(Courtesy of Touro College) A throng of people filled Yeshivas Ohr Hachaim last Wednesday to remember and pay tribute to Rabbi Dr. Bernard Lander, zt”l, the outstanding visionary, educator and talmid chacham who founded the Touro College and University System. For decades, Touro has educated multitudes of Jewish men and women, enabling them to support their families with dignity.
Rabbi Doniel Lander, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Ohr Hachaim, began the ceremony by acknowledging the presence of Dr. Alan Kadish, president of Touro, who he said is carrying on the legacy of his father “in the most exemplary and devoted fashion.” Rabbi Lander spoke eloquently and lovingly about his father’s work—his impact on not only his family and community, but also upon the world of education. “Every talmid of this yeshiva, every member of this community and large segments of Klal Yisroel throughout the world have benefitted from my father’s leadership and dedication to Klal Yisroel,” said Rabbi Lander. In the tradition of his family, Rabbi Lander then introduced his own son, Moshe Yehoshua Lander, who made a siyum to commemorate his illustrious grandfather.
The special guest speaker was Rabbi Shlomo Noach Mandel, executive director of The Jewish Education Program (JEP) in Toronto. Rabbi Mandel, who flew in especially for the occasion, shared memories of how Rabbi Dr. Lander worked closely with him to bring education and Jewish values to students everywhere, including to young women in Moscow who would otherwise have had no such opportunities.
“The hundreds of Baalei Tshuvah in Moscow are the [spiritual] children of Dr. Lander,” said Rabbi Mandel. “It was exactly a year before his petirah, when Dr. Lander told the girls of Bnos Batya in Moscow, ‘Torah is the source of our life. Torah gives us happiness. Torah gives our life meaning. We at Touro can make this kind of life possible for you. We will spare no expense for you—to make you secure and to be happy. You can have an excellent college degree without any cost. We are very happy to sustain you because our desire is to make you wonderful bnos Yisroel, daughters of Israel, daughters of the greatest people in the world, a people that was created and lives and is pulsating only because of the observance of Torah. Without Torah, there is no future. Without Torah, there is no meaning to Jewish life.’”
You can watch the entire Yahrzeit commemoration on TorahAnytime by visiting https://www.torahanytime.com/#/lectures?v=75939.
