Letter to the Editor: Yonatan Abrams

To the Editor:

I want to publicize an aspect of the Resident Advisors’ responsibilities to the student body, because I think that, in general, students are not aware of the duties of Wilf Campus RAs.

I fractured my back at the beginning of the spring semester in 2018, and I was generously escorted to the hospital by Jacob Ovadia on that fateful motzei Shabbos. But that is not the extent of what the RAs did for me.

My parents live 275 miles away in Silver Spring, MD, and they could not be with me until arranging for the care of my younger brother and driving up four and half hours to NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital. The RAs were charged with spending time with me while I lay in bed, physically defenseless, loopy from painkillers and lonely.

The RAs each did two-hour shifts with me, and I got to spend time with a total of 14 RAs before my parents could arrive. Some even spent more than two hours with me because they were so concerned. I remember that Yisroel Schatz did not want to leave me while I waited for a critical MRI which had been delayed half an hour from 12:30 a.m. to 1 a.m.

I was blown away by the dedication of the RAs and their leader, Jonathan Schwab, Director of University Housing and Residence Life.

Yonatan Abrams, Yeshiva College ‘20