Yeshiva President Rabbi Lamm, Harrison Ford, and Humility
Rabbi Dr. Stuart Halpern is the Senior Advisor to the Provost and Senior Program Officer of the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University, and the editor of “Esther in America” (Maggid Books)
Harrison Ford had been defeated. However, the victor was not a red lightsaber-wielding Kylo Ren in a galaxy far, far away, but rather, a nobody.
In 1976, on his first day as president of Yeshiva University, then-48-year-old Rabbi Norman Lamm was excited. Undoubtedly dreaming of expanded academic programs, enhanced Torah learning opportunities for women and men, and building a new donor base, he eventually took a lunch break. Picking out his food in the cafeteria, he headed to the register to pay. But when asked by the food-services staff member to display his campus ID, then pay, he froze. He didn’t have his ID on him. “Are you a student?” The cashier asked.