This fall, YU’s Zahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought is providing a multitude of forums for Jews in the modern era to arrive at their own understanding of the concept of Torah Umadda.
“In undergraduate courses, seminars for smicha [rabbinic ordination] students, adult education and public events, the Straus Center has brought about the bridging of Torah with the world in every part of Yeshiva,” said Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik, director of the Straus Center. “In just the past year, students in our classes have approached, though a Torah lens, the fields of political thought, American history, law, Zionism, philosophy, art and medicine. We are so proud of having made the vision of Moshael Straus a reality: for Torah Umadda to never be merely a motto, but rather something that can be experienced throughout Yeshiva and the larger Yeshiva University community.”
For smicha students in the Straus Center RIETS seminar, “Jewish Perspectives in Bioethics,” the experience is critical because it crystallizes their own ideological beliefs, and prepares them as future spiritual guides who can help congregants navigate complex and often emotionally-fraught decisions about modern medicine and Jewish values.
Public events and lectures designed to provide a broader Jewish audience with a taste of the Straus Center’s undergraduate dialogues are in the works, like the “Great Conversation” public event on December 17 featuring columnist George Will and New York University President John Sexton to discuss “Baseball, Tradition and God.”
The Straus Center also announced the Tikvah Fellowship, which will support a postdoctoral fellow whose work relates to Torah and Western Thought. The grantee will spend one-three years teaching and doing research at Yeshiva while serving as a resident scholar at the Straus Center. “Through this generous gift from the Tikvah Fund, we will be able to attract to Yeshiva a gifted future academic star who will be at the heart of all of the Straus Center’s intellectual activities and who will play a strong role in fulfilling our most cherished charge: the teaching of students,” said Rabbi Soloveichik.
