deepapaikar/Llama_SC_pairs huggingface dataset:
In his book, To Heal a Fractured World, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks calls for us to act upon our ethic of responsibility. “As long as there is hunger, poverty and treatable disease in the world there is work for us to do. As long as nations fight, and men hate, and corruption stalks the corridors of power; as long as there is unemployment and homelessness, depression and despair, our task is not yet done, and we hear, if we listen carefully enough, the voice of God asking us, as he asked the first humans, ‘Where are you?” Rabbi Sacks inspired us at Yeshiva University to design two remarkable cohorts of graduate scholars: the Sacks Research Scholars and the Sacks Impact Scholars, building upon the success of last year’s Sacks Scholars Graduate Fellowship.
The Sacks Research Scholars fellowship is designed to strengthen the professional skills and expand the leadership platform of graduate students in Azrieli, GPATS, Revel and RIETS through the learning, researching, publishing and teaching of the thought of Rabbi Sacks in engagement with contemporary Jewish ideas. As he wrote in Future Tense: “If we are to apply Torah to the world, we must understand the world. We need a new generation of Jews committed to the dialogue between sacred and secular if Judaism is to engage with the world and its challenges.”
We are thrilled to announce this year’s impressive cohort of Sacks Research Scholars 2023-2024: Rabbi Tzvi Benoff is a third-year fellow in the Wexner Kollel Elyon/Kollel L’Horaah and serves as the Assistant Rabbi at the Riverdale Jewish Center. He holds a MA in International Political Economy and Development from Fordham University.
Tamar Yastrab Koslowe is a second-year student in GPATS and in Nishmat’s Yoatzot Halacha Fellows Program. She earned a BS in computer science from Stern College and worked on a risk management team at JP Morgan.
Neti Linzer Penstein is a second-year student in GPATS, while pursuing her MA in Jewish Philosophy at the Bernard Revel Graduate School. She earned a BA in philosophy from Princeton University and was a teaching fellow at Maayanot and Maimonides high schools
Asher Willner (RIETS) is a third-year student in RIETS and serves as Rabbinic Intern at the Young Israel of the West Side. He earned a BS in computer science from Columbia University, where he taught a weekly Talmud class.
Alisa Zeffren is a doctoral candidate at Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration. She teaches Jewish studies at Ida Crown Jewish Academy in Chicago, where she is also the Student Activities Director.
The cohort will meet bi-monthly to workshop their research, writing and teaching projects, and will join the Sacks Impact Scholars in leadership training sessions. The Sacks Impact Scholars fellowship is an interdisciplinary cohort comprised of graduate students from Cardozo School of Law, Ferkauf School of Psychology, Fish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Katz School of Science and Health, Sy Syms School of Business, and Wurzweiler School of Social Work.
In the spirit of Rabbi Sacks’ charge, “We are here to make a difference, to mend the fractures of the world,” Yeshiva University welcomes these scholars who are making a dent in the universe: Megan Priaulx (Cardozo) will contribute to the Perlmutter Center for Legal Justice’s legal research, case investigation and social advocacy on behalf of individuals seeking relief from wrongful convictions.
Shira Levy (Ferkauf) will work with asylum seeking high school students in a mental health support group to share, address and heal from the traumas of their asylum journeys. Ann Squicciarini (Fish) will create interfaith Holocaust programming, resources and curricula to expose communities with lesser ties to people of the Jewish faith to the history that set the stage for the antisemitic rhetoric and sentiments that fueled the rise of Nazi Germany’s “Final Solution.”
Thota Manish Kumar (Katz), using artificial intelligence, will train a model that can recognize and teach course content, answer questions, and provide interactions with audiences to improve the learning experience and student engagement in online courses. Michelle Borde and Eitan Kastner (Syms) will develop a 2-sided marketplace software platform for the hiring of adjuncts in higher education. They will also continue to build YU’s relationship with IRS’ VITA [Volunteer Income Tax Assistance] program to assist local low-income residents with their tax preparation.
This diverse cohort will collectively participate in monthly leadership training seminars and individually contribute to impact projects in their respective schools. Dr. Shira Weiss, Assistant Director of the Sacks-Herenstein Center, and Dr. Erica Brown, the Center’s Director, will be working closely with all of the scholars in both cohorts.
Sharon Turnage (Wurzweiler) will aid in Wurzweiler’s Care Café’s efforts to support military veterans and Holocaust survivors through psychoeducational programming promoting physical and mental health.
To fill a critical need for affordable, English-language mental health services in Israel, Yeshiva University, together with Amudim Israel, will open the Jerusalem Therapy Center in September 2022.
Providing professional care for English speakers, gap-year students and Israelis, the Center will offer mental health counseling that has become ever more important during prolonged lockdowns and affiliated stresses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors.
