Yeshiva University

Coordinates: 40°51′01″N 73°55′47″W / 40.85028°N 73.92972°W / 40.85028; -73.92972

Yeshiva University is a private university in New York City, with four campuses in New York City. Founded in 1886, it is a research university.

The university's undergraduate schools—Yeshiva College, Stern College for Women, and Syms School of Business—offer a dual curriculum inspired by Modern-Centrist-Orthodox Judaism's hashkafa (philosophy) of Torah Umadda ("Torah and secular knowledge") combining academic education with the study of the Torah. Yeshiva is perhaps best known for its secular, highly selective graduate schools, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. The Forward announced on May 27, 2014 that Yeshiva would be shedding the financial burden of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine when the medical school is taken over by the Bronx-based Montefiore Health Systems.

While the majority of students at the University are of the Jewish faith, many students, especially at School of Law, the College of Medicine, and the School of Business, are not Jewish. Yeshiva University is an independent institution chartered by New York State. It is accredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools and by several professional agencies.

University

A university (Latin: universitas, "a whole") is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which grants academic degrees in various subjects and typically provides undergraduate education and postgraduate education. The word "university" is derived from the Latin universitas magistrorum et scholarium, which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars."

History

Definition

The original Latin word "universitas" refers in general to "a number of persons associated into one body, a society, company, community, guild, corporation, etc." At the time of the emergence of urban town life and medieval guilds, specialised "associations of students and teachers with collective legal rights usually guaranteed by charters issued by princes, prelates, or the towns in which they were located" came to be denominated by this general term. Like other guilds, they were self-regulating and determined the qualifications of their members.

In modern usage the word has come to mean "An institution of higher education offering tuition in mainly non-vocational subjects and typically having the power to confer degrees," with the earlier emphasis on its corporate organization considered as applying historically to Medieval universities.

Yeshiva

Yeshiva (/jəˈʃiːvə/; Hebrew: ישיבה‎, lit. "sitting"; pl. ישיבות, yeshivot) is a Jewish institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study. Study is usually done through daily shiurim (lectures or classes) and in study pairs called chavrutas (Aramaic for "friendship" or "companionship"). Chavruta-style learning is one of the unique features of the yeshiva.

In the United States and Israel, the different levels of yeshiva education have different names. In the United States, elementary-school students are enrolled in a yeshiva, post-bar mitzvah-age students learn in a metivta, and undergraduate-level students learn in a beit midrash or yeshiva gedola (Hebrew: ישיבה גדולה‎, lit. "large yeshiva" or "great yeshiva"). In Israel, elementary-school students are enrolled in a Talmud Torah or cheder, post-bar mitzvah-age students learn in a yeshiva ketana (Hebrew: ישיבה קטנה‎, lit. "small yeshiva" or "minor yeshiva"), and high-school-age students learn in a yeshiva gedola. A kollel is a yeshiva for married men. It is common for a kollel to pay a token stipend to its students. Students of Lithuanian and Hasidic yeshiva gedolas usually learn in yeshiva until they get married.

Ben Shapiro

Benjamin Aaron "Ben" Shapiro (born January 15, 1984) is an American conservative political commentator, columnist, author, radio talk show host, and attorney.

A native of Los Angeles, California, Shapiro graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles and Harvard Law School. He has written six books, the first of which was 2004's Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America's Youth, written when he was 17 years old. He currently writes a column for Creators Syndicate and is editor-in-chief at The Daily Wire and editor-at-large for Breitbart News Network. He is the co-founder and former editor-in-chief of the media watchdog group TruthRevolt.

Early life

Shapiro was born in Los Angeles, California. Skipping two grades (third and ninth), Shapiro switched between public and private elementary schools. Shapiro graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 2004 and graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2007.

New York City

New York—often called New York City or the City of New York to distinguish it from the State of New York, of which it is a part—is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York metropolitan area, the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States and one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. A global power city, New York exerts a significant impact upon commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and entertainment, its fast pace defining the term New York minute. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has been described as the cultural and financial capital of the world.

Situated on one of the world's largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, each of which is a separate county of New York State. The five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. With a census-estimated 2014 population of 8,491,079 distributed over a land area of just 305 square miles (790 km²), New York is the most densely populated major city in the United States. As many as 800 languages are spoken in New York, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. By 2014 census estimates, the New York City metropolitan region remains by a significant margin the most populous in the United States, as defined by both the Metropolitan Statistical Area (20.1 million residents) and the Combined Statistical Area (23.6 million residents). In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product (GMP) of nearly US$1.39 trillion, while in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion, both ranking first nationally by a wide margin and behind the GDP of only twelve and eleven countries, respectively.