The Commentator

In another hiring geared to push Yeshiva towards the greater Jewish community, Rabbi Dr. Jacob J. Schacter, a noted Modern Orthodox rabbi, author, communal leader, and scholar, has recently been appointed to two senior university positions - one academic, the other administrative - beginning in September 2005. As a University Professor, Rabbi Schacter will be involved in various multidisciplinary initiatives, conduct research and publish in the areas of Jewish History and Jewish Thought and teach two classes a semester in both the graduate and undergraduate divisions of the university. Rabbi Schacter will also serve as Senior Scholar at Yeshiva's newly established Center for the Jewish Future (CJF), where he will develop programs alongside Rabbi Kenneth Brander, the recently named dean of CJF, to advance Yeshiva's mission across North America. Rabbi Schacter may also assume responsibilities at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), including possible involvement in practical rabbinics and semikha training.

In his February 4 announcement of the appointment, President Richard M. Joel called Rabbi Schacter, currently dean of the Soloveitchik Institute in Boston, "one of the nation's premier Jewish educators and leaders, [and] as a faculty member at YU, [Rabbi Schacter] will be essential to our goals of providing academic excellence to our students and to enriching our responsibility to our communities through education and outreach. We are very fortunate to have him join us on our journey of shaping a comprehensive vision of American Jewry."

In 1999, following then-President Norman Lamm's decision to step down after more than a quarter century, Rabbi Schacter was regarded as a prospective replacement, but ultimately declined, saying in a recent interview he "felt an obligation to stay in the new position I had recently accepted in Boston."

In a release, Rabbi Schacter publicized his long standing feelings about Yeshiva, referring to it as his "ideological home" and as being "honored for it now to be my professional home as well."

Unlike a traditional faculty appointment, Rabbi Schacter's hiring bypassed the lengthy bureaucratic process typical of new faculty hires. One senior university official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Commentator he saw nothing unnerving about the hiring. "Yeshiva skipped all regular academic procedure in hiring Rabbi Schacter as a University Professor. Rabbi Schacter is an accomplished academician and the academic process would surely have been no problem for him to pass."

Reacting to these sentiments, President Joel said that while he involved Dr. Morton Lowengrub, vice-president for Academic Affairs, and several faculty members in Rabbi Schacter's hiring, his appointment "was not the same process as the process of a member of the faculty who would be hired to be on a particular faculty. The power to appoint a University Professor is the president's."

"The notion of University Professor is that you can bring someone on who will sit outside of a particular faculty and will be assigned to teach in different schools of the university, semester to semester, at the invitation of the dean of the school and the vice-president for Academic Affairs," said President Joel. In December, outgoing Dean of Yeshiva College Norman Adler was also appointed a University Professor, making Rabbi Schacter the second individual to receive that honor from President Joel.

Rabbi Schacter received his PhD in Near Eastern Languages from Harvard University, where he was a teaching fellow from 1978-1980, and, during the mid-1990s, was an adjunct assistant professor of Jewish Studies at Stern College for Women. Dr. Lowengrub did not believe that Rabbi Schacter's few teaching appointments made him any less qualified for a position at Yeshiva.

As CJF Senior Scholar, Rabbi Schacter anticipates leading "professional enhancement programs for pulpit rabbis and limmudei kodesh [Jewish studies] educators" and plans to "teach lay leaders in different groups in the New York area and beyond, and deliver lectures and speeches on behalf of the university when asked to do so." He will also "be available to help President Joel in whatever ways he feels I could benefit the university."

In a January 19 E-mail announcing his departure from the Soloveitchik Institute where he served as dean for the past five years, Rabbi Schacter urged his supporters there "to continue to make the work of the [Soloveitchik] Institute a priority" and maintained that at Yeshiva, he "will maintain an association with the leadership of the Institute."

Rabbi Schacter also made reference to continuing the Soloveitchik Institute's successful Yarchei Kallah upon arrival at Yeshiva. President Joel expressed his hope that Rabbi Schacter will "continue the Yarchei Kallah program for rabbis and expanding it [at Yeshiva], because this should be the place where rabbis should come home and feel at home and feel that these are resources."

During the twice-a-year program at the Soloveitchik Institute, before Rosh Hashanah and Pesach, young Modern Orthodox rabbis from throughout the United States and Canada gathered for intensive two-and-a-half day seminars, and were given opportunities to learn facets of rabbinic, congregation and communal life from Rabbi Schacter and institute scholars. One recent Yarchei Kallah participant even called Rabbi Schacter the "rabbi's rabbi and a teacher's teacher."

Citing Rabbi Schacter's role in serving as "an outstanding mentor to many rabbis and Jewish communal leaders," Rabbi Brander asserted that Rabbi Schacter's "expertise will help shape the Center."

Rabbi Schacter said he has "tremendous respect for the dynamism, passion and manifold accomplishments of Rabbi Brander. He has an impressive and enviable track record of achievements in the Orthodox community and I am looking forward to working closely with him on our shared agendas."

Excited about the opportunity of working for President Joel, Rabbi Schacter was effusive in his praise of the president's direction for Yeshiva. "President Joel has a dual exciting vision of raising even further the academic standards of the university as well as bringing Yeshiva's message to large numbers of American Jews. I am very excited to participate in both of these efforts and am very grateful to President Joel for giving me the opportunity to do so."

Rabbi Dr. Schacter graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Brooklyn College and received his rabbinic ordination from Mesivta Torah Vodaath in 1973. As a student of the late Dr. Isadore Twersky at Harvard University, he earned his PhD in 1988. In 1986, President Norman Lamm appointed Rabbi Schacter as the founding director of Yeshiva's Torah u-Madda Project and in that capacity, Rabbi Schacter served as the founding editor of the Torah u-Madda Journal (1989-1999). Renowned for his work with burgeoning Jewish communities, Rabbi Schacter served as rabbi of the Young Israel of Sharon, MA, from 1977-1981, where he created a new and vibrant Jewish community. In 1981 Rabbi Schacter was appointed the senior rabbi of The Jewish Center on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, overseeing the growth of the congregation from 180 members to more than 600 during his nearly two decade tenure there.

Article Tools