The Center will be run as a partnership between the Wurzweiler School of Social Work and Amudim Israel, a social services organization serving individuals and families impacted by trauma, addiction and other complex mental health-related issues. Staffed by Wurzweiler graduate students, recent graduates and other professionals who specialize in a variety of modalities and concentrations such as addiction, anxiety and trauma, the Center will address the pressing mental health needs of English-speaking immigrants, from those suffering psychologically from the pandemic to gap-year students away from home for the first time and new immigrants struggling to adjust to life in Israel.
“Wurzweiler is unique in its ability to both educate the next generation of mental health professionals and provide much-needed and high-level services to our community in Israel,” said Dr. Selma Botman, provost and vice president for academic affairs. “This is an exceptional opportunity to connect to the University’s larger mission of serving the needs of those living in Israel. As a world-renowned institution, YU is proud to provide exceptional training, support, and expertise to the people of Israel.”
Gap-year students come to Israel to study for a year fresh out of high school and will be a key focus for the Center. These students are away from their families and familiar support systems, often for the first time, and are not usually covered for mental health counseling by the tourist/temporary health insurance. The Center will provide vital, affordable, quality mental health care to this vulnerable population.
For many in Israel’s English-speaking community, dealing with mental health issues can be difficult, complicated and confusing. Diagnosis and treatment can be trying under the best of circumstances, and locating appropriate English-speaking practitioners can add layers of complexity, while navigating and understanding the mental health services offered through the health system can be challenging.
Recognizing the challenges faced by English-speakers in Israel, in May, Wurzweiler co-sponsored a Mental Health Expo in Jerusalem, which drew over 1,500 participants. The large turnout was just one of many catalysts for opening the Jerusalem Therapy Center.
“Our community is in real need of mental health services,” said Nechama Munk, senior program director of Wurzweiler in Israel. “One of our basic values is to help those in need, and the Therapy Center will be here to offer relief and hope. Getting good, affordable treatment is challenging for all Israelis, and even more so when your mother tongue isn’t Hebrew.”
And good mental health services have never been more necessary. Studies have shown that anxiety and depression have increased by 25% since the onset of the pandemic, a wake-up call to countries around the world to step up mental health services and support.
And while Munk says that COVID did not create new mental health issues, it exacerbated existing difficulties. “When everything was shut down, the people who were lonely were much lonelier, and the people who were depressed became more depressed.”
The Center will also serve other often over-looked demographics, who may suffer alone with mental health challenges, such as soldiers struggling with PTSD and those who, in making aliya, find the financial, cultural and psychological stress overwhelming. In addition, the Jerusalem Therapy Center will provide training and enrichment seminars for gap-year administrators, educators, directors and therapists, giving them the tools they need to gain new skills and properly guide students who may be struggling.
At a recent presentation at the prestigious International Congress of Industrial and Applied Mathematics in Tokyo, Dr. Marian Gidea, association dean for STEM research and director of graduate mathematics at the Katz School, revealed the results of a simplified mathematical model demonstrating that oscillating steel beams made of piezoelectric materials produce more energy when their motion is regular.
The research, “Energy Growth, Dissipation, and Control in Hamiltonian Systems,” is supported by a three-year $300,000 National Science Foundation grant, which was awarded in July to investigate dynamical systems, including applications to energy harvesting, celestial mechanics and space mission design.
Piezo is the Greek root for pressure or push, and piezoelectric describes a property of special solid materials that can convert energy from an applied pressure into an electrical charge.
The computer model was developed in collaboration with Tamar Leiser, who wrote her honor’s thesis on the subject as a student at YU’s Stern School for Women, and Katz School Mathematics Ph.D. student Samuel Akingbade, as well as research collaborators from Georgia Tech and Polytechnic University of Catalunya.
The researchers created a framework in which two steel beams are hooked up to a capacitor and suspended over magnets. When the vibration of the beams is stronger than the mechanical friction, electricity is produced and stored in the capacitor.
“What we discovered to our surprise is that the answer we got was the one we should have expected,” said Dr. Gidea. “The beams that keep moving in a regular fashion, a periodic motion, going back and forth, accumulate more energy in comparison with the ones that move chaotically—that is, without any pattern.”
Energy harvesting devices, which produce electrical charges through external vibrations, can be attached to skyscrapers, trains or bridges and provide a source of unlimited renewable energy. Piezoelectric energy harvesting is also the preferred method for use with wearable devices since it is the most capable of producing the power needed at a small scale.
The steel beams in the Katz School model were coated with ceramic, the preferred material for this type of energy harvesting because of its low cost and effective piezoelectric properties.
The steel beams in the Katz School model were coated with ceramic, the preferred material for this type of energy harvesting because of its low cost and effective piezoelectric properties. The use of piezoelectricity stands to reduce, or even eliminate, the need for frequent charging of devices and batteries. Consumers would no longer be burdened with having to be near an electrical outlet, which would in turn conserve electricity.
