Students and Faculty Gather on Beren Campus to Honor Rabbi Yosef Blau Ahead of Aliyah

Yeshiva University hosted an event in the Beren beit midrash March 19 to honor Rabbi Yosef Blau, senior mashgiach ruchani, and his wife, Professor Rivkah Blau, for their decades of service to YU. Rabbi Blau, who has worked at YU for 48 years, is set to make aliyah with his wife on Wednesday.

The program, held during club hour, featured remarks from several speakers who shared divrei Torah and reflected on Rabbi and Professor Blau’s impact on the YU community. More than 50 students from both Stern and the Graduate Program in Advanced Talmud/Tanach Studies (GPATS) were in attendance, along with professors, rebbeim and administrators. 

Rabbi Azriel Fine, who organized the event, told The Commentator that while summarizing Rabbi Blau’s impact in just 45 minutes was no easy task, “It was so meaningful to see in the room — through the speakers and the students who came — just how many people Rabbi Blau has individually impacted and connected with.”

Each speaker reflected on their relationship with Rabbi Blau and the impact he has had on their lives.

“It has been one of the greatest honors of my career and my life to have been able to work with [Rabbi Blau] over these past eight months,” said Dean Rebecca Cypess, who was the first to address the audience. She further emphasized the Blaus’ dedication to women’s learning, Rabbi Blau’s “moral clarity” and his years of advocacy in the fight against child abuse within the Jewish community.

Dean Shoshana Schechter followed, recalling the first time she met Rabbi Blau as a high school student at Yeshivat Frisch. “You spoke with us and you told us your experience being an advocate for people who have difficulty and downtrodden people,” she told the audience. “You were such an advocate for so many Jews.”

“What do you need from me today?’ was basically Rabbi Blau’s entire career here at Yeshiva,” Rabbi Gedalyah Berger, who teaches Jewish law at GPATS, told the audience. “[It] is just a remarkable thing to have woken up every morning for 48 years with really only the needs of whoever was going to come his way in mind.”

Gaby Rahmanfar (SCW ‘24, GPATS ‘26), a close talmidah of Rabbi Blau, spoke as the student representative. She recounted a conversation she had with Rabbi Blau, when she asked him why, for the past decade, he has spent two days a week in the Beren Campus’ beit midrash. According to Rahmanfar, Rabbi Blau explained that he recognized a lack of resources and rabbinic presence on the Beren campus, especially in earlier years.

“That in a nutshell is who Rabbi Blau is,” Rahmanfar said. “He sees a lack, he sees a problem that has to be fixed, and whether it has anything to do with him or not he makes it his personal business to help in any way he can.” 

After Rahmanfar spoke, Fine shared a message written by Rabbi Blau’s granddaughter, Yael Blau (SCW ‘19). In her note, Blau described the time she spent with her grandfather during his visits to Stern and the joy she found in their regular lunch dates, where he would share stories and Torah insights with her.

“Growing up, I had heard how my Zaidy was a mover and shaker,” she wrote, “but it was not until I got to Stern that I had the opportunity to see just how many people revered him and how much of an impact he had — and continues to have — on the YU community and the Jewish world at large.”

“The beis medrash is the place that lends itself to what I’ve been trying to accomplish,” said Rabbi Blau, who was the final speaker of the event. “The beis medrash in Stern is extremely important.

“When we talk about women’s talmud Torah and the broader discussion of where the obligation comes from — whether it’s based on this source or that—what strikes me, what I see when I visit the beis medrash, is the nediv lev, the ‘volunteering of the heart,’ and the deep commitment,” he said. 

Rabbi Blau also addressed concerns about the limited presence of YU’s rebbeim and roshei yeshiva on the Beren Campus. He referenced the story of the meraglim (spies), saying, “When they saw themselves as tiny, others saw them as tiny as well. If they realize who they are, then the response is Yehoshua and Calev.” He then encouraged the students to “realize who you are, realize what you are contributing, and what you will continue to contribute.”

“What I said, I feel strongly about,” Rabbi Blau told The Commentator. 

“It was really beautiful to hear from everybody’s experiences with Rav Blau,” Daniella Weil (SSSB ‘26) told The Commentator. “As much as I felt my own personal one, the fact that he is able to have such a personal relationship with so many different people is really such a beautiful thing.” 

“Hearing a Rabbi as towering, broad shouldered and G-d fearing as Rav Blau openly support our Torah learning and express deep belief in our Beit Midrash was one of the most inspiring and empowering experiences of my time at Stern thus far,” Ava Eden (SCW ‘27) told The Commentator.

“Some may beat around the bush when it comes to discussing women’s Torah learning, but Rabbi Blau doesn’t take the easy way out, making it an explicit goal of his to support our pursuit of Hakadosh Baruch Hu and His Torah. 

“Having Rabbi Blau in our Beit Midrash as a Halakhic authority and moral guide has been a pleasure and a privilege of mine and many others that learn in the Stern Beit Midrash.”

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Photo caption: Rabbi Blau addressing the audience at the event honoring him in the Beren beit midrash. 

Photo credit: Rabbi Fine