By Esti DeAngelis, Opinions Editor
Yeshiva University Roshei Yeshiva directed the Office of Student Life (OSL) to discontinue the newly-formed Hareni club this morning in a letter sent by Rabbi Yosef Kalinsky, Dean of Undergraduate Torah Studies (UTS), to UTS students on the Wilf campus. The email, which has no subject line, comes just two months after YU and the Pride Alliance reached a settlement to implement the club and end a years-long legal battle.
The letter, written to reflect “the consensus position of the Roshei Yeshiva of YP/RIETS,” said that the club “is operating as a pride club under a different name and as such is antithetical to the Torah values of our yeshiva.”
“Yeshiva’s undergraduate schools are, of course, fundamentally religious,” the letter said, adding that the settlement reached in March calls for the Roshei Yeshiva to determine the club’s future. The letter said the club “was designed to support students who are striving to live a fully committed, uncompromising authentic halachic life within our communities, under traditional Orthodox auspices.”
The letter added that “recent actions and statements” from Hareni “have indicated that Hareni is operating as a pride club” and as such does not align with the values of the school. It said that these actions are also “in violation of the approved guidelines and of the terms of the Settlement Agreement.”
“There is no place for such a club in yeshiva,” the letter continued. “As such, we are directing the Office of Student Life to discontinue this club.” The letter added that YU remains “fully committed to guiding our students in their challenges in a manner consistent with halacha.”
This letter comes a day after the litigation boutique representing Hareni sent a letter to YU obtained by the YU Observer expressing “deep concern about recent public statements by Yeshiva University’s senior leaders that display animus and hostility toward the University’s LGBTQ students and may violate the terms of the Settlement Agreement signed by the parties.” These public statements, which came from YU’s Roshei Yeshiva and YU President Ari Berman, emphasized the Roshei Yeshivas’s roles as overseers of the club’s operations and activities.
The letter from Hareni’s legal counsel said that these statements “threaten the safety and well-being of LGBTQ students on campus” as well as “improperly impose conditions on Hareni that violate the agreed-upon Hareni Protocols in the Settlement Agreement.”
“In the Agreement, the parties committed to work together to ‘develop a harmonious and supportive campus culture,’” the Hareni letter said. “The University’s recent statements do the opposite.” The letter added that Hareni had not been consulted before these statements were released.
Hareni’s counsel also requested to meet with YU in the coming days to address these concerns as well as for YU to “publicly clarify that the stated restrictions on Hareni that violate the Protocols will not be imposed on the club.”
The Hareni letter cited YU’s “Ban on Social and Recreational Events,” “‘Sexual Morality’ Disclaimer on All Club Communications” and a “Stricter Oversight of Hareni Than Other Student Clubs” as violations of the settlement.
The letter said that the settlement did not include any of these protocols. Of the ban on social and recreational events, the letter from Hareni’s counsel said, “A blanket ban on social and recreational events akin to events that other YU student clubs have hosted in the past violates the Hareni Protocols because it places more stringent event approval and oversight procedures on Hareni than those imposed on other clubs.”
Mandating the “sexual morality disclaimer,” Hareni’s counsel said, was both a violation of the agreement and would also “undermine Hareni’s ability to support LGBTQ students as full human beings entitled to the same dignity and respect as everyone else.”
In a Hareni FAQ, YU stated that Rabbi Yaakov Neuberger, one of YU’s Roshei Yeshiva, “is the halachic posek for undergraduate student life and student clubs” and would be the club’s rabbinic guide, adding that “all [Hareni] activities have been and will be presented to him for his consideration and determination.” Hareni’s counsel referenced this in its letter, stating, “To our knowledge, Rabbi Neuberger does not individually ‘consider[] and determine[]’ all activities proposed by YU’s over 150 undergraduate student clubs.”
The letter from Hareni’s legal counsel was sent the day the club held a “LGBTQ+ community discussion” on YU’s Wilf campus, the “inagural event of Hareni – YU’s official LGBTQ club,” according to Haneni’s flier for the event.
In their letter to YU, Hareni’s legal counsel stated, “The University recently told Hareni’s co-Presidents that it would need to prescreen and pre-approve every single question and answer at a proposed town hall discussion event.” The letter added, “That is not a ‘discussion’ at all. Our clients are unaware of any circumstance where the University has sought to so tightly control student speech at a student club event.”