“This may be a critical advance for healthcare since these devices can be implanted in pacemakers to stimulate the heart,” said Dr. Gidea. The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law is the law school of Yeshiva University. Located in New York City and founded in 1976, the school is named for Supreme Court Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo. Cardozo graduated its first class in 1979.
An LL.M. program was established in 1998. Cardozo is nondenominational and has a secular curriculum, in contrast to some of YU's undergraduate programs. Around 320 students begin the J.D. program per year, of whom about 57% are women.
In addition, there are about 60-70 LL.M. students each year. Cardozo was ranked 52nd in the nation by U.S. News & World Report in 2023, but 69th in 2024 due in part to various changes USNWR's calculation of rank. For the class entering in 2022, Cardozo accepted 33.80% of applicants, with 27.12% of those accepted enrolling, the average enrollee having a 164 LSAT score and 3.76 undergraduate GPA.
Cardozo is home to academic centers including the FAME Center for fashion, arts, media & entertainment; the Innocence Project; the Florsheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy; the Data Law Initiative; the Blockchain Project; Cardozo/Google Patent Diversity Project; the Cardozo Law Institute in Holocaust and Human Rights; and the Heyman Center on Corporate Governance.
Cardozo's faculty are notably productive in their scholarship. They were ranked 15th most prolific faculty in 1996, when the School of Law was only twenty years old. Ten years later the faculty had the 31st most SSRN downloads, and it is ranked 33rd in scholarly impact (as of 2021).
Highly cited faculty members include Professors Myriam Gilles, Michael Herz, Peter Markowitz, Alexander Reinert, Anthony Sebok, Stewart Sterk and Edward Zelinsky. Cardozo's faculty were also the most productive per capita for articles in top journals from 1993 to 2012, for law schools outside of U.S. News & World Report Top 50 law schools.
Cardozo is noted for its focus on clinical teaching and practical experience. As part of the fulfillment of the J.D. requirements, students may choose to participate in clinics housed within the school, taking on legal work under faculty supervision. The clinics provide pro bono services to clients across a range of areas of legal practice, including both civil and criminal cases.
Many clinics serve individual clients, while other clinics take on class action lawsuits. They include the Civil Rights Clinic; Bet Tzedek (focused on representing elderly and disabled people); Filmmakers Legal Clinic; Immigration Justice Clinic; the Innocence Project; Human Rights and Atrocity Prevention Clinic; and Tech Startup Clinic, among others.Perhaps the best known is the Innocence Project, run by Professor Barry Scheck, which has used DNA profiling to help free dozens of innocent people from prison. The project's work has been instrumental in a number of high-profile cases.
Cardozo has seven faculty members who have clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justices, and Cardozo has had two graduates chosen to clerk for the U.S. Supreme Court: Sara J. Klein ’05 (for Justice John Paul Stevens) and Cliff Elgarten ’79 (for Justice William J. Brennan, Jr.). In 1999 Cardozo became a member of the Order of the Coif, an honor society for law scholars.
Cardozo was the second U.S. law school to secure an invitation to The European Law Moot Court Competition, and the first American law school to be invited twice consecutively. Many of Cardozo's 12,000 alumni reside in the New York metropolitan area, while many pursue their careers internationally and can be found across the country.
U.S. News ranked Cardozo 52nd out of 196 law schools in the country in 2022 (5th of 15 law schools in New York State). Cardozo's LL.M./Master of Laws program was ranked tenth by American Universities Admission Program in 2012. Cardozo ranked high in US News law specialties in Dispute Resolution (4th) and Intellectual Property Law (8th) as of the 2023 rankings. It has also been ranked in the top ten for its Music Law program. Cardozo got A-grades in several areas according to National Jurist's preLaw Magazine in 2018, including Tax Law, International Law, Alternative Dispute Resolution,and Business Law.[26] PreLaw Magazine also ranked Cardozo highly in Government and Public Defender/Prosecutor specializations (11th).
Bar examination passage rates graduates who took the New York bar exam for the first time in 2022, 84.7% passed (as compared to the state pass rate of 82.7%).
In 2022, 83.5% of the law school's first-time test takers passed the bar exam.Among the 349 who graduated in 2020, 95.6% of those who sat for the bar (336) passed within two years. Of the 261 graduates who took the New York bar courses offered to J.D. students. The LL.M. program may be entered in the Spring Term or in the Fall Term.
While most Cardozo students begin their legal studies in August, some students begin in May.May-entry students take their first-year courses over three semesters - summer, fall, and spring, and then attend their fall and spring first-year classes with fall-entry students.
For those who already have a law degree, Cardozo offers LL.M. degrees in General Studies, Comparative Legal Thought, Dispute Resolution and Advocacy, and Intellectual Property.LL.M. students can take almost any of the nan
According to Cardozo's ABA-required disclosures, 81% of the Class of 2021 obtained full-time, long-term, bar passage-required employment within ten months of graduating.Of the Class of 2018, 87% obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required or JD-advantage employment within ten months. The law school ranks 25th in the United States for Gold Standard jobs (full-time, long-term jobs requiring bar passage that are not funded by the school). It is 37th in the percentage of graduates hired by the 100 largest firms.
