The Lander Legacy
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our school,” Belkin told Lander sincerely. Ultimately it was one of these pioneering programs, the School of Education, which succeeded in putting Yeshiva on the map academically. Among the first to open its doors to liberal arts majors, the school broke new ground in developing alternative, practice-centered methods of teacher certification. Unfortunately, the School of Education that was to emerge as a result of the Ford Foundation grant, would become a major source of contention between the two men. The problem lay in a divergence of vision for the new school. Belkin wished to see it fashioned in the mold of the medical school. “Our School of Education will produce the finest teachers who will serve the 96 The Lander Legacy total American community,” Belkin proclaimed. He saw this approach as furthering his dream of promoting Yeshiva to the status of “a great American university,” ready to stand shoulder to shoulder with the best of the Ivy League. Dr. Lander believed that the Yeshiva Graduate School of Education should promote a primarily Jewish agenda, producing the finest teachers to staff the faculties of the nation’s leading Jewish schools. It is conceivable that the school could have fulfilled both men’s visions, but such hopes were shattered when an individual not committed to promoting a Jewish agenda was appointed as dean. Dr. Lander was by no means opposed to the general concept of serving the entire community, but he held strong reservations about placing people who did not adhere to Torah principles into leadership positions. Overcoming his disappointment over the School of Education, Dr. Lander turned his attention to Yeshiva’s social work program. Lander held out an ambitious agenda for this school as well. In surveying the national Jewish landscape, Lander had accurately observed that most of the executive leadership spots in Jewish community federations and their affiliated agencies were filled with conventionally trained social workers. These professionals typically held little sympathy for Jewish tradition or the Orthodox point of view. It was Lander’s dream to produce a stream of Yeshiva-trained social workers who would provide the managerial manpower for Jewish federations, day schools, youth centers, nursing homes, and community centers all across America. Eventually, professionals steeped in Jewish values would work their way up the ladder until they assumed leadership positions in their organizations and in the community. Dr. Lander hoped to build a top quality program that would attract religious students who shared his passion for social justice. Graduates would be fully qualified to serve the general community, should they so choose, but they would also be well versed in the specific needs of the Jewish community. As Dr. Lander continued to pursue his career as a guest speaker, he always kept a sharp eye out for talented individuals whom he might attract to the Yeshiva faculty. One particular Shabbos, Dr. Lander had been invited to serve as the scholar-in-residence at the Taylor Road Synagogue in Cleveland, Ohio. Over the weekend he observed an energetic young man running a Shabbos youth program organized by the local Jewish The Yeshiva Years 97 Community Center. When he inquired, Lander was told that the young man’s name was Solomon Green and that he was a trained social worker who had worked wonders since joining the staff of the JCC. Lander, acting mostly on instinct, approached Green and asked him a fateful question. “How would you like to be the dean of a new school of social work at Yeshiva?” Green was stunned. “Of course, I’m flattered by your invitation, Dr. Lander,” Green replied, “but you should know that I have no training or experience as a teacher.” Lander, recognizing the fact that his enthusiasm at finding a trained social worker with a strong Orthodox identity might have gotten the better of his judgment, invited Green to think things over and get back to him. Evidently Green heeded Lander’s words, since one year later Solomon Green moved to New York to join the founding faculty at Yeshiva University’s new School of Social Work. By 1966, Dr. Green was instrumental in designing the curriculum for Bar-Ilan University’s Social Work School. He would go on to serve as the Yeshiva School of Social Work’s third dean. Dr. Green often identified the first step of his career path as his fortuitous meeting with Dr. Lander during a Cleveland Shabbaton. Dr. Lander did eventually identify and recruit a highly regarded Jewish scholar and social worker, Dr. Morton I. Teicher, from the University of Toronto, to serve as the school’s founding dean. Teicher arrived at Yeshiva in 1956 and began assembling faculty, recruiting students, and developing curricula for the 1956–57 school year. Teicher headed the School of Social Work for the next fifteen years, during which time it was renamed the Wurzweiler School of Social Work. Teicher went on to join the faculty of the University of North Carolina’s School of Social Work, where he also served as its dean. He today enjoys an active career writing books and articles on ethnology and other subjects and is a highly respected book reviewer for the Jewish press, both in print and online. Jewish social work during the first half of the twentieth century was focused almost entirely on helping European immigrants adjust to their new lives in the American “melting pot.” The Yeshiva school, as envisioned by Lander and implemented by Teicher, was established to look “beyond the melting pot,” by directly addressing ethnicity as the primary source of value produced by American cultural pluralism. Social workers of this new school were no longer on a mission to erase every trace of the 98 The Lander Legacy “Old World” via cultural assimilation. Instead, Wurzweiler students were taught to cherish ethnicity as a manifestation of self-pride and empowerment among the communities they were destined to serve. This approach allowed for Jews and others to retain their religious and cultural heritage as they strove to improve the condition of their lives in America. In the fifty-plus years since its founding, the Wurzweiler School of Social Work has awarded more than 6,000 master’s degrees and more than 150 doctorates. Its graduates work today as therapists, managers, administrators, researchers, professors, college deans, and legislators serving in every venue from neighborhood community centers to the U.S. Capitol. The school’s original curriculum, as developed by Dean Teicher under Dr. Lander’s leadership, included courses designed to provide training appropriate for the specific needs of the American Jewish community. True to its original mission, Wurzweiler today has built on this historic foundation and places a strong emphasis on values and ethics, a respect for ethnicity, and the importance of religious beliefs and spirituality. The school stands today as a proud component of Bernard Lander’s enduring legacy in behalf of the field of social work and the American Jewish community. In addition to his groundbreaking work in establishing Yeshiva’s School of Education and School of Social Work, Bernard Lander also labored intensively to bolster the standing of SECA’s psychology department. Under his guidance, the department developed degree programs, recruited staff, attracted top-level faculty, and expanded its clinical services, working in tandem with the psychiatry faculty at Einstein Medical Center. The department’s doctoral program was launched in 1957 and eventually was incorporated into the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology. Finally, Dr. Lander succeeded in establishing one of the nation’s few accredited and comprehensive master’s and doctoral degree programs in Jewish education, as part of the Graduate School of Education. The program quickly attracted high caliber degree candidates from across the country, many of whom already held top professional positions at Jewish day schools, high schools, and colleges. In surveying the dynamic and rapid restructuring of the Yeshiva Graduate Division in the few short years since he had taken the helm, Bernard Lander could, were he not so busy, look back on his role with justifiable pride. His efforts had produced concrete results. The Yeshiva Years 99 In January 1958, Dr. Bernard Lander wrote the following to Yeshiva president, Dr. Samuel Belkin: Approximately three years ago, you invited me to serve as Visiting Director of the Graduate Division, to help reorganize and develop the graduate program of studies at Yeshiva University. … I believe that this original task has now been completed. With these words, Lander tendered his resignation as head of the Graduate Division. At the same time he requested that he be permitted to continue his affiliation with Yeshiva as head of the Bernard Revel Graduate School. Granted the position as head of the Revel Graduate School, he continued to serve there for the next eleven years. When Bernard Lander took over the reins of the Bernard Revel Graduate School, it was already the leading Jewish Studies department outside of Israel. The school was home to a coterie of distinguished Jewish scholars and theologians in a wide array of disciplines. The faculty included Irving Agus in medieval Jewish history, Gershon Churgin in Jewish philosophy, Joshua Finkel in semitic languages, Nathan Goldberg in Jewish sociology, Sidney B. Hoenig in the history of the Second Commonwealth and the Dead Sea Scrolls, Issac Lewin in Eastern European Jewish history, Samuel K. Mirsky in geonic literature, Abraham Weiss in Talmud, and Hyman Grinstein in American Jewish history. Other distinguished scholars, including Rabbi Dr. Joseph B. Soloveitchik, taught in the school as adjunct professors. This high degree of specialization tended to not sit well with Dr. Lander as he established himself in the dean’s office. He believed that the school’s students would benefit from a more well-rounded education and so adopted a new class plan that included a core curriculum of four courses that all students were required to take in addition to those classes in their chosen area of specialization. These measures served to raise overall standards and tighten academic discipline. Dr. Lander was soon able to report excitedly on the outstanding results as seven candidates successfully sat for their oral exams in pursuit of their Doctor of Hebrew Literature degrees. The door to Dr. Lander’s office at the Revel Graduate School was always open to students wishing to confer about their studies or discuss 100 The Lander Legacy particular problems they were facing. With the aid of his personable and efficient administrative assistant, Pearl Kardon, Lander gained the universal respect of the school’s faculty and student body. Lander felt fulfilled in his role as dean and believed he was making