Letter To The Editor: YC - Welcome to Practical Workplace Halacha

Dear Mr. Editor, 

I enjoyed reading your editorial on the importance of implementing the Practical Workplace Halacha (PWH) course university-wide, not only within Sy Syms. 

Clearly, I agree. I do want to clarify that the Sy Syms Jewish Values courses, of which Practical Workplace Halacha is one, are available to Yeshiva College students. The only catch is that because most of the courses are required of Sy Syms Wilf students, there needs to be room within the cap on the number of students allowed in any given class.

For example, I do have four Yeshiva College computer science students in the current Practical Workplace Halacha course I am teaching, because there was room within the cap. Every semester, I (and most other Jewish Values instructors) have had YC students in my courses. 

Because of your article and also because of the many students in YC who have requested to take Practical Workplace Halacha, I suggested to Dean Noam Wasserman that we open up a Fall 2023 section of Practical Workplace Halacha dedicated to YC students, and he agreed - as long as there is sufficient enrollment from YC students. There will be no cap on the number of students allowed to take the class, so anyone who desires to take the class is more than welcome. I would be teaching the course myself from Yerushalayim via Zoom. It would be ideal if the administrators of YC would allow this class to count for whatever Jewish Studies requirements there are in YC, but at a minimum, I would hope it counts for elective credit. At this point, this will be a one-time offering for YC students for Fall 2023. I personally hope to meet many YC students in class after the summer.

Ari Wasserman