Leonard Grunstein attended a reception earlier this spring honoring the new Bergen County graduates of Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (REITS). Grunstein and his wife Chanie have long been generous supporters of Yeshiva University, from which his three children, daughter-in-law and sons-in-law all graduated. In July 2013, Grunstein was named a board member of Yeshiva’s Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies. The school has also praised Grunstein for his analysis of Jewish banking laws, which appeared in the Banking Law Journal in 2013.
The reception celebrated the seminary’s 50 new Bergen County graduates. This year’s REITS cohort, 230 graduates in total, is the largest graduating class in the school’s history. The reception in Teaneck preceded the REITS ceremony and featured Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, a professor at the school and renowned former chief rabbi of England.
Sacks, the Kressel and Ephrat Family University Professor of Jewish Thought at Yeshiva, served as Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from September 1991 until September 2013. He is known as one of the most prolific and well-regarded Jewish thinkers in the world and has been called an “intellectual giant” by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. At the reception, Sacks elaborated on the role of the rabbi in the Jewish community, saying the training of new students is the most important thing one can do in the Jewish world.
Leonard Grunstein expressed his excitement at having Sacks speak at the ceremony, calling him “a brilliant man and speaker.”
Leonard Grunstein and Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks
Lady Elaine Sacks and Chanie Grunstein at Bergen County graduate reception
Rav Benjamin Yudin, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Rav Herschel Schacter and his son, Rabbi Shai Schacter
Dean of REITS at YU, Rabbi Menachem Penner and Rabbi Ari Zahtz, assistant Rabbi at Congregation Bnai Yeshurun in Teaneck
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Leonard Grunstein 
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