New York—Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), an affiliate of Yeshiva University, will host its annual Gala Evening of Tribute on Monday, May 23, 2016, at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City.
Cantor Bernard Beer, director emeritus of YU’s Philip and Sarah Belz School of Jewish Music, is the guest of honor and will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award in the Cantorial Arts. Cantor Beer, among his 50 years of service to the RIETS and YU family, served for decades as the director of the Belz School of Music. He also regularly lectures and publishes articles about Jewish music and is currently working on the Nusach Legacy Project, which will feature recordings of the yearly cycle of nusach (liturgy) for all prayer services. His commitment to the traditional cantorial art has created the standard for proper tefilla with thousands of students over the years.
The gala will also feature a remembrance of Rav Yosef Weiss z’’tl, longtime RIETS rosh yeshiva, who passed away in December at the age of 95. Rav Weiss taught Jewish law to thousands of today’s rabbis. He was a brilliant teacher of the most basic and critical Jewish law components for those in the Joseph B. Soloveitchik Semicha program.
The evening will also celebrate the lives of Joel and Maria Finkle, whose generosity established the Joel and Maria Finkle z’’l Visiting Israeli Professorship in Talmud, a post currently held by Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Meir Goldwicht. Through their bequest, executors William Schwartz and Mark Ettinger have created a perpetual major gift to RIETS.
The dinner will also honor the hundreds of rabbinic alumni who have contributed to the Elef L’Mateh program, which helps support Torah learning opportunities for the YU community and beyond.
Lance Hirt, vice chairman of the RIETS Board of Trustees and the gala chair, is especially excited by this year’s dinner. “We gather together to celebrate the strength and continuity of our yeshiva,” he said. “We have lost one of the greatest roshei yeshiva in Rav Weiss, yet his teachings have made a tremendous impact on the rabbinate in North America and Israel; the Finkles have ensured that their professorship is now sponsored in perpetuity; and we salute Cantor Beer for his 50 years of service and his spreading the beauty of Jewish music and nusach ha’tefillah through his teaching, projects and publications.”
A lecture will be delivered by Rabbi Meir Goldwicht at 5:30 p.m., followed by the reception and dinner at 6:30 p.m. For more information, please call 212-960-0852 or e-mail [email protected].
