Brandeis Retired President Jehuda Reinharz Rakes in $500K Salary

Image by brandeis

By Anna Goldenberg November 22, 2013

In the three years since Brandeis University president Jehuda Reinharz stepped down from his office, he has been receiving a generous annual salary of up to $500,000, The Boston Globe reported.

The Globe quoted Gordon Fellman, a sociology professor at Brandeis, who said that there was “puzzlement from faculty why he gets paid at all.”

Reinharz, who is 69 and served as the University president from 1994 until 2011, does not teach classes, supervise students or attend faculty meetings, the paper said.

Reinharz countered that he helped Frederick Lawrence, the current president, to raise money for the University, and gives advice to him and other staffers.

“I’ve never worked at Brandeis by the hour,” he is quoted saying, when asked how much time he dedicates to this job. Reinharz also serves as the president of the Mandel Foundation, where he earns $800,000 annually, the Globe wrote.

Brandeis University published a response to the Boston Globe on the same day, writing that Reinharz had “an unparalleled fundraising record and strong relationships with people and organizations closely tied to Brandeis.” It further states that his president emeritus compensation – which ”was just slightly above the median amount paid to retired presidents at peer institutions” – will end in July 2014.

In last year’s salary survey of Jewish communal leaders in the U.S. conducted by the Forward, Brandeis University ranked third for annual salary of the executives of Jewish educational institutions, after Yeshiva University and Touro College. Brandeis University came second for total expenses, only topped by Yeshiva University. The University’s undergraduate tuition for the current academic year is $44,380.

The Globe cited Reinharz’s cushy deal as evidence of a growing trend in higher education towards gilded golden parachutes for top leaders.

It called ex-Boston University chief John Silber a pioneer in the practice, which some experts say drives up tuition costs. Silber persuaded BU to make him chancellor — at a higher salary — after quitting as president. Even after giving up the chancellorship in 2003, he received $6.1 million in 2005, mostly in deferred compensation, the paper said.

Anna Goldenberg was the Forward’s culture fellow.

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.

In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.

At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.

Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO