2008 Woodie Awards
Promoting Politics
Gadi Ian Dotz
Issue date: 3/8/05 Section: Features
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Since its inauguration in March 2004, the little-known Rabbi Arthur Schneier Center for International Affairs has sponsored many stimulating and enlightening programs for the Yeshiva University and the New York area community. Its goal, according to the Center's official mission statement, is "to promote international understanding and cooperation by providing an educational forum for the exchange of ideas related to diverse critical issues in our increasingly interdependent world." Thus far the Center and its attempts at achieving this goal have been met with great enthusiasm.
The original idea and initial funding for the Schneier Center were provided by Rabbi Arthur Schneier, rabbi of the Park East Synagogue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Rabbi Schneir, who was born in Vienna and was forced to flee Nazi-occupied Europe, came to America in 1947. At the time Yeshiva took him in, and provided him with an education and a spiritual home. Rabbi Schneier subsequently received his Bachelor's degree and smicha from Yeshiva, and created the Center for International Affairs as a way of showing his gratitude and giving back to Yeshiva.
The Schneier Center is currently run by a fourteen-member Board of Directors composed of faculty representatives from all the branches of the university, Academic Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Morton Lowengrub, Schneier Center Director and Chair and David W. Petegorsky chair of Political Science Dr. Ruth Bevan, and Rabbi Arthur Schneier himself. According to Dr. Bevan, board members are encouraged to get their respective schools involved in the Center by initiating conferencing and lectures.
The Schneier Center aims to create a "forum for open discussion on critical and controversial issues of worldwide significance," says Dr. Bevan. This will "help give Yeshiva University international prominence" and "break down the insularity (parochialism) that has characterized our University. We seek to become an important educational force in the world."
The original idea and initial funding for the Schneier Center were provided by Rabbi Arthur Schneier, rabbi of the Park East Synagogue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Rabbi Schneir, who was born in Vienna and was forced to flee Nazi-occupied Europe, came to America in 1947. At the time Yeshiva took him in, and provided him with an education and a spiritual home. Rabbi Schneier subsequently received his Bachelor's degree and smicha from Yeshiva, and created the Center for International Affairs as a way of showing his gratitude and giving back to Yeshiva.
The Schneier Center is currently run by a fourteen-member Board of Directors composed of faculty representatives from all the branches of the university, Academic Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Morton Lowengrub, Schneier Center Director and Chair and David W. Petegorsky chair of Political Science Dr. Ruth Bevan, and Rabbi Arthur Schneier himself. According to Dr. Bevan, board members are encouraged to get their respective schools involved in the Center by initiating conferencing and lectures.
The Schneier Center aims to create a "forum for open discussion on critical and controversial issues of worldwide significance," says Dr. Bevan. This will "help give Yeshiva University international prominence" and "break down the insularity (parochialism) that has characterized our University. We seek to become an important educational force in the world."