Yeshiva University is a private university with four campuses in New York City, United States."About YU on the Yeshiva University website The university's undergraduate schools—Yeshiva College, Stern College for Women, and Sy Syms School of Business—offer a dual curriculum inspired by Modern–Centrist–Orthodox Judaism's hashkafa (philosophy) of Torah Umadda ("Torah and secular knowledge"), which synthesizes a secular academic education with the study of the Torah.
The majority of undergraduate students at the university identify as Modern Orthodox Jews. Hillel International estimates that nearly all of the university's undergraduate students are Jewish, while most of the graduate students are not, with the exception of those enrolled at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. This is especially the case at the Cardozo School of Law, the Sy Syms School of Business, the Katz School of Science and Health and the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology.
Yeshiva University is an independent institution chartered by New York State. It is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
History Yeshiva University has its roots in the Etz Chaim Yeshiva founded in 1886 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, a cheder-style elementary school founded by Eastern European immigrants that offered study of Talmud along with some secular education, including instruction in English. The rabbinical seminary was chartered in 1897.
When Lamm took office in 1976, Yeshiva was facing a serious financial crisis. As a result, some of the schools and programs had to be consolidated or closed. The renowned Belfer Graduate School of Science was closed in 1978. Once this was stabilized, additional divisions were added: For example, the Sy Syms School of Business, with divisions for both the undergraduate men and women was opened in 1988. At this time, many of the undergraduate students began to spend their first year (or more) studying in yeshivot and other schools in Israel, which has become an almost universal practice, and a Joint Israel Program regulating these studies was established to allow them to receive credit for this year at Yeshiva. RIETS also maintains a campus in Jerusalem, and many of the rabbinic students spend a year studying there as well. Over the course of Lamm's tenure, enrollment grew considerably to over 2000 undergraduate students. In addition to its undergraduate schools and affiliates, Yeshiva maintains graduate schools in Jewish studies, Jewish education and administration, social work, psychology, law, and medicine. There are over fifteen schools in total. In addition, numerous joint undergraduate-graduate programs with other schools in the New York area and beyond are maintained. The Yeshiva University Museum, an affiliate of the school, is now one of the components of the Center for Jewish History, located in downtown Manhattan.
Under Joel's leadership, Yeshiva University's endowment was invested in high-risk investments, including the funds of Bernard Madoff. Losses of at least $110 million resulted. In early 2014, Moody's lowered the school's bond rating by five steps to B1, junk bond level. To raise funds and cut costs, Yeshiva University has sold off real estate, and transferred control of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine to Montefiore Medical Center.
Joel created the Yeshiva University Center for the Jewish Future, folding other programs, both from within and from outside YU, into it.
In December 2012, Joel apologized over allegations that two rabbis at the college's high school campus abused boys there in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Investigations into these allegations by The Jewish Daily ForwardBerger, Paul, (Jane Eisner, ed.), "Yeshiva Officials, Rabbis Knew of Alleged Abuse" , The Forward, 20 December 2012 (issue of 28 December 2012). Via Yerachmiel Lopin's Frum Follies blog. Retrieved 25 December 2012. and a law firm hired by the university found "multiple instances in which the university either failed to appropriately act to protect the safety of its students or did not respond to the allegations at all." These allegations led to a 380 million dollar lawsuit by former students. The case has since been dismissed.
In 2012 the Middle States Commission on Higher Education warned the university "that its accreditation may be in jeopardy because of insufficient evidence that the institution is currently in compliance with Standard 10 (Faculty) and Standard 14 (Assessment of Student Learning)." On June 26, 2014, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, which accredits the university "reaffirmed accreditation", but requested a progress report "evidence that student learning assessment information is used to improve teaching and learning." This was accepted by the commission on November 17, 2016 (wherein the university met the minimum requirements for accreditation).Yeshiva University – Statement of Accreditation Status Middle States Commission on Higher Education, Jan 14, 2019
In January 2016, the university disclosed plans to cede almost half of its $1 billion endowment to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, as the medical college enters a separate joint venture with Montefiore Health System.
