By Bayla Rothschild, Staff Writer
Yeshiva University is a unique place, which largely stems from the university’s commitment to the Orthodox Jewish tradition. Because of this, the undergraduate programs are separated by gender. This leaves the women in Midtown Manhattan on the Beren campus, while the men are in Washington Heights on the Wilf campus. The Wilf campus houses the semicha (rabbinical ordination) program and the kollels (full-time Torah learning programs for men). All of YU’s roshei yeshiva (leading rabbinic educators) teach in some combination the men’s undergraduate Judaic programs, the university’s kollels and the semicha program. A byproduct of this setup is the roshei yeshiva are almost exclusively involved with the male students at YU. This leaves the undergraduate women of YU on the Beren campus with little to no access to the roshei yeshiva.
True, there are some ways that the roshei yeshiva have been able to interact with students on Beren. For many semesters, for example, both Rabbi Mordechai Willig and Rav Meir Goldwicht have taught Judaic Studies courses on the Beren campus. Additionally, Beren’s Office of Torah Studies and Spiritual Life runs a program called “Torah with the Roshei Yeshiva,” where every Monday one of the roshei yeshiva comes to Beren to give a shiur (lecture). While the involvement that the roshei yeshiva have through these three opportunities is certainly positive, I still believe that this is not enough for the undergraduate women of YU.
The current situation is extremely problematic on a few different levels, the first being the general lack of halachic knowledge among YU’s female undergraduate students. This problem is compounded by the absence of robust halachic guidance for women on the Beren campus. This issue comes up on a regular basis, particularly in regard to aspects of university campus life that are halachically questionable. YU’s women often lack the guidance needed to fully understand these situations. For example, many rabbis hold that Shabbos elevators are a problem due to the way elevators automatically adjust for weight even without any buttons being pushed, but this is not something students on the Beren campus are made aware of in regard to the university’s own Shabbos elevators. Another example is the use of the Manhattan eruv. Many rabbis feel the eruv is halachically invalid, which led to years of uncertainty among Beren campus students before the new Beren eruv overseen by YU’s roshei yeshiva was established over the summer of 2025.
The examples underscore a much larger problem. If students do not realize that these activities or situations are halachically questionable, this can lead to a campus culture in which halachically debatable activities persist. Many students assume that if the university does or does not explicitly comment on something, then it must be fine, but that is not always the case. Students must be taught when they must ask for halachic guidance. If the roshei yeshiva were more involved on the Beren campus, it is more likely that these sorts of halachic issues would be much more known among the student body.
If YU is meant to be the flagship Jewish university, how does it make sense that half of its undergraduate students do not have access to the proper halachic guidance needed to be an observant Jew?
The Beren campus does have its own campus rabbis, but their roles seem to center more around the overall Torah atmosphere on campus and less around dealing with specific halachic challenges. From my experience, the campus rabbis, when asked halachic questions, often give their own recommendations but tell students to ask their own rabbis as well. Additionally, the issue is not just surrounding the way questions are answered but an atmosphere in which students often do not realize they are in a situation where a halachic question should be asked.
YU’s roshei yeshiva are considered leaders of the Modern Orthodox Jewish community in America. This community is made up of many different types of individuals. Most importantly, roughly half of the community is made up of men, and the other half is made up of women. The undergraduate women of YU are, for the most part, part of this community. Therefore, it makes no sense for the community’s leadership to only be practically involved with one half of the community’s young adult population.
Even during their college years, women need to be viewed as part of this community. When the roshei yeshiva are not actively involved with the women, some can interpret it to mean that women are not an integral part of the community. In reality, the undergraduate women at YU are the future mothers, educators and potential leaders of the next generation. These are vital roles for the community to continue and function in the future. As such, there is a strong need for the roshei yeshiva to be more involved with the women of YU, so that we have the proper tools to navigate being Orthodox Jews in the modern world. More involvement by the roshei yeshiva on the Beren campus is not just an investment in the current female undergraduate students, but it is an investment in the future of the entire Jewish people.
Photo Credit: Yeshiva University