The Commentator

Within six months after the beginning of the `50s, the United States was once again at war. Having hardly recovered from World War II and its aftermath, in June 1950 the Korean War began and the United States found itself embroiled in that conflict. Collegiates around the country pursued their studies mindful of the fact that upon graduation they would face the prospect of military service; a consideration which strongly influenced their choice of college and career.

At Yeshiva, it was a time of increased enrollment and the continuation of the remarkable growth that had commenced just five years earlier when it achieved university status. Since 1945, several graduate schools were established and in 1950, it attained its crowning achievement - the granting of a charter for the establishment of a medical and dental school (which, in 1953, became the Albert Einstein School of Medicine).

The person most responsible for this growth and the dominant figure at Yeshiva in the `50s was Rabbi Dr. Samuel Belkin. His was a frequently unseen, but prevailing presence. The institution was small enough to be subject to his "one-man rule", which he exercised quietly but decisively. It had been ten years since Dr. Belkin assumed the leadership of Yeshiva upon the sudden demise of Dr. Bernard (Dov) Revel, and seven years after, when at the age of 32, he became America's youngest college president. Since 1935, he had been a RIETS rosh yeshiva and instructor in Greek at the College. At age 24, he was the youngest rosh yeshiva in its history, admired and respected by his students and colleagues. His new responsibilities as President compelled him to leave the classroom and his role as a much-beloved rebbe. It was obvious to us that his contacts and relationships with students was a role he sorely missed. Accordingly, we took full advantage of his "open door policy," which gave student representatives and student leaders access to him and his office (which was conveniently located alongside the building's entrance on the ground floor). When we brought our "complaints" about faculty and administration to him, he knowingly and sagaciously smiled, and more often than not, sided with the students.

Dr. Belkin served as a member of the Vaad Hasemikha, together with R. Moshe Shatzkes and R. Joseph Baer Soloveitchik, until the oral semikha examinations were discontinued in the late `50s. Anyone who experienced a semikha bechina conducted by those three Torah giants came away with a greater appreciation of Dr. Belkin's gadlus in Torah. Often, R. Shatzkes and R. Soloveitchik would engage in their own discussion of the particular sugya, frequently leaving the candidate far behind. Then they would suddenly turn to the befuddled examinee and ask (in Yiddish): "And what do you have to say?" It was at this point that Dr. Belkin would intervene and repeat and explain the question in a way that not only clarified the issue but hinted at, if not gave away, the answer.

A significant but not much-noted event took place in January of 1954, when at the behest of R. Nachman Bulman, then Director of Residence Halls, Dr. Belkin agreed to meet with the dormitory students in an open forum. It turned out to be a challenging discussion with him. Practically every aspect of Yeshiva and Dr. Belkin's philosophy for the University was questioned - the establishment of the Medical School, with its inherent halakhic problems; the sanctioning of rabbis in non-mechitza synagogues; the policy of Yeshiva with respect to minyan attendance; the nature of "synthesis"; and the philosophical basis of an institution which seeks to combine yeshiva and secular studies under the same roof and in the same individual.

Some of Dr. Belkin's responses remain vivid in my mind and valid to this day. "Minyan," he declared, "is not a matter of policy but of Shulhan Arukh." "The trouble with Jewry in America is not mixed pews, but mixed minds." "If not for the Medical School, the doors of Yeshiva could not remain open today." Despite Yeshiva's rapid growth and his dedication to its continued expansion, "The Yeshiva must be in the center." Finally, "synthesis" does not mean "Chemistry a la gemara," but is something which must be achieved within the personality of the individual rather than in the subject matter.

Most students left that evening believing that Yeshiva's president and rosh hayeshiva had acquitted himself very well. Dr. Belkin, however, confided that he felt he was under attack, and to my knowledge, never exposed himself to that type of forum again.