The cost of tuition and fees at Cardozo for the 2021–22 academic year was $68,462. The Law School Transparency estimated non-discounted, debt-financed cost of attendance (including living expenses) for three years is $323,858.
Located on lower Fifth Avenue at the corner of 12th Street in New York City's Greenwich Village, Cardozo's urban campus is in a 19-story building, known as the Brookdale Center. A multimillion-dollar capital improvement plan took place in 2006. The addition of more space at the Brookdale Center also allowed for a larger and significantly enhanced library, new offices and clinic spaces, as well as a new and larger lobby, moot court room, and ground-floor seminar room.
In addition, older classrooms were renovated. In fall 2006, the Greenberg Center for Student Life, given in honor of former Dean David Rudenstine, opened. This addition to Cardozo included a new student lounge and a café on the third floor. Also completed were several new seminar rooms, internal stairways between floors, and added windows.
The Innocence Project moved from the 11th floor of Brookdale Center to a new office space. The move allowed the Innocence Project to hire more staff and significantly increase the number of cases it takes. Both the Fogelman Library and the Cooper Union library serve as Cardozo's secondary libraries when the main library is closed on the Sabbath or on holidays.
Students in the JD program publish several law journals: Cardozo Law Review; Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal; Cardozo International and Comparative Law Review; Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution; and Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights and Social Justice.
Cardozo Law Review was established in 1979, the first year of the School of Law's existence. The journal was cited 75 times in court cases in 2017–21, making it fourth most-cited among American law journals (after Harvard Law Review, California Law Review and Yale Law Review). By journal citations, it ranks 29th, according to Washington & Lee Law School's database. Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal was ranked first in journal cites in the Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law category in 2006 (second in Scholarly Impact and third in Cites by Courts).
Ari Berman  President of Yeshiva University  has announced the launch of Rise Up  The Campaign for Yeshiva University  an ambitious comprehensive campaign that will fund scholarships  facilities and faculty programs to position the University for continued success The campaign launched on December         plans to raise      million over the next five years to ensure student success in a changing world
This will come through investments in YU four areas of strategic focus  values and leadership  science and tech  entrepreneurship and innovation  and great jobs and impactful careers Rise Up  The Campaign for Yeshiva University has already raised more than      million since its quiet phase began in fiscal year
Under    Berman helm  fundraising for the University has significantly increased from about     million annually in      to     million in The Torah teaches     ways to honor God  show respect for others and build an ethical  flourishing society
Raising      million for scholarships  faculty and facilities reflects our core Torah values and meets our needs for the future Committed to academic excellence and geared to empower our students to be the leaders of tomorrow  the flagship Jewish university is on the rise      Berman said
Now is the time to rise up and become a partner in the future The commitments already made during the campaign quiet phase demonstrate tremendous confidence in Yeshiva University future and have made an impact through a number of new initiatives
These include   Values and Leadership   Scholarships for the next generation of Jewish educators at the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration The establishment and development of the Emil A  and Jenny Fish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies  which trains both school and university educators in the field of Holocaust and Genocide Studies and offers graduate programs in the discipline
The launch of the Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks Center for Values and Leadership founded by Terri and Andrew Herenstein  dedicated to the dissemination of core Torah values and the education of tomorrow leaders through Rabbi Sacks  teachings and life lessons Establishment of new undergraduate scholarships  including the President Leadership Scholars  which will educate the Jewish communal leaders of the future
Major expansion of the Zahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought  which educates YU students to be intellectual leaders of tomorrow well versed in both Torah and Western canon Endowment of the Abraham Arbesfeld Chair of the Director of the Rabbi Joseph B  Soloveitchik Semikhah Program
Science and Tech   Expanded initiatives and additional programs at the newly named Katz School of Science and Health  concentrating on five fast growing sectors that are redefining the economy  artificial intelligence  cybersecurity  biotech and health  digital Media and fintech New engineering labs on both Beren and Wilf campuses  Margaret and Leo Meyer and Hans M  Hirsch
Entrepreneurship and Innovation   The Selma T  and Jacques H  Mitrani Foundation Computer Science Lab at Stern College for Women A new digital arts lab on the Wilf Campus  Margaret and Leo Meyer and Hans M  Hirsch Foundation
Great Jobs and Impactful Careers   The establishment of the Shevet Glaubach Center for Career Strategy and Professional Development that is based on best practices in the field of student success Expanded undergraduate career preparation experiences  including undergraduate student trips to Israel and internships at some of Israel most dynamic companies
The launch of the Mitzner Master of Science in Real Estate degree program at Sy Syms School of Business  where students master essential concepts in the real estate industry and access YU extensive alumni network of real estate professionals Much of the success of the quiet phase has been due to the leadership of the Campaign Planning Committee  co chaired by Sen  Joseph Lieberman and Anita Zucker
