Spring Break
Current Issue:
John McCain's heroism didn't end in Vietnam. And as we face difficult challenges at home and abroad, it's time to pick a man who will always place country first.
As the election draws imminently near and the national polls see-saw once again back towards John McCain, it is worth taking a moment to reflect back on the course of the last cycle of Presidential campaigning, and consider what it says about the American state of mind today.
Many Jews are worried that Barack Obama's current pro-Israel rhetoric reflects more pandering than principle. They've got good reason to be worried.
A sure sign that a topic is reaching the upper limits of discussion is that it's actually become a cliché to say that said topic is cliché. Such is the state of the ongoing (some would say long exhausted) Torah v. Madda/Yeshiva v. University/Modern v. Orthodox debate.
I'd like for us to take the opportunity, together, to use this transition year in the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein Honors Program as an occasion for public discussion of our hopes for the Program. As this year's Honors Program Director, I'm happy to take the first step - in this column - by framing out my own "vision" for the Program, and by inviting students and faculty to join in a year-long dialogue in which our national search for a director can also play a stimulating part.
It was with great interest that I read Yitzchak Ratner's thought-provoking article criticizing Yehudah Bernstein's piece describing the latter's assertion that tensions exist on YU's campus over the religious observance (or lack thereof) of YU's international students.
"Harbeh lamadti me'rabbosai, u'mechaveirai yoser me'rabbosai, u'mitalmidai yoser mi-kullan." "I have learned much from my teachers, and from my colleagues more than from my teachers, and from my students, more than from all of them." (Taanis, 7a) I have been privileged to have taught English as a Second Language to Yeshiva College's non-native English-speaking international students since 1986, and it was through that lens that I read with interest Yehuda Bernstein's "Branching Out by Reaching Out" (9/2/08) and Yitzchok Ratner's "Of Sympathy, Stereotypes, and Standards: A Response to Yehuda Bernstein" (9/23/08).
Really, I do. Make no mistake, I am not being sarcastic. I truly think ystuds are a good thing. Great, in fact. And that is why I am standing up for ystuds right now, and asking you, my fellow "stud"s, to help me save the ystud. Here's what's so good about these much-maligned mass emails: ystuds can let everyone know what's going on around here in this daunting dual institution; no matter how busy you might be, you can just read your ystuds and follow everything.
[Note: due to space constraints this article did not appear in the current print edition and will appear in the next one] After achieving a cabinet and deans entirely of his choosing, Richard Joel announced last year that "phase one" of his presidency was complete.
