Bernard Lander

Rabbi Dr. Bernard Lander
Rabbi Dr. Bernard Lander of Touro College
Position	Founder, Touro College
Organisation	Touro College
Personal details
Born	June 17, 1915
Died	February 8, 2010(2010-02-08) (aged 94) Forest Hills, New York
Nationality	United States of America
Denomination	Orthodox

Rabbi Dr. Bernard Lander (June 17, 1915 – February 8, 2010), founder and first president of Touro College, was a social scientist and educator, a leader in the Jewish community and a pioneer in Jewish and general higher education.

Lander was one of three associate directors of the Mayor's Committee on Unity, established in 1944 by former New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, which became the city's first Commission on Human Rights. The commission prepared the first civil rights legislation for New York state. An ordained Orthodox rabbi, he held a doctorate in sociology from Columbia University.

He served as a professor of sociology for over two decades at Hunter College and at Yeshiva University, where he established the university's graduate schools of education, psychology and social work and served as dean of its Bernard Revel Graduate School.

In 1971, he founded Touro College and presided over its growth into a multi-campus, international university with approximately 18,000 students at campus locations in New York, California, Florida, Nevada, Israel, Russia and Germany.

Lander has served as a consultant to three United States Presidents and was part of the seven-member commission that established the historic "War on Poverty" program in the U.S. He served as a consultant to the White House Conference on Children and Youth; on an advisory council on public assistance established by Congress; and was a member of the President's Advisory Committee on Juvenile Delinquency and Youth Crime under the Johnson and Kennedy administrations.