“As best we can tell, there has been some pushback to the idea of a ‘Pride’ club within the University,” the letter continued. “To be clear, our clients have no political agenda or ‘ideology.’ They are not part of any political movement. The ‘pride’ our clients hope to foster is simply for all students at YU, LGBTQ or otherwise, to be proud—not ashamed—of who they are.”
YU’s legal counsel Gene Schaerr replied to the letter this morning, after the Roshei Yeshiva directed OSL to shut down Hareni. “Ironically, your letter repeatedly illustrates the fundamental and ongoing breach of the Settlement Agreement by your own clients,” Schaerr’s letter stated. “In the Agreement, they committed to be bound, like all student clubs, by Yeshiva’s religious authorities, the Roshei Yeshiva.”
Schaerr added that Hareni was being discontinued because they had “misrepresented the club, ignored the guidance of the rabbis, violated the rules of the Office of Student Life, and have publicly stated that they will not follow the rabbis’ direction as to how to keep this club true to its core mission.” He referenced last night’s Hareni event as an example of these violations.
Schaerr said that Hareni framed itself as “a continuation of the Pride Alliance,” which he said “was never aligned” with the goal of Hareni as stated in the settlement: to help students “in their journey in living an authentic Torah life, … built upon a foundation of uncompromising Halacha.” He added, “Hareni from the start misrepresented the club, claiming and acting from the beginning of its founding that it is simply the Pride Alliance under a new name.”
According to the settlement, Schaerr said, Hareni must “follow the rabbinic guidance like all other undergraduate clubs.” After statements from the Roshei Yeshiva barred the club from holding “social and recreational events,” Schaerr said, Hareni still planned on doing so.
Schaerr also referenced pride flags still visible on Hareni’s Instagram from when the account was run by the Pride Alliance as settlement violations, as well as Hareni’s refusal to include “the rabbis’ required acknowledgement about sexual morality” on posters.
Schaerr added that at last night’s event, Hareni “repeatedly attempted to circumvent [OSL’s] processes, first refusing to make adjustments to their proposed event, as directed by rabbinic leadership, then seeking to change the club event to a faculty event,” adding, “When that failed and they shifted the event off-campus, they were told by the Office that they must avoid using the Yeshiva name or otherwise suggesting the event had been approved by Yeshiva.” He said that the club used the name anyway, “by identifying Hareni as the sponsoring organization, and by touting the event as the ‘inaugural event’ of ‘YU’s official LGBTQ club.’”
“In short, despite the Roshei Yeshiva’s directions, and despite their efforts—in their April 10 letter and otherwise—to allow Hareni to reform itself from within, your clients have repeatedly second-guessed and opposed Yeshiva’s spiritual leadership,” Schaerr said. “Indeed, your clients have treated Yeshiva’s spiritual leaders with utter disdain.”
Schaerr offered to meet with Hareni’s counsel with the goal of “(a) identifying additional violations of the Agreement by your clients, and (b) helping you better understand the Halachic principles that lie at the core of Yeshiva’s undergraduate religious mission.”
YU’s OSL did not respond to the YU Observer’s request for comment. In a text to the Hareni WhatsApp group, Schneur Friedman (YC ’25), Co-President of Hareni, said Hareni was aware of this morning’s development. “So let us be unequivocally clear: Hareni has always operated in accordance with the guidelines agreed upon and with deep respect for Halacha,” he said. “We remain committed to that path. No attempt to silence or erase our existence will change that.”
He added, “If OSL responds to the call to ‘discontinue’ us, we will continue as though we were not,” saying Hareni would “continue to hold events and safe spaces – albeit in an ‘unofficial’ manner.”
“Hareni exists because we exist,” Friedman said. “We are YU students. We are Torah Jews. And we are not going anywhere.”
This is a developing story.
Editor’s Note: This article was updated on March 9 to include additional statements from the letter sent to YU by Hareni’s legal counsel, YU’s response letter to Hareni and a message sent by Hareni’s co-president to their WhatsApp chat.
Photo Caption: YU’s Wilf campus
Photo Credit: Yeshiva University