In the 2020–2021 school year, Yeshiva University enrolled approximately 2,250 undergraduate students, and 2,700 graduate students. It is also home to affiliated high schools—Yeshiva University High School for Boys and Yeshiva University High School for Girls—and the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS). It conferred 1,822 degrees in 2007 and offers community service projects serving New York, Jewish communities, the United States and Canada.This is Yeshiva University: 2007–2008 As of 2015, the university had run an operating deficit for seven consecutive years. In 2014, it lost $84 million, and in 2013, it suffered a loss of $64 million.Moshael Straus Elected Yeshiva U. Board Chief The Jewish Daily Forward, 30 April 2015
In July 2026, the university received a $12.5 million donation from alumnus Alex Tsigutkin and his wife Diana, to support a new undergraduate electrical and computer engineering program, scholarships, engineering classrooms and laboratories.
Presidents Bernard Revel 1915–1940 Samuel Belkin, 1943–1975 Norman Lamm, 1976–2003 Richard M. Joel, 2003–2017 Ari Berman, 2017–present
Academics
Schools The university's academic programs are organized into the following schools: Yeshiva College for Men Stern College for Women Sy Syms School of Business Graduate and professional schools Katz School of Science and Health Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law Wurzweiler School of Social Work Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology Sy Syms School of Business Affiliates Albert Einstein College of Medicine The Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy – Yeshiva University High School for Boys Samuel H. Wang Yeshiva University High School for Girls Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary Philip and Sarah Belz School of Jewish Music
Rankings
The U.S. News & World Report'''s 2025 "America's Best Colleges" ranked Yeshiva University 98th (tie) in National University.
In 2023, Forbes ranked Yeshiva University as: No. 226 in "Top colleges 2023", No. 118 in Private Colleges, No. 143 in Research Universities, and No. 82 in the Northeast. Nationally, Yeshiva was ranked 138th by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, and internationally it is ranked in the 900s by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Academic Ranking of World Universities and 369th in the world by the QS World University Rankings.
Ranked #2, Best Online Master's in Cybersecurity in the U.S. by Fortune Magazine.
Campuses The university's main campus, Wilf Campus, is located in the Washington Heights neighborhood of upper Manhattan. Yeshiva University's main office is located within the Wilf Campus, at 500 West 185th St. A 1928 plan to build a spacious Moorish Revival campus around several gardens and courtyards was canceled by the Great Depression of 1929 after only one building had been erected. Building continued after the Depression in modern style and by the acquisition of existing neighborhood buildings.
Since it was founded in 1886, Yeshiva University has expanded to comprise some twenty colleges, schools, affiliates, centers, and institutions, with several affiliated hospitals and healthcare institutions. It has campuses and facilities in Manhattan (Washington Heights, Murray Hill, Greenwich Village), the Bronx, Queens, and Israel.
The Yeshiva University Museum is a teaching museum and the cultural arm of Yeshiva University. Founded in 1973, Yeshiva University Museum is AAMG accredited and aims to provide a window into Jewish culture around the world and throughout history through multi-disciplinary exhibitions and publications.
The university's building in Jerusalem, in the Bayit VeGan neighborhood, contains a branch of the rabbinical seminary and an office coordinating the S. Daniel Abraham Israel Program. Under the latter, first year students studying in selected Israeli Yeshivot are considered YU undergraduates.
Student life Student publications The undergraduate university newspaper is The Commentator, and the newspaper for Stern College is The Observer. Law students at Cardozo also edit and publish five law journals. There are numerous other publications on a wide range of topics, both secular and religious, produced by the various councils and academic student organizations, along with many official university publications and the university press. The call letters of the student radio station are WYUR, and it is currently an Internet-only station.
LGBTQ+ club controversy and lawsuit
Yeshiva University has been involved in legal proceedings since April 2021 after it blocked official recognition of a Pride Alliance club for undergraduate LGBTQ+ students and their allies.
Controversy over LGBTQ-supportive undergraduate groups has been ongoing since at least 2009, when students created a "Tolerance Club." Its purpose was to promote acceptance of diversity of people within the Yeshiva University community. A founding member said that the group had "determined that the school’s lack of diversity has fostered significant insensitivity to those outside of the mainstream Y.U. culture" and aimed to address that issue. The group's members included undergraduates at both the men's and women's campuses. Although not organized to address LGBTQ issues specifically, the group's promotion of tolerance for sexual and gender diversity generated controversy on the Yeshiva University campus; the student newspaper reported that the administration quashed a panel discussion because they objected to one of the speakers, a gay Orthodox rabbi. This controversy came to a head when the Tolerance student organization sponsored a panel discussion entitled "Being Gay in the Orthodox World" in December, 2009. Several hundred people attended this panel discussion. Numerous Jewish news sources covered the panel and the conflict that enveloped the Yeshiva campus in its wake, and the Tolerance Club disbanded in May 2010.