Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

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.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.