“as the culture of the mid-twentieth century was replaced…, the notion of students grappling with their yeshiva and college educations…, producing a grand synthesis called ‘Modern Orthodoxy’, seemed increasingly quaint”

Yeshiva College has also changed along with the broader landscape of higher education. We still have impressively bright, industrious, passionate students. But as the culture of the mid-twentieth century was replaced by that of the ‘90s and then the next century, the notion of students grappling with their yeshiva and college educations, in which Jewish Studies provided a hinge, producing a grand synthesis called “Modern Orthodoxy”, seemed increasingly quaint. Students are happy to learn the history of Jews in the medieval and modern periods and become acquainted with Isaiah and Ezra, but this has not been central to their identities. I say this with sadness because I am describing the demise of a vision of Modern Orthodoxy that I still find inspiring.

Aaron Koller, “An Improved Judaic Studies Education”, The Commentator (14 April 2009) [https://yucommentator.org/2019/04/an-improved-judaic-studies-education/]