Bernard Lander, Touro College Founder, Dies at 94
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Rabbi Dr. Bernard Lander, the founder and president of Touro College, has died.
Lander died Monday night at his home in Queens. He was 94.
He started Touro in 1971 after spending two decades as a sociology professor at Yeshiva University, where he also served as dean of the university’s Bernard Revel graduate school, and the City College of New York.
Lander’s Orthodox four-year institution, which has grown to more than 23,000 students on campuses in the United States and Israel, has become an alternative to Yeshiva University.
“Dr. Lander’s passing is a profound loss,” Alan Kadish, the senior provost and chief operating officer of Touro, wrote in a statement from the school, according to Israel National News. “His vision and leadership has been phenomenal. His care and concern for the Jewish people and all of humanity knew no bounds.”
A social scientist and educator, Lander was named one of three associate directors in 1944 of the Mayor’s Committee on Unity, which eventually became New York City’s Commission on Human Rights.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