The Campaign Cabinet includes Elliot Gibber  Billy Greenblatt  Andrew Herenstein  Lance Hirt  Ira Mitzner  Ann Pava and Mark Wilf We are thrilled by our donors  support during the quiet phase of this campaign and expect the public phase will produce similarly inspiring results   said Anita Zucker
We are eager to see what possible when we come together in support of the next generation of leaders In recent years  we have seen more than ever the need for leaders with a broad based education and a foundation of solid values   said Sen  Lieberman
Yeshiva University provides a unique education that does just that This campaign will improve our capacity to fulfill that special mission and broaden our reach as well
Rise Up  The Campaign for Yeshiva University is being launched during a time of great achievement The University rose    places from    to    over two years in the      U  News   World Report rankings and was ranked     in the report best value category
Over the past four years  YU has launched more than    new programs  including an associate degree in liberal arts  bachelor programs in business analytics  finance  marketing  and strategy and entrepreneurship  and master degrees in Holocaust studies  cybersecurity and physician assistant studies Over that same period  the University grew graduate school net tuition by more than
A doctoral program in occupational therapy was also launched in       and YU expanded partnership with Montefiore and its affiliated medical school  the Albert Einstein College of Medicine  included the launch of a new B A  M D  program  offering a direct pathway to the medical profession for elite high school graduates attending YU undergraduate honors programs YU Maccabees are ranked No    in the nation in Division  basketball and hold the longest winning streak in men college basketball with    consecutive wins
In support of the campaign launch  the University Office of Institutional Advancement has planned a series of events across North America  including South Florida  Los Angeles  Houston  the Hamptons and other areas on Long Island  New Jersey  Chicago and Toronto  among other markets The   th Annual Hanukkah Dinner  A Virtual Celebration The campaign was launched during Yeshiva University   th Annual Hanukkah Dinner on Dec
Philanthropic donors  friends of the University  student leaders  faculty and staff attended the virtual celebration  which was hosted by Gayle King  television personality  editor at large of Oprah Daily and co host of CBS Mornings It also featured    Berman  famed opera tenor Andrea Bocelli and several YU luminaries
A Katz School researcher and several colleagues are developing an AI powered wearable device that can monitor illicit drug use in individuals with substance use disorder In a research paper   Precision Polysubstance Use Episode Detection in Wearable Biosensor Data Streams      Honggang Wang  chair of the Katz School Computer Science and Engineering Department  describes a method called RP STREAM  which is an algorithm that can identify when an individual is using drugs by analyzing data collected from a wearable device
To develop the model  the researchers collected data from    people who had used cocaine and were fitted with a wearable biosensor called Affectiva Q  which can measure various physiological changes such as electrodermal activity  physical activity and body temperature To figure out when these people used cocaine  the researchers evaluated patient notes  urine tests and data from the device
When it comes to detecting drug use  some studies have been successful in finding out when people use drugs  but they usually look at big chunks of time   said    Wang This new method is different because it can figure out when someone uses drugs in smaller timeframes
It like looking at a movie frame by frame instead of the whole movie at once Wang presented the team findings at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers  IEEE  International Conference on Connected Health  Applications  Systems and Engineering Technologies  with colleagues Joshua Rumbut and Hua Fang of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School  and Edward Boyer of Ohio State University and Harvard Medical School
RP STREAM  or Real time Precision Pattern Recognition for Polysubstance Use Episode Detection in Wearable Biosensor Data Streams  uses a set of rules derived from previous studies to differentiate between substances and identify substance use episodes accurately The algorithm includes an intelligent mechanism for setting the threshold at which an observation is considered abnormal  which helps in distinguishing substance use episodes from other anomalies in the biosensor data
It can also recognize substance use occurrences that vary in length and over many days  making it suitable for real world scenarios where substance use patterns aren t fixed Presently  the usual ways to check if someone relapsed aren t very good   said    Wang
They test things like urine or blood  which can t tell us much about when it happened People can also lie or forget about it
During the experiments  RP STREAM was able to find and identify when people used cocaine and cannabis  and the episodes were usually about    minutes in duration on average They also compared RP STREAM to another method and found that RP STREAM was better at not giving false alarms  meaning it didn t mistakenly detect substance abuse
We want to keep working on this method to make it better at recognizing substance use for new participants   said    Wang This is important because it can help us understand what leads to substance use and maybe even predict when someone might relapse
We can also study how people tolerance to drugs changes over time in real life situations  which will help us understand why people use drugs again and how to help them stop On June    and June           the Zahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought hosted its annual summer seminars for high school students  Jewish and Western Texts in Conversation
