Rabbi Hanan Balk

Thank you YU, for accepting a young man from JTS into your Rabbinical School.

Thank you YU, for allowing me to study with Rav Yehuda Parnes, the greatest teacher I have ever had, from my college years at Columbia until this very day.

Thank you YU, for giving me access to Rav Herschel Schachter and other talmidim of Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, so that the Rav’s approach to learning, piskei halacha, and philosophical thought could guide both my personal and rabbinic life, in the time that God has granted me to walk on this earth.

Thank you YU, for creating an atmosphere of scholarship which has provided me with sefarim, journals, and great scholars-in-residence.

Thank you YU, for giving me the format of a Beit Yitzhak, wherein I could write my first Torah article.

Thank you YU, for the magnificent website of yutorah.org, which gives me the ability to hear the precious words of so many Torah scholars, Roshei Yeshiva and colleagues, alike.

Thank you YU, for permitting me to post hundreds of my shiurim on the yutorah.org website—thus making a smaller-town rav in Cincinnati into a maggid shiur who counts as his talmidim, thousands throughout the world.

Thank you YU, for the many wonderful young men and women, who were your students, that made Simchat Torah in our city come alive, through the Torah Tours program.

Thank You YU, for recommending me for my rabbinic positions in Stamford and Cincinnati.

Thank you YU, for educating my 5 daughters and one son-in-law at your holy institutions.

Thank YU!

Rabbi Rich Wolpoe

Thank You for

The wide diversity of instructors

TY for my rebbes, especially, Rav Gorelick Z"L

TY for my all my instructors, especially Dr. Robert Goldberg and Dr. Hyman Grinstein

TY for Dr. Israel Miller A"H

who helped me through my transition to YU

TY for R Z Charlap and all of his help.

TY for Dr. Belkin and for Dr. Lamm

TY for a great library.

TY for all the cantoral and music courses.

TY for giving Orthodox boys a chance to play serious competitive sports

TY for my Karate Classes.

TY for the SOY sale.

TY for the incredible Mussar Shmuess from R Lessin Z"L on Kol Nidrei night.

TY for the wonderful chaveirim and lifelong friendships I made there.

TY for the best cafeteria food of any Yeshiva, both taste-wise and nutrition-wise.

TY for educating our son Zvi

Rabbi Moshe Rosenberg

 Congregation Etz Chaim of Kew Gardens Hills, SAR Academy

Thank you for being the only place in the world where the same man - Rabbi Michael Hecht - could be my formative Rebbi in High School and my Constitutional Law professor in college. 

P.S. He also found me my shteller. He taught my brother before me and my son after me.

Thank you for Rabbi Mordechai Willig who ALWAYS answers the phone.

Thank you for the moments of bliss in Rav Schachter's shiur when I wouldn't have traded places with anyone on the face of the earth.

Thank you for teaching me in High School that Torah is not just a class.

Thank you for the experience of watching Rabbi Yitzchok Cohen daven Maariv.

Thank you for validating my struggles to internalize the idea of Torah UMadda and providing role models like Rav Aharon Lichtenstein.

Thank you for fostering my love of Seforim through a sale that morphed over the years from order-by-mail to a muti-million dollar month-long event.

Thank you for the Sunday night $1.95 chicken wing special at the Caf and for Mr. Parker's mantra: "Boys, put back de trays!"

Thank you for Paul Connolly who epitomized devotion to students and to the craft of writing.

Thank you for David Fleischer whose virtuosity in English literature was humbling.

Thank you for the Beis Medrash and the memory of Rabbi Israel Miller walking between its tables late late at night.

Thank you for my parnassa, my profession, my calling.

ThankYU. 

ומה ראו על ככה

Why This Blog?

Yeshiva University has been taking a lot of criticism lately, some deserved, much not. Without minimizing real issues that need to be addressed, this blog is the work of people who think that balance and perspective are also called for. We are united in the feeling of Hakarat HaTov - gratitude - to YU, each in our own way, each with our own memories. This blog is a way of sharing those memories and saying, if belatedly: ThankYU!