Richard Joel
| Richard M. Joel | |
|---|---|
| President of Yeshiva University | |
|
Assumed office 2003- |
|
| Preceded by | Norman Lamm |
| Succeeded by | Ari Berman |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 9 September 1950 |
| Spouse(s) | Esther née Ribne |
| Alma mater | New York University |
| Occupation | attorney, professor |
Richard M. Joel (born September 9, 1950) is the fourth president of Yeshiva University (YU), a Modern Orthodox Jewish university with some 7,000 students at its undergraduate and graduate divisions in New York City. President Joel is renowned as a charismatic leader and a captivating orator, and has traveled globally to dialogue with audiences on values-driven education, communal leadership, and Jewish identity. He has written on topics that include the BDS movement on college campuses and civil discourse.
Richard Joel received his BA and JD from New York University, where he was a Root-Tilden law scholar, and has received honorary doctorates from Boston Hebrew College and Gratz College. He was an assistant district attorney and Deputy Chief of Appeals in the Bronx. His career continued as associate dean and professor of law at YU's Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.
From 1989 to 2003, Joel served as President and International director of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, an organization which supports Jewish life for college and university students throughout the world. In 1994, Joel orchestrated Hillel's independence from B'nai B'rith, its parent organization since 1925. Joel also increased the organization's financial stability and prestige by bringing on board major philanthropists such as Michael Steinhardt, Edgar Bronfman, Sr., and Lynn Schusterman and Charles Schusterman. During his tenure, Hillel partnered with Birthright Israel, and launched the Steinhardt Jewish Campus Service Corps, a group of recent college graduates tasked with engaging unaffiliated Jews and drawing them to Judaism and Jewish events. Hillel also expanded to the former Soviet Union and South America. Joel's tenure at Hillel has been criticized by some as providing stylish instead of substantive Judaism. (See also: Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life#Criticism) However, Joel has also been credited for his "skilled management, magnetism, personal warmth" and "clarity of vision". Joel is credited as the one who "transformed this movement (Hillel) and put Jewish renaissance at the forefront of the community's agenda", and his contributions to Hillel have been defined as "immeasurable" by its past and present leadership.
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