Held in Manhattan  the respective programs for women and men brought together over forty students to participate in unique interdisciplinary seminars and activities  learn at the collegiate level and engage with the YU Straus Center renowned faculty The program kicked off with breakfast and words of welcome from    Shaina Trapedo  Straus Resident Scholar and Recruitment Officer
Her session  titled  Talking Talmud with the Founding Fathers   explored the relationship between Founding Fathers Thomas Jefferson and John Adams and their written exchanges about the Hebrew Bible and its exegetical tradition In discussion  students explored what the correspondence between Jefferson and Adams reveals about the extent to which the history  morality  and aesthetics of the Hebrew Bible were the subject of interest to the Founding Fathers and the framing of the Declaration and Constitution
Throughout the day  seminars covered a variety of themes  texts  and questions centered around the connection between Torah and various cultural and political elements of Western thought as a sampler of the breadth and depth of Straus Center courses In his seminar  Torah and Western Thought  the Ethos of the YU Straus Center   Straus Director Rabbi    Meir Soloveichik explored the profound impact the Torah has had on the West  more so than any other text
Rabbi Soloveichik emphasized that the worldview of the Torah has the potential to influence the trajectory of America future while remaining an essential pillar of America founding In her second session of the day  titled  Torah and Poetry
Psalms and the American Founding      Trapedo shifted the conversation to a contemporary lens  inviting students to think about how recent auction prices of literary works including Shakespeare Folio  the Bay Psalm Book  and the Codex Sasson Bible might give us insight into how society views and values different types of wisdom  and their perceived monetary and moral value in the   st century The next session   Torah and Art  Yetziat Mitzrayim and the Birth of Jewish Political Thought   featured an on site visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with Rabbi Soloveichik
Throughout the tour  Rabbi Soloviechik showed students how often overlooked artifcants and hieroglyphics founds in the Egyptian collection reveal the deeper political aspects of the Exodus  including the Paschal lamb  the ten plagues  and iconic unleavened bread of the Seder  which have been central to Jewish life and faith for centruies Following the tour  a session on  Torah and Zionism  Israel Declaration   was delivered by    Neil Rogachevsky  Straus Center Associate Director and author of Israel Declaration of Independence  The History and Political Theory of the Nation Founding Document
He emphasized the importance of the Declaration from the political perspective  without a political state  the trajectory of the Zionist movement would have been halted While idealistically  the Declaration could have detailed a more specific outline for the future state of Israel  this document was born out of necessity
Finally   Torah and Literature  Myth and Monotheism   led by Straus Center Clinical Assistant Professor Rabbi    Dov Lerner  featured an analysis of monotheism and the significance of the repetition in throughout Tanakh and our daily liturgy that  God is one Rabbi Lerner explained the danger of a Dualistic society in which the belief in a  good  god and a  bad  god exacerbates rather than addresses the issue of theodicy
The belief in one God is essential to understanding that while the world is complex and unpredictable  God is at once omnipotent and incomprehensible The respective seminars concluded with a panel featuring Straus Scholars Allie Orgen  SCW       Yonatan Kurz  YC       and Reuben Hartman  YC      where they highlighted their favorite elements of the Straus Scholar program  various classes they took and seminars they attended  as well as leadership roles  fellowships  and internships they were involved in throughout their time in the program
On Sept      Rabbi    Ari Berman  President of Yeshiva University  headlined an historic panel launching the first year of programming at the Abrahamic Family House  AFH  in Abu Dhabi titled  Rethinking Sustainability and Peace Through a Spiritual Lens The discussion  held on the International Day of Peace  highlighted YU continued commitment to deepening ties and spreading Jewish values in the global community
The other panelists included    Monica Menendez  Associate Dean of Engineering for Graduate Affairs at NYU Abu Dhabi  and Rabbi David Rosen  Special Advisor for Interfaith and Jewish Affairs to the Abrahamic Family House The event also included remarks by Abdulla Al Shehhi  Acting Executive Director of the Abrahamic Family House
Topics discussed included environmental preservation  the climate crisis and the importance of religion and ethics in addressing these challenges As a representative of our multi millennia tradition  I m honored to draw on the time  tested roots of the Jewish faith to address the universal challenges of tomorrow   said President Berman
Yeshiva University is proud to participate in this historic opportunity and continue our work of bringing the Jewish voice into the global moral conversation Since opening in February       the AFH has served a global audience and provided a platform for Jewish values to be shared
The venue offers a model of tolerance and education  housing a mosque  a church  and the Ben Maimon Synagogue President Berman participation marked the latest in YU work to strengthen ties with Jewish  Muslim and Christian communities on an international stage
In April       he addressed the first ever Holocaust Commemoration event in an Arab country  at the Crossroads of Civilization Museum  CCM  in Dubai Additionally  in May       YU partnered with Mohammed Bin Zayed University for Humanities  MBZUH  on the first of its kind academic conference in the UAE   Interacting Philosophies  Shared Friendships   at which faculty from both universities offered scholarly reflections on Judaism and Islam political  philosophical  and social interactions to an audience of community members  Emirati  Israeli and American dignitaries  and students
