Richard Joel to Step Down From Yeshiva University at End of Term
The president of Yeshiva University, who has steered the flagship Modern Orthodox institution through a sex abuse scandal and an ongoing fiscal crisis, has announced that he will step down at the end of his current term.
Richard Joel, 65, announced his pending departure at the end of an email sent to staff, students and alumni this morning.
The email was primarily to announce that Y.U. had transferred ownership of its prestigious but money-losing medical school to a new joint venture between Y.U. and Montefiore Health System, a healthcare provider in the Bronx, N.Y.
The Albert Einstein College of Medicine has been blamed for up to two-thirds of Y.U.’s operating deficits, which have yoyoed between $50 million and $108 million in each of the past eight years.
Montefiore Health System will take over financial responsibility for the medical school and will be a majority owner in the new partnership.
Joel said that he made the decision not to continue at Y.U. when he accepted a third term as president. He cited his age and his 13 years of service at Y.U. as the primary reasons for his pending departure.
He added that he has asked Y.U.’s chairman Moshael Straus to begin the process of searching for a successor.
A Y.U. spokesman said that Joel’s term ends in 2018.
Contact Paul Berger at [email protected] or on Twitter @pdberger
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO