Yeshiva University President Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman issued a statement Tuesday evening addressing the recent outrage surrounding the university’s policies, following the announcement of the Hareni same-gender club as an officially recognized undergraduate student group. “I deeply apologize to the members of our community—our students and parents, alumni and friends, faculty and Rabbis—for the way the news was rolled out,” Berman wrote. “Instead of clarity, it sowed confusion.” He went on to criticize “misleading ‘news’ articles” that suggested Yeshiva had reversed its position on toeiva, calling such reports “absolutely untrue.” Berman insisted on YU’s commitment to its religious values, saying that the university is designed to be “an intensely religious one” during students’ formative years. “Its foundational purpose is to faithfully transmit our multi-millennial biblical and halachic tradition to enable our students to integrate their faith and practice in lives of contribution, impact, and personal meaning,” he explained. Students who choose Yeshiva University, he stressed, are selecting a “religiously driven environment and curriculum”, one in which the Torah remains central to all aspects of life. “The Yeshiva has always conveyed that what a Pride club represents is antithetical to the undergraduate program in which the traditional view of marriage and genders being determined at birth are transmitted. The Yeshiva never could and never would sanction such an undergraduate club and it is due to this that we entered litigation,” Berman wrote. He then introduced the Hareni club, which he says was created to support students who “are striving to live authentic, uncompromising halakhic lives.” The club, he said, was “agreed to by all of the parties to be in accordance with halacha, consistent with the rabbinic guidelines of the senior Roshei Yeshiva.” As a result of this agreement, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against YU accepted the creation of Hareni and moved to drop the case, leading to its dismissal. On Monday, Rav Hershel Schachter, the Rosh Yeshiva of YU, released a statement, saying: Two and a half years ago, when I was last consulted, I gave my blessing to a Yeshiva University initiative to help students struggling with problems of same sex attraction and gender identity. My position, then as now, emphatically rejects the ideology, lifestyle and behaviors which, the LGBTQ term represents. My position, then as now, is that all relevant prohibitions (homosexual behavior, same-sex marriage, castration, etc.) obviously must be uncompromisingly upheld. Simultaneously, all halachically legitimate means of support should be provided to struggling students to foster and sustain their uncompromising commitment to all of the above. I gave my blessing to providing guidance and support in maintaining full, uncompromising shmeras ha-mitzvos – to this sacred goal and nothing more. Experience has attested that allowing this initiative to take the form of a club has and continues to create confusion. I very much regret that I did not previously recognize this factor. Establishing any additional club in any orthodox institution will only add to that confusion and must be avoided. Despite Yeshiva University’s attempt to clarify its stance, lingering questions remain due to apparent contradictions in its policies and past actions. Just a few examples: YU currently employs a Bible professor who has openly advocated to disregard Judaism’s stance on toeiva marriages. From 2008 to 2021, the university employed an openly transgender professor. In 2022, the university’s social […]