Yeshiva University 1981

Jun 1, 1981 — XVIII. ON YESHIVA UNIVERSITY

The Rabbinical Council of America in convention assembled,

RECOGNIZES the great debt that is owed to Yeshiva University by each of us personally, and by the American Jewish community generally;

PROCLAIMS that but for the foresight of its founders, the decades of devotion by its roshei yeshiva and teachers, and the pioneering work undertaken by their alumni, the whole American Jewish scene would be a tragically different one;

IS SADDENED by the dire financial plight of the Yeshiva at this particular time, a plight familiar to us through newspaper reports, and communications which we have received through alumni mailings;

DECLARES that the crisis of Yeshiva University is unprecedented in its annals, and the ramifications of its worst fears would create a situation as unconscionable as it is unthinkable;

KNOWING that the University, to meet its debt, must raise the sum of Five Million Dollars by July 1, 1981, and another Ten Million Dollars by February 1, 1982, in addition to the funds necessary for its normal operations,

PROCLAIMS A YEAR OF EMERGENCY CONCERN FOR YESHIVA UNIVERSITY, AND CALLS UPON ITS MEMBERSHIP TO DO WHATEVER IS IN THEIR POWER TO HELP SHOULDER THE BURDEN, AND TO CONTRIBUTE FROM THEIR OWN FUNDS AS WELL AS TO GENERATE COMMUNAL SUPPORT, IN A MEASURE AND TO A DEGREE FAR GREATER THAN HERETOFORE.

WE EXTEND good wishes to the President of Yeshiva University, our colleague, Dr. Norman Lamm, in all his endeavors on behalf of the needs of the American Jewish community and Orthodox Jewry the world over; to our revered teacher and mentor, Harav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik shlita, who more than anyone else has shaped the spirit of the yeshiva; to the revered roshei yeshiva, many of whom are colleagues in this Council. May their efforts be rewarded and the work of their hands be blessed!