Rabbi Dr Ari Berman, President of Yeshiva University (YU) in New York, spoke to Israel National News - Arutz Sheva on the current situation in US universities, on the March of the Living trip that he invited non-Jewish university heads to join, and the rise in registrations to the only Jewish university outside of Israel.
Rabbi Berman spoke of the high rate of registration to Yeshiva University, “We have a wave of students interested in joining Yeshiva University. We are so packed. We are trying to figure out how we're going to fit everybody in. Already before October 7th we had our largest waiting list, just because people wanted to be part of the Jewish University that actually nourishes their identity. After October 7th it's just grown dramatically and we're seeing students transferring to us from the so-called elite universities, Columbia, Penn, Cornell, Michigan BU, Brandeis, really across the board. People are coming to us and they're looking for our top tier academic education, but in an environment that is Zionist and actually supports who they are as people.”
Rabbi Berman believes that students are transferring to Yeshiva University not because, “They're afraid of being physically attacked, although some people are. But that's not the fundamental problem, because they can avoid the encampments. Perhaps it's the fact that they are silenced in the classroom by the professors. One student came to me and said that the assignment they had to do was to explain why Israel is committing genocide, meaning they assume that, and you just have to explain it. If one stands out for their values and proudly stands tall as a Zionist, they are going to be cancelled by their classmates and their professors. So, the silencing of the students in their formative years is giving them the message that in order to succeed you have to hide who you are. There is a clear and present danger to the Proud Jews that we need to educate as the leaders of tomorrow.”
Rabbi Berman continued to explain that, “It's not just students; it's also faculty. We have a line of faculty members who would come to Yeshiva University right now and leave their top-tier university to be in our climate. I am looking to work with my partners so that we can afford to bring them here, both to give them a secure place where they can work, but also to continue to raise the elite status of our world-class education. We're seeing enormous opportunity, we're seeing industry, such as Bank of America, that have identified Yeshiva University as one of their six target schools, because they want to find quality people. They're realizing that their former partners represent values that they don't believe in. The brand of these elite universities has truly descended and what we're seeing is greater interest from across the board, even with donors. Last week Robert Kraft gave us a million Dollars to help us afford these transfer students, every undergraduate student we take comes with a scholarship and infrastructure. Robert, who's such a righteous man, wants to make sure that Jews feel safe on their campuses. A lot of donors have turned away from other universities and are now coming positively and saying, ‘I know what I'm against, but let me support what I'm for.’”
On the other hand, Rabbi Berman says, “It is very important that Yeshiva University is not the only place that is safe for Jews. We can't fit everybody in Yeshiva University. It's not for every single Jew in the USA and it wouldn't be good for the USA for all the Jews to be in one place. I spent a lot of time this year to protect the other students and identify the other campuses in which Jews can be safe. I've told presidents across the country that their campuses need to be safe for Jews, not free from Jews.”
Over the fall Rabbi Berman put together a coalition of over 100 College presidents, “who signed on a statement to stand with Israel against Hamas, to identify Hamas as a terrorist organization, which would seem so morally clear. But presidents and certain institutions have trouble even doing that, so throughout the year we've done initiatives to try to express the danger of hate to the leadership of universities and what happens when antisemitism goes unchecked. One of the efforts was to bring a group of university presidents with the March of the Living; to take them to Auschwitz and Birkenau and stand at the place where the greatest evil in the history of the world took place, so they could all understand the lessons of the Holocaust and recognize that the Jews come first, but others are next. We need to fight against antisemitism today, to protect everyone in our society tomorrow.”
Rabbi Berman speaks of the visit to Poland and describes, “The rich history of Jewish Poland and bringing these university presidents, the majority of whom are not Jewish, to understand the vibrant life Warsaw was, with over 30% Jewish. To visit Warsaw with them and to go to the landmarks, such as Krakow, the cemetery, the Rama synagogue, and explaining to them who these people were. These giants and their history and how intertwined they were with Poland, and you wouldn’t believe that in the 1930s how their neighbors could turn on them. This is what could happen with hate. We're not saying the USA is in the same situation, but there are enough warnings and you don't need to get to the cattle cars in order for this to be unacceptable. The lessons and the natural connections between making sure that our society today is understanding and denounces and condemns terrorism and hate, is really clear to everyone.”
Rabbi Berman says that, “The most emotional moment was going to Birkenau. One can’t prepare oneself for the sense of pure evil that exists in that place. To see the crematoria, the gas chamber, the factory of death, it is incomprehensible that one human, or that a country, a nation can do that to anyone. That was the most impactful moment for them, that when they got back to their universities, they started speaking a little differently and understanding what needs to be done. We need to give university leadership Holocaust education; it's teaching about antisemitism, it's teaching about our positive Jewish values and what Jews stand for, in order for us to fight the scourge of hate and antisemitism that's rising on the college campuses and across the USA.”