a difference in the lives of his students and doing service towards improving the quality of American Jewish life in the process. The guidance he would offer students often resulted in a dramatic impact on their future lives. Rabbi Dr. Aaron Rakeffet recalls one example from his days as a doctoral candidate at Revel Graduate School. Rabbi Rakeffet (then known as Arnold Rothkoff) had stopped by the dean’s office in the early 1960s when Ms. Kardon pointed out that he had completed most of his coursework towards his doctoral degree. “You had better start thinking about a topic for your dissertation, Arnold,” she warned him. “Why don’t I set up a meeting with Dean Lander and you two can discuss it?” Rakeffet agreed and he soon found himself seated in Dr. Lander’s office holding a research plan for writing a biography of the Netziv, the distinguished Rosh Yeshiva of the Volozhin school in Lithuania. Lander paged through the plan and instructed Rakeffet to get back to him the next week. When he returned, Lander sat him down, looked him sternly in the eye and came right to the point. “Arnold, I’ve discussed your ideas with the faculty, and we certainly have no objection to your topic,” Lander explained. “But, we have a better idea. Something that really needs to be done.” Rakeffet was mystified as Lander went on. “We want you to write a definitive biography of Rabbi Bernard Revel.” Lander became increasingly emotional and Rakeffet could see the tears welling up. “He was my rebbe and this will be his monument.” Rakeffet agreed instantly, and Dr. Lander promised him his complete support. Lander next picked up the phone, called Revel’s widow Sarah, and made arrangements for this young doctoral student to have access to Bernard Revel’s personal papers. The dissertation was brilliant and was later published by the Jewish Publication Society under the title: Bernard Revel: Builder of American Jewish Orthodoxy. The book established Rabbi Dr. Rakeffet’s reputation as an historian and did much to enhance Bernard Revel’s name with the recognition it deserved. In addition to counseling Revel Graduate School’s doctoral candidates, Dr. Lander occasionally found himself mediating disputes among The Yeshiva Years 101 its distinguished scholars—and their distinguished egos. He proved to be an expert in the delicate art of dancing across the minefield of internecine politics in order to deliver a resolution that would invariably bring such conflicts to a harmonious conclusion. The years flipped by swiftly as Dr. Lander patiently and steadily built the Bernard Revel Graduate School into an edifice of educational excellence that towered amidst the landscape of Jewish higher education in America. His work often extended beyond the campus walls, and he frequently found himself on the national stage, serving on governance boards and presidential commissions. Never content to restrict his focus to the mundane, day-to-day activities of collegiate life, Lander’s attention often turned to Yeshiva University’s long range strategic vision. This forwardthinking tendency grew more pronounced over the years as Lander shaped the Revel School into one of Orthodox Jewry’s most cherished and respected institutions. He realized that as Yeshiva goes, so goes the future of American Orthodox Judaism. Both the school and the movement were integral components of Rabbi Bernard Revel’s lasting legacy, and their fates were inexorably linked. However, over the years he had witnessed a growing contingent of discontented faculty and alumni who were articulating their concern over what they perceived to be Yeshiva’s growing secularization. They were unsettled by the growing trend of appointments of academically qualified, but nonobservant Jews to senior policy making positions. These appointments, while experts in their respective fields, held no regard for the traditional spirit that permeated the school’s origins and its rich history. Turning over the leadership of Yeshiva University to those unfamiliar with and uncaring about its heritage was a dangerous mistake in the eyes of Lander and a number of others. Dr. Lander also felt that Yeshiva had missed several key opportunities. For example, during the mid-1960s, Yeshiva was offered the opportunity of relocating its campus from Washington Heights to Manhattan’s West Side under a proposed municipal redevelopment plan. Dr. Lander honestly observed how the Washington Heights neighborhood was deteriorating and argued in favor of the move. President Belkin, however, summarily vetoed the plan. It was a decision Belkin would come to regret many times, over the remaining decade of his tenure. 