That Dr. Belkin focused his activities during this decade beyond the walls of the Yeshiva was undoubtedly due to his feeling that the Yeshiva was in good hands. His predecessor, Dr. Revel, valiantly tried to "import" outstanding European roshei yeshiva to Yeshiva. Thus, in 1922, the Maichater Iluy, R. Shlomo Polachek, and in 1929, R. Moshe Soloveichik were brought to RIETS. Ironically, the Nazi persecution both before and during World War II brought to these shores and enabled Drs. Revel and Belkin to bring to Yeshiva outstanding European rebbeim such as R. Joseph Arnest, R. Avigdor Cyperstein, R. Henoch Fishman, R. Yerucham Gorelick, R. Dovid Lifshitz, R. Yaakov Moshe Lessin, R. Moshe Shatzkes, R. Shmuel Volk and R. Mendel Zaks (son-in-law of the Chafetz Chaim). They enhanced the existing distinguished faculty of which R. Joseph Soloveitchik was the acknowledged head. R. Soloveitchik was at the height of his intellectual and oratorical powers. By this time, his yahrzeit shiur in memory of his father, R. Moshe z'l, was the singular annual event in the yeshiva world and Torah community. Talmidim, rabbanim and laymen literally filled Lamport Auditorium to the rafters to listen to four to five hours of impassioned explications of halacha and aggada. In these shiurim, R. Soloveitchik revealed to his regular talmud students yet another dimension of his unique persona; that of darshan extraordinaire, whose rhetorical depth and breadth was unequaled. To have studied with him was a privilege which we appreciated even more, both in and out of Yeshiva, as the years went by.

It was R. Soloveitchik, in his moving eulogy for Dr. Belkin on chol hamoed Pesach, 1976, who delivered, in his inimitable manner, an insightful portrayal of the forces that drove this "wandering, restless yeshiva bochur." Samuel Belkin, the product of the European yeshiva world between the wars, knew very well of the limited opportunities that were open to yeshiva-leit. They either remained in the yeshiva, entered the rabbinate or chinuch, or married well; and occasionally engaged in the world of commerce. It was only in rare instances that professional opportunities were open to them. In America, Dr. Belkin truly discovered a land of opportunity. It was his goal that no door to any professional or graduate school be left unopened to Yeshiva graduates. (It was probably a reflection of his own life experience. His father was murdered in a pogrom when he was a young child. His teenage years at Yeshivos Mir and Radin were marked by extreme poverty. Ordained by the Chafetz Chaim and by R. Shimon Shkop at age 17, he arrived in the United States in 1928 without funds, friends, family, or the ability to read or speak English. He never attended high school or college but was nonetheless admitted to Brown University in 1931 where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and received a PhD degree. He matriculated at Harvard in 1933-34, before returning to Yeshiva in 1935.)

Thus, at Yeshiva he created a graduate school of education and social work, a science center, a medical school and a law school. The establishment of these schools not only served Yeshiva College graduates but opened up to them admission to top-drawer universities. Enrollment at Harvard, Yale and Columbia Law Schools was no longer aberrational. In the fifties, "pre-med" became a prominent major at Yeshiva. Medical schools around the country were accepting Yeshiva College graduates. The proliferation of Yeshiva graduates in medicine, law, accounting and every aspect of professional, commercial and communal life that exists today is surely a realization of Dr. Belkin's Great American Dream.

Dr. Belkin's vision included a role for the American Jewish community as well. On the occasion of its 300th anniversary, he stated: "An ideal Jewish community in a non-Jewish world is one which endeavors to integrate itself in the larger community, which renders service to the community at large, enjoys all the privileges and bears all the responsibilities entailed, but at the same time is aware of its separateness and distinctiveness in the spiritual and intellectual fields." Fifty years later, that message remains cogent and meaningful.

The incoming College class of September 1950 was far different from what we experience at Yeshiva today. In the fifties, the "feeder" schools for Yeshiva College, besides Talmudical Academy, were Torah Vodaath, Chaim Berlin, Ner Yisrael, RJJ and other mesivtas from around the country. It was from these institutions that the likes of [rabbis] Julius Berman, Saul Berman, Benjamin Blech, Abba Bronspiegel, David Hartman, Aharon Lichtenstein, Aaron Rakeffet and Sherman Siff came to Yeshiva College. Sadly, it is not being replicated today, notwithstanding the fact that RIETS rebbeim rank among the finest roshei yeshiva in the country.

Perhaps it was recognition of the homogeneity of the student body in the early fifties that led Dr. Belkin to introduce what was then thought to be his most controversial undertaking -- the establishment of the Jewish Studies Program (JSP). The program was designed to attract students with little or no background in Jewish studies, many from non-observant homes. After it was announced, the beit midrash was afire with fears of "dilution of the Yeshiva!" Student and faculty protests were organized, which ironically were led by R. David Hartman, a recent musmakh of Yeshiva, and a promising young rabbinical student named Steven Riskin. Dr. Belkin, of course, prevailed and R. Morris Besdin turned that fear into one of Yeshiva's proudest achievements.

