Richard Joel has devoted virtually his entire professional career serving the Jewish community … directing Yeshiva University’s Torah Leadership Seminar programs … serving as the President of Hillel International… and leading Yeshiva University as its fourth president.

I had a chance to speak to him so he could reflect on his professional career and look back at the various challenges he faced.

Below is a transcript of our discussion:

Who were the earliest Jewish role models in your life — rabbis, teachers, family members — who shaped your understanding of what Jewish leadership should look like? 

From the beginning, my parents modeled celebrating life, showing Jewish pride, and showering love on me. My grandparents gave the reflection of the old world, and a model of simple, pure faith. As I grew, my synagogue leadership in Yonkers–Rabbi Nissen Shulman and Cantor Benjamin Gottlieb and their families–were close role models for me. I don’t think there was a specific focus on leadership; it was more about personal responsibility and mattering to others.

In my late teens, Dr Abraham Stern, director of the youth bureau of Yeshiva University, and his wife Malka, personified Jewish leadership and taught by example. Finally, my father-in-law, Irving Ribner, embodied so many traits of yashrus, living life as a servant of G-d.

You devoted your entire professional life to Jewish communal service. Was there a particular moment or influence that crystallized for you that this would not just be your job, but your life’s calling? 

Not yet. My wife Esther saw it before I did. We both wanted to matter by living our lives with purpose, but it centered around family and community. We were always involved in community and societal issues, but home was the core. I always had an interest in public service and wanted to “make it better.” I began my professional life as an assistant district attorney and as a youth director. And our involvement in YU youth programs was very meaningful. Another real influence was our involvement in the establishment of a chevra kadisha. But I never sought out a career in Jewish life.

During your presidency of Yeshiva University, you worked to elevate both its academic standing and its religious mission. How did you balance strengthening Torah values with advancing academic excellence, and what do you see as your most enduring contribution there? 

I see a YU education as a whole package: living in an inspired community, learning Torah, and through the lens of Torah, learning all of God’s other gifts, so that we can develop a nature of sheleimut, of wholeness, and to partner with G-d in continuing the work of creation.  The concept of Torah u’Madda, of synthesis, is the worldview I grew with and keep living with.  It’s the world of the Rav, of Rabbi Norman Lamm, of Rabbi Zevulun Charlop, and of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. In that context, it........

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