Joining President Berman was a delegation of students and faculty from the YU Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought The students met with local leaders  including H  E  Ahmed Almansoori  the founder of the CCM  Amir Hayek  Israeli Ambassador to the UAE  Israeli Consul General Liron Zaslansky  and Marc Sievers  former Ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman and Director of the AJC Abu Dhabi
The group participated in seminars  led by Straus Center faculty  that examined Jewish and Islamic history and law The YU delegation met with academic leaders and students at the MBZUH campus
They were also led on a VIP tour of the  Letters of Light  exhibit at the Louvre Abu Dhabi  which displays some of the oldest sacred texts of the Abrahamic faiths As part of their education and training to be Modern Orthodox leaders of the future  Straus Scholars are encouraged to take summer jobs  internships  and fellowships that allow them to build on their Straus Center studies
Many Scholars spent this past summer participating in programs where they study aspects of public policy and philosophy relevant to their academic and personal interests We continue to highlight Scholars who have taken advantage of such programming this summer  many of whom have produced novel and important research and analysis in areas of particular concern to American Jews
In this installment  written before the recent war in Israel   we spoke with Yaakov Willner  YC       who spent his summer in multiple DC based think tanks After just one year of study with the Straus Center  Willner decided he wanted to take a deep dive into the theory and practice of foreign policy  criminal justice  and more
Along the way  Willner encountered and learned from some of the most influential and well known political and military leaders around One major takeaway  Observant Jews have much to contribute to major ongoing debates about our biggest geopolitical and legal questions
Tell us about your summer program in the nation capital This summer I participated in the American Enterprise Institute  AEI  Summer Honors Program and was a summer fellow at Hudson Institute Political Studies
After a year of studying religion  philosophy  and politics through the Straus Center  I wanted to build on my education by spending some time in Washington  DC What got you interested in these programs in particular
I was interested in these programs because I have a general interest in foreign policy and national security  and thought that these academic programs would help be a stepping stone for work in those areas I knew that AEI and Hudson host some of the top foreign policy scholars in the world  so I couldn t pass up the opportunity to learn from them directly
What did you like most about each program AEI was a great experience because I learned more about the Middle Eas  t and how America should approach it from its own national security interests
Acting in America interests does not mean being isolationist or non interventionist  but it doesn t mean trying to take over the world either It was also interesting for me specifically because I learned about countries in the Middle East I hadn t thought about much before and what those countries  economies  cultures  and geopolitical interests mean for Israeli security
During the last day of the AEI program  I had the unbelievable opportunity to hear from a Supreme Court justice  Justice Clarence Thomas He spoke of his philosophical leanings when it comes to the law which prompted my thinking more seriously about how to possibly combine law and national security
Hudson program was much longer    an amazing six weeks   which allowed me to get to know the other fellows and many of the experts that work and study foreign policy at Hudson These are the current and future leaders in American foreign policy  and I got to pick their brains  learn from them  and maybe even influence their thinking a little by asking questions
Were there any scholars whose classes stood out to you I really did enjoy every course I took  and learned from each of my teachers
But specifically  I really enjoyed studying criminal justice with John Walters  who is the President of Hudson  as well as learning about the Iranian threat with Michael Doran  who leads the Center for Middle East at Hudson We got to run policy workshop simulations where we modeled  for example  a National Security Council meeting
Experts like Doran would watch and comment  bringing our attention to the concerns that might actually come up when policymakers try to formulate a position on an issue That was an eye opening experience because it showed just how hard it is to make foreign policy decisions
There are so many moving pieces and competing concerns  and there are very few easy choices We also heard from an amazing series of distinguished speakers who taught the fellows about different areas in the world of public policy and public life more broadly
Two of the speakers who stood out to me were General Jack Keane and Senator Tom Cotton General Keane unparalleled analysis of threats facing America   especially major geopolitical ones such as Russia and China   demonstrated to me just how much of an expert one has to be to understand the complex issues which America must deal with to protect itself and free people around the world
Senator Cotton spoke about the military and how his time there shaped him as the person who he is today  which was inspiring because it showed how much sacrifice regular people make in service of their fellow citizens I want to thank the Straus Center for helping me with these amazing opportunities
The time I spent learning from and with policy scholars and my peers in DC really reinforced the idea that Torah Jews have a unique perspective to offer the broader world and how a Torah perspective can have an impact on policy making in Washington At a recent presentation at the prestigious International Congress of Industrial and Applied Mathematics in Tokyo     Marian Gidea  association dean for STEM research and director of graduate mathematics at the Katz School  revealed the results of a simplified mathematical model demonstrating that oscillating steel beams made of piezoelectric materials produce more energy when their motion is regular
