I read your article, “Stuck In The Middle With YU” (March 30) with great interest. As a YU alumnus and a RIETS musmach (rabbinical graduate), I experienced that feeling about being in “the middle.” But I never felt “stuck.” YU was a unique place “to grow in the middle.” It provided me with peripheral vision, a sense of balance and an opportunity to create a worldview in which the primacy of Torah was always at the center of my focus alongside a genuine appreciation of “the knowledge of the nations.”
YU is the only place in the world where you can study with world-class Torah scholars and have the chance to develop lifelong relationships with them. At the same time you can study with academic scholars in the sciences and the liberal arts who could be teaching, researching and writing virtually anywhere, but choose to be at YU. One has numerous opportunities for research and collaboration with these people. There is exposure to thousands of student activities that take place on campus each year, which respect the Jewish calendar, and you are given many opportunities to take leadership roles
As a haimishe [warm, friendly] Jewish institution, it offers a unique opportunity to interact with administration, staff and faculty of the university in ways that aren’t possible on larger campuses. My peers have made a major impact on Jewish life in North America and Israel. YU students are automatically connected to an alumni body that boasts thousands of YU grads, leaders in Jewish communities worldwide, who are changing the face of the Jewish world for the better.
I am proud to be a YU alumnus and a YU parent.
Woodmere, L.I.
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