102 The Lander Legacy Another key opportunity presented itself a few years later. Lander had always championed the idea of extending Yeshiva’s reach beyond New York City. By requiring serious yeshiva students to leave their hometowns behind, often never to return, if they wished to integrate their Torah studies with a quality college education, Yeshiva University was in fact draining these communities of their most Torah-dedicated young people. Why not, Lander asked repeatedly, establish Yeshiva branches in major Jewish communities such as Chicago, Baltimore, Miami, and St. Louis? When a very real prospect of establishing just such an extension campus in Los Angeles emerged, Lander became its strongest advocate. But Belkin demurred. “Does Harvard have campuses all over the country?” he asked, and the opportunity went up in smoke. Samuel Belkin continued to serve as president of Yeshiva University for another decade, finally retiring in September 1975, bringing to a close his thirty-four year tenure at Yeshiva. He died the following year. Dr. Lander had experienced disillusionment with the religious and academic directions of Yeshiva during this period. Not prone to dwell in the shadows of negativity, however, Lander forged his frustrations into a new vision of what a true Torah university would look like—were he ever granted the opportunity of leading one. Starting in the early 1960s, Dr. Lander began describing, in private conversations to close friends, his dream of an authentic national Jewish college with campuses in major communities across the country. The response he encountered was predictable and hardly positive. “How can you think of starting another Orthodox Jewish school when the existing Orthodox school is tens of millions of dollars in debt!?” He did not have an acceptable answer, but he kept thinking as he continued to dream of a better way. Dr. Lander eventually arrived at the unprecedented notion that a new Orthodox school could be financed strictly through tuition payments and some governmental support. He wished to create a college that would not be dependent upon the largesse of philanthropic Jews and foundation grants. As this vision took shape, he would cautiously unveil his thinking to trusted friends and colleagues. Even so, his ideas were usually met with scorn and ridicule once he was out of earshot, as illustrated in the following episode. The Yeshiva Years 103 Bernard Lander had been invited to participate in the dedication of a new synagogue in Toronto by his friend, Rabbi Bernard Rosensweig. As they sat around the Shabbos table, Lander laid out his vision of a new national Jewish college, built and maintained without any fundraising activity. Rabbi Rosensweig recalls commenting to his wife afterwards: “For someone as seemingly rational as Bernie Lander, this is total mishigos (madness). It would be like me going to the moon.” Of course within two years of that conversation, men did in fact land on the moon, and Bernard Lander’s dream of a self-sufficient, national Orthodox Jewish institute of higher learning, moved one small step closer to reality. Rabbi Rosensweig was hardly alone in his assessment of what he dubbed as “Lander’s Lunacy.” Fellow rabbis, community leaders and friends with whom Lander had exposed his thinking, believed, almost to a man, that his ideas were nothing more than a pipe dream—pure fantasy. It was during those days that Lander was frequently referred to as “the crazy genius.” By early 1969, Lander finally had put the pieces together so that the financial feasibility of his grand vision could conceivably be within his grasp. He asked for a meeting with Belkin during which he tendered his resignation as Director of the Bernard Revel Graduate School, effective September 1, 1969. Belkin listened politely as Dr. Lander explained that he was intending to start a new Jewish college in New York City. Concerned that Belkin might become alarmed at the prospect of a competing institution, Lander was quick to explain that his new school would target only those students who were unlikely candidates to attend Yeshiva University. He was aware that his contract did not contain any sort of post-departure noncompete clauses. Such restrictions were rare within academic circles in those days. But it is unlikely that Dr. Belkin would be worrying about any undue competition originating from Bernard Lander’s new college as he listened to his departing dean lay out his future plans. So he accepted Dr. Lander’s resignation without protest, shook his hand, offered him a derisive smile, and wished him well. A major chapter in Bernard Lander’s life had now come to a close. Perhaps the esteem in which the Orthodox Jewish world held Dr. Lander could best be expressed through the words of the Doctor of Humane Letters degree bestowed upon him by President Samuel Belkin during the 104 The Lander Legacy Yeshiva commencement exercises in June 1969. The honoris causa degree was presented to Dr. Lander in recognition of the years of admirable service he had devoted to his alma mater and for his exemplary professional achievements. President Belkin read the words of tribute aloud: As a master of the domain of Sociology, and through your basic research in the field of juvenile delinquency, you have gained the esteem of our state and nation. As a distinguished alumnus and skilled administrator, you have rendered invaluable service to the advancement of your alma mater. As a brilliant teacher you have intellectually enriched and spiritually elevated all who have had the privilege of knowing you. We cherish you as an alumnus and respect you as a colleague. As Bernard Lander, attired in mortarboard and gown, returned to his place on the platform and reread the words of the doctoral citation he had just been awarded, he could not help but think back to that nine-year-old boy standing on the rail platform on the Lower East Side of his youth. Like his younger self, Bernard Lander was once again peering anxiously into his onrushing destiny. He closed his eyes and leaned back slightly as the same feeling of rising anticipation swept over him like a fragrant west wind. He couldn’t wait. Download 1.89 Mb. Share with your friends:
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