Samuel Belkin
| Rabbi Dr. Samuel Belkin | |
|---|---|
| Born |
12 December 1911 Svislach, Russian Empire (now Belarus) |
| Died | 19 April 1976 (aged 64) New York City |
| Education | Ph.D., Brown University |
| Occupation | President of Yeshiva University |
| Spouse(s) | Selma EhrlichAbby Polesie |
| Children | Linda Rose Belkn Schuchalter and Salo Maurice Belkin |
| Parent(s) | Solomon Belkin and Minna (Sattir) Belkin |
Samuel Belkin (December 12, 1911 in Svislach, Byelorussia – April 19, 1976 in the Bronx, N.Y.) is best known as the second President of Yeshiva University. A distinguished Torah scholar, he is credited with leading Yeshiva University through a period of substantial expansion.
Belkin was born in 1911 in Svislach, Russian Empire (now Belarus) and studied in the yeshivas of Slonim and Mir. Recognized at a young age as an illui, a genius, he was ordained as a rabbi at the age of seventeen by the famed Yisrael Meir Kagan, the Chofetz Chaim.
As a child, he sought to leave Poland after he witnessed his father being shot by a policeman in 1919. He emigrated to the United States in 1929, studied with Harry Austryn Wolfson at Harvard and received his doctorate (concerned with the writings of Philo) at Brown University in 1935, one of the first awarded for Judaic studies in American academia. In 1940, an elaboration of his Ph.D. thesis was published with the title "Philo and the Oral Law — The Philonic Interpretation of Biblical Law in Relation to the Palestinian Halakah."
He then joined the faculty of Yeshiva College, New York, where he taught Greek. He became a full professor in 1940 and was appointed dean of its Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) the same year. In 1943, Belkin was named became president of the college, Under his guidance, the institution expanded to become Yeshiva University in 1945. Belkin was a visionary who transformed Yeshiva from a small college and rabbinical seminary into a significant institution of considerable stature in Judaic Studies, natural and social sciences, and the humanities. Under his presidency, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine was opened as Yeshiva University's medical school.
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