A most significant accomplishment of the `50s was the establishment of Stern College for Women. Made possible by an initial gift of Max Stern and his family, Stern College opened its doors in 1954. The announcement of the establishment of a college for women was greeted by Yeshiva College students with a sense of bemusement, if not bewilderment. Stern was to be located far enough away not to be a threat but close enough to be of interest. A satirical article which appeared in The Commentator at that time considered the outrageous possibility of a shuttle service between the schools. In retrospect, the founding of Stern College ranks among the most important sociological events in American Orthodoxy in the last half of the 20th century. It brought young women from around the continent to the center of Jewish life and observance which could be found in New York City. Numerous Jewish families that exist today may never have come into being but for Stern College. Intellectually, the founding of Stern College surely stands as the century's seminal event in higher education for Jewish women.

In consonance with the calm of the Eisenhower years, campus life at Yeshiva in the fifties was relatively quiet, but not uneventful. McCarthyism caused hardly a ripple at Yeshiva which was a bastion of Democratic liberalism. In a poll conducted during the Eisenhower-Stevenson election campaign, Yeshiva students preferred Stevenson 16-1. Student life was relatively serene. A national survey of drinking on campus found Yeshiva students to be teetotalers, except for the weekly imbibing of kiddush wine.

In 1953, Dr. Moses L. Isaacs, who had been a faculty member at the College since its inception, stepped down as Dean after decades of service. Dr. Belkin replaced him with a complete "outsider": Dr. Henry Guterman, a history professor at a small Pennsylvania teacher's college. Dr. Guterman had been forewarned about the "evils" of The Commentator editors and his initial orientation to Yeshiva and its students was a wary experience for both. He reinvigorated the history department, and raised the bar considerably for history and political science majors when he required "outside readings" and term papers! In 1959, Dr. Guterman's tenure as Dean ended and he was succeeded by Dr. Isaac Bacon, who remained at the post for nearly twenty years.

A quiet but significant change had taken place at The Commentator as well. For years, its senior editors were drawn from undergraduates who were not enrolled in the Yeshiva department. Since the editors were selected by the outgoing Board it was a situation that was quite easy to perpetuate. A mistaken perception that freedom of the press was exercised too freely by The Commentator often placed it beyond the pale of acceptability in the eyes of certain members of the administration, faculty and student body. Inexplicably, in 1952, and for many years thereafter, the senior leadership of The Commentator was taken up by MYP [Mazer Yeshiva Program] students, who may have been no less irreverent or restrained than their predecessors. Dr. Belkin, however, sensed the shift and seized the opportunity to install R. Israel Miller, a distinguished alumnus, as "advisor" to the publication. We were informed that R. Miller would not serve as a censor. However, all material was required to be reviewed by him before publication. It became a ritual to slip under R. Miller's door at his nearby Bronx home, in the wee hours of the morning, articles which were simultaneously sent to the printer for publication. It was a great tribute to R. Miller's skills as the consummate diplomat and gentleman (which was recognized in the ensuing years by the great esteem in which he was held by the American Jewish Community) that he exercised his role to suggest, cajole and persuade. Rarely, if ever, did we at The Commentator clash with him over content or policy.

An overwhelming concern of Yeshiva students during this period was the fledgling State of Israel. Communication with and travel to and from Israel were not easily facilitated. A visit to campus from our Israeli counterparts or Mizrachi leaders was a significant event. These contacts ultimately led to the establishment of a program which was to have far-reaching effects on the institution, its students and their families. It began in the fifties with a six-month stay in Israel under the auspices of the Jewish Agency extended to a handful of Teacher's Institute students who were preparing for careers in Jewish Education. It was inconceivable at that time that a year of study in Israel would eventually become de rigueur for almost every Yeshiva student.

By the end of the decade, the Korean War had evolved into an uneasy truce which exists to this very day. It was eclipsed by the Cold War which heated up considerably in the turbulent '60s with the Cuban Missile Crisis. Vietnam was on the horizon. But I leave that story of another decade, for another time, by another alumnus...


Mr. Sheldon Rudoff, YUHS `50, YC `54, RIETS `57, was editor of The Commentator in 1953-54 and is a Senior Partner at Goodkind Labaton Rudoff & Sucharow LLP. Mr. Rudoff has served as President of the Orthodox Union and the Beth Din of America and has been active in many areas of Jewish communal life. He is a recipient of the Bernard Revel Memorial Award for Community Service (1989).