Yeshiva College (Yeshiva University)

Yeshiva College is located in New York City’s Washington Heights neighborhood in Upper Manhattan. It is Yeshiva University’s undergraduate college of liberal arts and sciences for men. (Stern College for Women is Yeshiva College’s counterpart for women.) The architecture reflects a search for a distinctly Jewish style appropriate to American academia.

Roughly 1,100 students from some two dozen countries, including students registered at Syms School of Business, attend Yeshiva College.

On July 27, 2009, it was announced that Barry L. Eichler, Ph.D., will succeed David J. Srolovitz, Ph.D. as dean of Yeshiva College.

Students at Yeshiva College pursue a dual educational program that combines liberal arts and sciences and pre-professional studies with the study of Torah and Jewish heritage, reflecting Yeshiva’s educational philosophy of Torah Umadda, which translates loosely as “Torah and secular knowledge” (the interaction between Judaism and general culture).

Like many American colleges and universities, Yeshiva College was founded as a religious seminary. Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) was established in 1896 as the first yeshiva for advanced Talmudic study in America. Its first president, Dr. Bernard Revel, envisioned an institution in which yeshiva students would be able to “harmoniously combine the best of modern culture with the learning and the spirit of Torah.” Through Dr. Revel’s efforts, Yeshiva College was founded in 1928, with 31 students. The creation of the college coincided with the move of RIETS, with its Teachers Institute and Talmudical Academy High School, from the Lower East Side to the newly built Washington Heights campus.

Since its inception, Yeshiva College has been training Jewish secular and religious leaders. The growth of its student body over the years necessitated the building of the Rubin and Morgenstern Residence Halls, which supplemented the original and subsequently refurbished Muss Residence Hall. The growth of its academic programs also necessitated the creation of the Mendel Gottesman Library to house its manuscript, rare book and scholarly collections of Judaica, the development of the Pollack Library collections in secular studies, as well as the construction of Furst Hall and Belfer Hall for additional classroom, administrative and laboratory space.

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