8:50PM EST: YWN regrets to inform you of the Petira (passing) of Rabbi Dr. Bernard Lander (94), founder and president of Touro College, and Landers College – just moments ago in his Queens home. Paramedics from Queens Hatzolah were rushed to his home, and attempted to save his life, but were unfortunately unsuccessful.
Among the things Rabbi Dr. Lander is most famous for accomplishing in his lifetime are the founding of Touro College, Lander’s college for men & women, and Yeshiva Ohr HaChaim in Queens, where his son Rav Daniel Lander Shlita serves as its Rosh Yeshiva.
Rabbi Dr. Lander built Touro College from scratch into an institution with an international presence. Today, Touro College/Touro University is a multi-campus, international university with more than 23,000 students at campus locations in New York, California, Florida, Nevada, Israel, Russia and Germany.
Dr. Lander is also an Honorary Vice President of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.
He is survived by his son, Rav Daniel Lander Shlita, Rosh HaYeshiva of Yeshiva Ohr HaChaim (Queens, NY), his daughters: Mrs. Ester Greenfield, Mrs. Debbie Waxman and Mrs. Hana Lander, his many grandchildren and great-grand children.
The Levaya is scheduled for Tuesday morning at 11:00AM at Yeshiva Ohr HaChaim, 141-61 71 Ave (Kew Gardens Hills, Queens).
Boruch Dayan Emmes…
(Yehuda Drudgestein – YWN)
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19 Responses
Dr. Lander ob”m was a very gifted person he did great work for klal yisrael. he will be missed but his legacy lives on. yehi zichro baruch
Dr. Bernard Lander, founder and president of Touro College, is a social scientist and educator, a preeminent leader in the Jewish community and a pioneer in Jewish and general higher education. As associate director of former New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia’s Committee on Unity, a precursor to the city’s Commission on Human Rights and a leading organization in the nation attacking discrimination and prejudice, Dr. Lander promoted key fair employment legislation and attacked discriminatory quotas in higher education. An ordained rabbi, he holds a doctorate in sociology from Columbia University.
Dr. Lander’s record of achievement in creating and building new educational institutions is unparalleled. In 1950, he served as president of the Queens Jewish Center where, under his leadership, a school building was constructed. Two years later he co-founded Yeshiva Dov Revel, a major day school in Queens. He also served on the founders committee for Bar-Ilan University in the early 1950s. Prior to establishing Touro College in 1971, he served as a professor of sociology for over two decades at City University of New York. He served as dean of Yeshiva University’s Bernard Revel Graduate School from 1954 through 1969 and reorganized Y.U.’s graduate programs into the schools of social work, education and psychology between 1954 and 1959. Today, Touro College/Touro University is a multi-campus, international institution with more than 17,500 students at campus locations in New York, California, Florida, Nevada, Israel, Russia, Germany and France, and is one of the few institutions of higher learning that has attained university accreditation in multiple states.
Dr. Lander has served as a consultant to three United States presidents. He was a consultant to the White House Conference on Children and Youth; served on an advisory council on public assistance established by Congress; and was a member of the President’s Advisory Committee on Juvenile Delinquency and Youth Crime in the Johnson and Kennedy administrations. For eight years he acted as a senior director of a national study on the problems of youth for the University of Notre Dame of South Bend, Indiana. He is the author of “Towards an Understanding of Juvenile Delinquency,” published by Columbia University Press, and numerous articles in the field of sociology. Dr. Lander also worked as a consultant to the Maryland State Commission on Juvenile Delinquency. He has been honored by the Council of New York State College Presidents for his lifetime contribution to higher education. A former Rabbi of Beth Jacob Congregation of Baltimore, Dr. Lander served over thirty years as a vice president of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.
BD”E
Rabbi Dr. Bernard Lander — A great man with a brilliant visionary mind who was granted arichas yamim to live to see so many of his dreams realized and accomplished with enormous success. I was happy and grateful to talk technology and the future with him occasionally over the last several years. Michael G. Samet, Ph.D.
I had the pleasure of meeting and working on a few things with Dr. Lander in the last few years. By ANY definition we have lost a true Godol Hador
Baruch dian haemet. Dr Lander was a truly amazing man.
I had the honor of meeting Dr. Lander twice, he was a very humble and kind person. I really enjoyed working at his Touro LA. American Jewry has lost a great wise man. However, he has left behing a legacy.
Bijan Zangan
Baruch Dayan Haaemes. May the family have much nechama.
BDE. Rabbi Dr. Lander was a truly great man. A man of vision and heart. And the main sign of how great he was lay in his unbelievable anivus, and I’m sure he knew who he was and what his kochas hanefesh were. I worked for him as a professor at Touro for many many productive years. Chaval al d’avdin vlo mishtakchin.
Dr Lander gave me and many like me the ability to learn in yeshiva and go to school at night with out compromising any of our ideals , he provided us with a means to support families and still educate ourselves anyone who has gone through the schools and the Am in general owes R’ DR Lander a great deal
Yehi zichro baruch
Baruch dayan haemes. Dr. Lander was a dreamer and doer and inspired others to dream and accomplish. You can listen to the levaya by calling 888-265-4641 and dial 4093565165#.
a doer and dreamer but lman true kovod hatorah it must be said he was a gadol hador by no definition
yackov i thought Hashem provided you with that, my mistake
13-
Why not be Dan me Lchaf Zechus as you would expect me to be towards you. Of course the KBH gave us all that , I dont think that your snide comments are fair to me and are mean spirited, in yehadus we do have an idea of hakaras hatov to people and not just to the Ribono Shel Oilam, but thanks for stating the obvious and being mevayesh me
Rabbi Lander fundamentally changed the structure of Jewish education for many sincere orthodox Jews who wanted a proper environment for the study of both secular and religious studies. While he may not have been a great halachic authority I see his innovations and investments in Jewish education as deserving of the designation of godol hador.
Yackov I apologize
15 delman are you saying every innovator is a gadal hador? did Rav Aharon Kotler, Rav Moshe Feinstien, Rav Hutner, or any real Gedoley hador approve of this fundamental change?
as president Obama has been proving not all change is good, At least before Touro there was a distinction between Torah and secular studies Im not sure we really make that distinction any more, and the greatest proof is that you would call, DR lander Z”L a Gadol Hador.
to 17:
Touro was opened with the bracha of Rav Yaakov ZT”L.
#17, It is quite ironic how you give yourself the modest name “a jew,” yet you have no problem deciding what it takes to be a “real” Gadol Hador, while knocking Rabbi Dr. Lander, zt”l in the process. Kindly keep your rude deragatory thoughts to yourself. And by the way, Rav Hutner zt”l was ready to establish a combined Yeshiva and college, but did not out of respect for Rav Ahron Koler, zt”l. Rav Hutner did however allow students to go to Brooklyn College and Touro while learning at Yeshiva Chaim Berlin, clearly approving of “this fundamental change” (what change?). Rabbi Dr. Lander, zt”l created programs specifically aimed at helping Yeshiva students to at the very least have a backup plan. Yehi Zichro Baruch.