The research   Energy Growth  Dissipation  and Control in Hamiltonian Systems   is supported by a three year          National Science Foundation grant  which was awarded in July to investigate dynamical systems  including applications to energy harvesting  celestial mechanics and space mission design Piezo is the Greek root for pressure or push  and piezoelectric describes a property of special solid materials that can convert energy from an applied pressure into an electrical charge
The computer model was developed in collaboration with Tamar Leiser  who wrote her honor thesis on the subject as a student at YU Stern School for Women  and Katz School Mathematics Ph D  student Samuel Akingbade  as well as research collaborators from Georgia Tech and Polytechnic University of Catalunya The researchers created a framework in which two steel beams are hooked up to a capacitor and suspended over magnets
When the vibration of the beams is stronger than the mechanical friction  electricity is produced and stored in the capacitor What we discovered to our surprise is that the answer we got was the one we should have expected   said    Gidea
The beams that keep moving in a regular fashion  a periodic motion  going back and forth  accumulate more energy in comparison with the ones that move chaotically that is  without any pattern    Energy harvesting devices  which produce electrical charges through external vibrations  can be attached to skyscrapers  trains or bridges and provide a source of unlimited renewable energy Piezoelectric energy harvesting is also the preferred method for use with wearable devices since it is the most capable of producing the power needed at a small scale
The steel beams in the Katz School model were coated with ceramic  the preferred material for this type of energy harvesting because of its low cost and effective piezoelectric properties The use of piezoelectricity stands to reduce  or even eliminate  the need for frequent charging of devices and batteries
Consumers would no longer be burdened with having to be near an electrical outlet  which would in turn conserve electricity This may be a critical advance for healthcare since these devices can be implanted in pacemakers to stimulate the heart   said    Gidea
FacebookTwitterEmailShareIf you took a clear drinking glass  filled it two thirds of the way with water and placed a straw inside the glass on an angle so it resting on the rim  it should look as though the straw is broken in two That a consequence of light slowing as it crosses the boundary from air to water  causing the light to bend  or refract
The root of this simple phenomenon is the focus of a research paper recently published by    Fredy Zypman  director of the M A  in Physics at the Katz School In his paper   Permittivity from First Principles   published in September by AIP Advances     Zypman considers the explicit connection between refraction and its atomic origin and proposes a mathematical model to gain physical insight on permittivity  a property related to refraction
Refraction occurs when light moves from one substance to another  changing  speed and direction The index of refraction is the relationship between the speed of light in a vacuum and the speed of light in a substance
Matter around us in plastics  liquids  our skin  the air have characteristic electrical properties   said    Zypman When the electrical field travels from one medium to another  light must adjust to the local environment
That why we see shadows and reflections those rich sources of optical sensations all around us Transparent materials  like glass  water and diamonds  refract more than air so that when light enters from air  its path bends toward an imaginary line perpendicular to the water surface
Because the index is uniform throughout a material  the bending occurs only as the light crosses the boundary This commonplace refractive index  according to    Zypman  depends on the atomic electric response of a material its polarizability  or tendency to separate positive and negative charges to electric fields
Another way of looking at polarizability is the tendency of a material atomic electrons to become distorted when the material is placed in an electric field The larger the electric  polarization  the larger the material permittivity or the property of a material that measures the opposition it offers against an electric field
We aimed to produce a clear conceptual pathway between the atomic polarization and the familiar refraction   he said   The main focus of the study is to produce exact expressions for the permittivity to all orders of an electric field that is valid for any intensity of light  and to compute the permittivity for typical materials  Two weeks into a clinical rotation in the emergency department at St  John Episcopal Hospital in Far Rockaway  Queens  Carin Gannon  a student in the Katz School M  in Physician Assistant Studies  was put to the test A local man gashed his leg on a piece of glass and was rushed into the emergency department bleeding profusely
After being rayed to make sure that the glass wasn t embedded in the wound  he was wheeled back into the emergency department where Gannon and Abraham Oxilas  a Katz School clinical assistant professor and Gannon supervisor at St  John  were waiting It had been two hours since the injury  so Gannon knew that it hadn t started healing from within  but it had been several months since she had practiced suturing in Oxilas  course Clinical Skills and Procedures
Seeing yellowish subcutaneous fatty tissue  she washed her hands with soap  put on a pair of sterile gloves and grabbed a suturing kit She squeezed sterile water into the wound and injected lidocaine seven times under the skin to numb the area
Oxilas sewed the first stitch and then handed the needle to Gannon Under the watchful eye of Oxilas and the patient  Gannon went to work
I knew how to do it from working on a silicone model in class   she said   but I didn t want to let on that this was my first time suturing a live patient  so I was like   Okay  I gotta jump in and do the best I can I had the confidence
I just had to summon the muscle memory She took the suturing needle  shaped like a crescent moon  and held the two sides of the wound while she stitched