Leonard Grunstein Celebrates Yeshiva Graduates

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

Accomplished Scholar and Author Gives Lecture at Yeshiva University

Leonard Grunstein, Revel Graduate School board member, attended a lecture and book launch at Yeshiva University. Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff, accomplished professor of rabbinic literature at Yeshiva University’s Caroline and Joseph S. Gruss Institute in Jerusalem presented the lecture to celebrate the re-issuing of two of his previously published biographies.

A scholar and author Rabbi Rakeffet’s books, The Silver Era: Rabbi Eliezer Silver and His Generation, and Bernard Revel: Builder of American Orthodoxy, were the result of his doctoral dissertation at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies. The lecture specifically celebrated the relaunch of the biography of Bernard Revel, which is being re-issued by the OU Press with the inclusion of a new introduction by chairman of the Revel Board of Overseers, Mordecai D. Katz, Esq.

Thanks to Rakeffet’s research, both biographies give readers a glimpse into the lives of these two important leaders while simultaneously detailing the history of Orthodox Judaism in America. Both men are recognized for their dedication to the Jewish people.

Leonard Grunstein at Yeshiva University

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leonard Grunstein with Rabbi Rakeffet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The New York Theological Seminary: Grunstein Negotiates Lease

The New York Theological Seminary, a center for theological study in Morningside Heights, has educated generations of church leaders since its founding in 1900.

Real Estate Law Expert Leonard Grunstein handled the sale of the New York Theological Seminary building to a well-known developer skilled in the adaptive reuse of existing buildings. The seminary building was gut-rehabbed and recreated as a residential apartment complex. Mr. Grunstein also negotiated the lease that allowed the seminary to relocate to the Marble Collegiate Church.

The school was set up by Wilbert Webster White, an educator and scholar who envisioned a curriculum that emphasized practical ministry training and study of the Bible in the students’ own languages. From the beginning, White aimed to create a school that would incorporate a Bible school-type education into a university system. The school was distinguished by its acceptance of both men and women, as well as for its diversity, with a wide range of races, cultures and religious denominations represented among the student body.

As the demographics of New York City began to change in the 1970s and 1980s, the school adapted in response, under the direction of another acclaimed educator, George Webber. Instruction in Spanish and Korean was incorporated into the curriculum, and new programs on nights and weekends were added for the benefit of working urban ministers who sought more formal training. Under Webber, the school became a hub for black, Hispanic, and female students, and enrollment doubled.

The school also launched a Master’s program inside the Sing Sing Correctional Facility to train inmates in the New York State Correctional System for ministry. The program has since earned acclaim, with graduates seeing far lower recidivism rates than the overall prison population.

The seminary has been located in a number of sites around the city during its history. It was previously located in a building that housed the school as well as a dormitory. As its mission evolved, it no longer needed so large a structure. The building was sold and the school relocated, first to the office tower within the Marble Collegiate Church in Midtown and subsequently to its present location on Riverside Drive in 2002.