President-Elect Berman to Begin Transition into Presidency on March 1

President-Elect Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman is set to officially begin his transition into the YU presidency tomorrow. Beginning Wednesday March 1, Rabbi Berman will reside on the Wilf Campus in Washington Heights. He will work out of a recently vacated office in Belfer Hall and will be placed on Yeshiva University’s payroll.

Rabbi Berman was voted in as the fifth president of YU by the Board of Trustees on November 15, 2016. In a recent article, The Commentator reported that “Rabbi Berman will take over on July 1 and President Joel will be in charge until then. In the interim, Rabbi Berman will be travelling back and forth between Israel and America, but as time goes on he will become increasingly more of a presence on campus.”

This transition will be similar to President Richard Joel’s transition. After his election in December 2002, President Joel spent two or three days a week on the YU campuses, using the rest of his time to finish up his duties as president of Hillel International in Washington, DC. The length and frequency of Rabbi Berman’s visits during the next few months are still unclear.

When he becomes President of YU, Rabbi Berman will leave his current teaching position at Machon Herzog, a teachers college in Alon Shvut, and will step down as head of the Jewish Heritage Center in Jerusalem.

In an interview with The Commentator, Rabbi Berman discussed the importance of clarifying YU’s values along with strengthening its financial situation: “If we don’t have clarity, if we don’t explain how our Torah is translated into the world around us, we’re not going to get the means either. We need to explain the value of YU today if we want to increase enrollment and if we want to broaden our donor base.”