiva, I was voted by the faculty of the college to be one of two faculty representatives to the college senate. The faculty was not necessarily entirely observant, or even Jewish, but apparently willy-nilly and probably in different ways, they believed in Torah u-Madda, and felt that I would give voice to that perspective however it was defined. After Dr. Samuel Belkin, President of Yeshiva, became mortally ill, a search committee was organized to find his replacement. The committee was comprised of various segments of the university and I was selected to represent RIETS.

It was decided early on that the search committee would serve better if the day to day business of the committee were left to a smaller executive committee. When they reached major passes in their deliberations and when the final decision was at hand, this executive committee would report to the whole search committee. To my surprise, it was Dr. Bernard Fleischer, Professor of English, longtime chairman of the English Department, and a college representative of the search committee, who nominated me to serve on this executive committee to which I was elected. Apparently, the College’s secular faculty had sufficient confidence in me to represent their interest even as I represented the interests of Yeshiva itself, which could have been viewed as opposing constituencies with discrete outlooks. They trusted me to express their concerns and views as well, which is a notion that may seem strange today, given the reality of the apparently more polarized and fractionalized world in which we live.

And though nothing is static in life, this selfsame double challenge of dual curriculums and its attendant tensions is no less appreciated today for their ultimate compatibility even as we unswervingly avow Talmud torah kneged kulam! Our name, Yeshiva University still tells the story. Yeshiva defines the university, and it comes first. Its distinctiveness –spoken or unspoken -  the study of old sacred texts, which remain contemporaneous to us, and the keeping of an old faith, which renews itself through the ages, over and over again, continues to be at once the foundation stone and the engine of our abiding commitment to the past and our confident vision of the future.

How The Yeshiva Has Changed Over The Years

When I first came to Yeshiva, a preponderant majority of our Roshei Yeshiva were European trained in the great academies of Lita and Poland, who never received a general higher education in any formal sense. Today of course, over 90% of our faculty is our own musmachim and nearly all of them are university educated, yet surprisingly perhaps, the tensions between the college and the University at first blanche seem to have widened.

In my first interview with The Commentator after I was appointed head of the yeshiva, I was asked “what is your vision for Yeshiva?” I answered: “we should be a yeshiva like Velozhin and a university like Columbia.” It may have been then an off the cuff, glib and entirely unattainable aspiration, however nice it resonated. But in all honesty, and I do hope without any braggadocio, we are nearer to that goal now than we could have imagined when we articulated this proposition, even as we must be sorely and ever on guard. The risks and dangers to its fulfillment lurk in the shadows, waiting to pounce on us at the first opportunity or misstep to bring us in line with the great and hoary citadels of higher education, le-havdil le-elef havdalos, which all began originally as schools of religion, which long ago already were hardly noticeable specks in the expansive contours of the American campus. We have not gone that way. Indeed, we are more Yeshiva now than before, and the university has not suffered one wit, nor has its growth and forward march been at all stunted.

The old aspiration to be Velozhin and to be Columbia may have only been lip-service to an impossible dream in the texture of previous times. However, we have come closer to its realization, and paradoxically, it is this which brings on possibly different, but to be sure no lesser perils than before. In addition, there is a whole host of extracurricular responsibilities beckoning us. There are many more ‘cooing birds’ pining for our attention than in yesteryear. That is the never-ending struggle of our Yeshiva.

Not everyone can encompass both with the same measure of excellence, but I want to aver that we have many more students today and more than we could have imagined decades ago, who are coming closer to Velozhin, even as we have other students who have reached the measure of Columbia. But, no less noteworthy, even amongst this second group, I believe there is more learning, more ability to learn, and more lifetime determination to continue to learn who are koveah real time to learning, and continue to push themselves to lean more yet. The Yeshiva is no longer a dream or lip-service, it is a reality.

Reflecting On His Own Experience

I, too am different than when I began my career as a rabbi When I came to Yeshiva, there were one or two outstanding examples of faculty who embodied the at once two-and-one that we are, like Rabbi Tendler, a professor of Biology who was first and foremost a rebbe more than anything else. I was a synagogue rabbi teaching Mishna and Gemara in JSS and teaching a course in American History in the college.But from the time I assumed my present role my world changed and the world around me changed  as well. Most importantly, our she’ifot – certain yearnings or dreams of certain things- changed. It was very rare that one of our musmachim, born on these shores, to aspire to become a rosh yeshiva, especially in the presence of the giants, the Rav, The Lomzer Rav – Rav Shatzkis, Rav Dovid Lifschitz, and Rav Yerucham Gorelik.  These were my Rabbeim- and of course Dr. Belkin himself and the other world gaonim that graced our faculty.

I think I was very fortunate to be where I was, and to help shepherd the impossible to the possible. The Rav was sui generis in the breadth of his knowledge and most essentially in his learning, and in his charismatic presence. And although lamentably we don’t have the Rav today, his talmidim, and the talmidim of his talmidim, in the aggregate have possibly made the yeshiva stronger than before. The fact that there is a growing profusion of seforim on the Rav, his Torah, his parshanus, and machshava bespeak the reach of his talmidim. There never was so much Torah or Torah commitment on the part of our talmidim as there is now.
I have seen and I would like to believe that we were a little bit responsible for- or at the very least, didn’t stand in the way of- the emergence of a fierce and wholesome.
kinas sofrim in the ambience of genuine chevrusa which is part of the hallmark of our batei medresh, of our Yeshiva.

Regarding His Successor, Rabbi Yona Reiss

Rabbi Reiss and I have had about a year to talk to each other, and as a result he will be better prepared than anyone who preceded him. I only had 3 days notice upon my appointment. However, it is now a much more complicated yeshiva and university than ever before. After having worked with him and known him as a brilliant student and then admiringly following his career in the law, and more to the point, as coordinator and a  dayan of the RCA Beth Din, I am confident that Yeshiva under his leadership will go me-chayil le-chayil.

Advice To The Students Of The Yeshiva

Part of the answer can be gleaned from what I said until now, and there is not necessarily the same specific answer to every young man, save the conviction of Talmud Torah K’neged Kulam. The answer, or at least part of the answer that I would give is “L’olam yilmad adam bemakom shelibo chafetz.”  This does not refer only to a specific geographical sense, or in a curricular sense, but l’olam yilmad – a man has to learn always. How he goes about the lifelong fulfillment of this supreme obligation very much has to be fashioned by libo chafetz, by the promptings of his heart and of his neshama.