My Dear Friends, With 2024 upon us, it is appropriate for us all to look back and take stock of the extraordinary and challenging year that has just passed. In August, at the start of the new semester, I wrote to you about the sense of renewal that permeated the atmosphere on our campuses - the excitement of new knowledge soon to be attained, friendships to be made, academic dreams realized. The thrill of newness was in the air. As we sadly know, soon afterward, the tragic events that occurred on October 7th changed our lives forever. The challenges now facing the State of Israel and the Jewish nation could not be greater. But it is in our brokenness that we witnessed our strength. Through our profound concern for our brothers and sisters in Israel as well as the shocking rise in global antisemitism, our community, led by our Rabbis, faculty and administration, has shown tremendous resilience, perseverance and strength. Every day they display and live the moral clarity so desperately missing from public life, including, unfortunately, on many of the nation's other elite campuses. Particularly encouraging for our future is the reaction of our students. Our students have shown immense strength of character amid the challenges facing our people and they continue to show the world the values for which our institution stands. Their growth during these tumultuous times reflects Yeshiva University's central role in America's pro-Israel movement; it is here that students from around the world not only learn and prepare for their chosen careers, but also stand as proud Jews dedicated to our Torah and the truth when the world needs it most. While we certainly need your additional support this year as we work to meet the unanticipated expenses that resulted from October 7th (click here to donate now), I am pleased to report that our beloved university is thriving. I welcome you to read below about the professional and personal accomplishments of our students, faculty and alumni; our increased enrollment; our heightened presence as the flagship Jewish university on the world stage; and the research and discoveries performed in our science labs, which are changing people's lives for the better. Yeshiva University in 2023 responded to the call of history and added much promise to a future enriched by our students as the leaders of tomorrow. May 2024 be a year of peace, freedom, and blessing for you and your family, the Jewish people and Israel, and all people around the world. | Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman President, Yeshiva University | Unprecedented Enrollment Growth | YU saw record undergraduate enrollment in Fall 2023, a trend that is expected to continue in Fall 2024, as Spring 2024 applications are already up more than 65% over last year. These increases are in stark contrast to a nationwide drop in college enrollment of 8 percent from 2019 to 2022, demonstrating that students and parents across the globe are clearly recognizing the unique value of a Yeshiva University education. | | From 2016 to 2023, Yeshiva University's graduate school enrollment increased by 97%, from 1,927 to 3,800 students, and we are witnessing significant growth for our new A.I., Cybersecurity, and Allied Health (PA, OTP, Speech-Language Pathology) programs. A YU education has become increasingly competitive and in-demand, offering a wide range of cutting-edge graduate school programs that help students excel and meet the needs of the ever-changing job market. | | | | President Berman was a constant presence in local and national media since Oct. 7, advocating for Israel's legitimate right to self defense, and creating an unpredented coalition of more than 100 of America's university presidents to unequivocally condemn Hamas' unprovoked attack and stand with Israel. | | | In the fall of 2024, YU is launching a groundbreaking new program that offers undergraduate students the full YU experience while living in Israel. This unique opportunity allows our students to earn a YU degree in collaboration with top Israeli institutions: Tel Aviv University and Bar-Ilan University. | | YU announced the launch of YU Global, a flexible educational arm of the university focused on preparing students for the job market. YU Global provides high-quality professional and post-professional training as an alternative to, or in addition to, traditional higher education. For more details, click here. | | | Since the Dec. 2021 launch of Rise Up: The Campaign for 613, Yeshiva University's ambitious campaign to raise $613 million in five years, we have raised over $400 million toward our goal. This will help fund leading faculty, cutting-edge facilities, student scholarships, as well as new efforts to bolster security and student mental health services given the war in Israel. | | On Dec. 3, Yeshiva University announced the establishment of the Senator Joseph Lieberman Center for Public Service and Advocacy at the 99th Annual Hanukkah Dinner. President Berman also awarded Ishay Ribo the inaugural Or l'Yisrael award in front of more than 500 friends, dignitaries and supporters at New York City's Ziegfeld Ballroom. | | | Creating the Campus of the Future | YU is currently overseeing more than 45 construction projects on campus, including renovation of the Belz Building. Spearheaded by a generous $20-million gift of the Belz family, the renovation will modernize the interior and exterior of soon-to-be-renamed Furst Hall and will house the Belz's lifetime collection of Judaica and artwork in the new building's recently completed lobby, as seen above. | | Our Honoring Brilliance campaign celebrates YU's outstanding faculty and highlights their important work in a variety of disciplines. Through print, digital and video efforts we strive to showcase their groundbreaking research on a range of critical territories including eating disorders, colorectal cancer and safer roads. From this campaign, you'll learn how our faculty are dedicated to improving people's lives in the U.S. and around the world. | | | Noam Mayerfeld '25YC: Noam spent the summer on a prestigious internship at NASA, where he collected Earth Science data for research purposes, studied images from the James Webb space telescope and witnessed an Antares rocket launch. He further stated that researching galaxies lightyears away gave him a new level of appreciation for the beautiful work of God in creating the universe. | | Moshe Carroll '25YC: Moshe is a biochemistry major and Honors student who received a prestigious Goldwater Scholarship. Carrol is aiming to study medicine in grad school and has already contributed to research developing computational methods for predicting the interfaces between proteins, particularly those between antigens and antibodies. | | | Adina Feldman '26S: When war broke out in Israel, Adina felt the need to provide direct support to its people. She travelled to Israel and led a group of student volunteers in cleaning and preparing apartments for families displaced by the fighting. | | Jenny Rapp '25S: Jenny is a Straus Scholar who spent the summer interning at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, where she studied the impact of different government policies on the spread of COVID-19. | | | | | Office of the President, Yeshiva University
2495 Amsterdam Avenue, Belfer Hall 12th Floor
New York, NY 10033 | | | | | |
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