Don’t Ditch the Ivies

Six months ago, it would have been a no-brainer. Six months ago — before Jewish and Israeli speakers were shouted down, campus marches parroted blood libels, and student-led BDS resolutions proliferated — an acceptance would have marked the end of the decision-making process.

On Thursday, March 28, the Ivy League schools released their application decisions. Despite the rapidly-shrinking self-imposed quota on Jews accepted into these schools, as documented in Tablet by Armin Rosen, a still sizable number of Jewish students beat the odds and received a golden ticket. But the open hostility on those campuses since the attacks of Oct. 7 have changed the once-easy conversation. 

At Yeshiva University (YU), I haven’t experienced any belligerence. The worst enmity I know of was a failed attempt at burning a restaurant’s Israeli flag a block from campus, and I didn’t hear about it until the New York Post picked it up two weeks later. Our students mobilize to arrange support missions and days of loving-kindness instead of Jew hatred and acrimony. 

For me, YU offers unmatched intellectual and religious benefits. I relish the seven hours a day I get to spend in the Beis Medrash studying Torah. I am blessed to study Jewish thought and history rigorously, with the confidence that my professors approach academic Judaic Studies as G-d-fearing Jews. I could not invoke the Talmudic sages’ distinction between ownership and possession in a class discussion about John Locke’s defense of private property in any other university; Yeshiva University allows me to develop religiously and academically, in harmony. If these opportunities excite a potential Ivy League admit, I welcome them with open arms aboard a well-trodden path. 

Similarly, if another educational institution provides a better fit than the “elite” universities — whether because of a certain academic specialty, a desired professor, or even a fierce desire to avoid brutal New England winters — I encourage those students to take advantage.

The Jewish people — and patriotic Americans — cannot afford to simply give up on the Ivies and their peers; we must not cede the credentials they offer to our antagonizers.

But concerns about campus rancor, while legitimate, should not be the reason to flee from the Ivies for calmer pastures, at YU or otherwise. The Jewish people — and patriotic Americans — cannot afford to simply give up on the Ivies and their peers; we must not cede the credentials they offer to our antagonizers.

I share the righteous indignation towards the moral rot revealed in post-secondary education. I do not dispute that the scandal of Claudine Gay’s plagiarism and moral failure represents just a tip of the iceberg of the intellectual corruption that reaches the highest levels. But I also know that hundreds of years of ubiquitous name recognition does not disappear overnight. The Columbia or Harvard name on a diploma still carries weight and will continue to do so, even amongst those of us who feel nothing but disdain for those institutions. As much as we might want to deny it, “Yale University” on the top of a resume creates a unique impression in nearly all professional contexts.

Jewish communal interests — including but not limited to American support for the State of Israel — require Zionists and committed Jews to have a foot in the door at the uppermost levels of government and public policy. Rightly or wrongly, those positions generally require elite credentials, and to have people in place twenty years from now requires braving the storm today.

Jewish communal interests — including but not limited to American support for the State of Israel — require Zionists and committed Jews to have a foot in the door at the uppermost levels of government and public policy. Rightly or wrongly, those positions generally require elite credentials, and to have people in place 20 years from now requires braving the storm today. If, instead, the Jewish community abandons these schools entirely, we will be set back for a generation. The reality is, a large portion of future presidential administrations and congressional staffers will come from the ranks of Ivy League alumni or those who graduated similarly-regarded schools. It would be irresponsible to abandon the playing field.

I do not envy the next four years those Jewish students will face in the lion’s den. I can only imagine how difficult it must be to sit in Calculus with students who protest in support of Hamas in their free time. But our shared mission beckons. The Jewish people need leaders with access to the halls of power, emerging both from YU, with the Judaic grounding and synthesis that it provides, and from the ivory towers of Princeton, Cambridge and Philadelphia.

Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman, the president of Yeshiva University, often stresses “hakol lichvodo,” that all of our actions should be in the service of G-d and the Jewish people. For those who received an invitation to what Dr. Gil Troy has termed the “Poisoned Ivies,” I urge you to not shy away from your responsibility to our people and to America. 

In Megillas Esther, Mordechai beseeches Esther, “Who knows if it was for this occasion that you were elevated to royalty?” To those fortunate enough — or perhaps, unfortunate enough — to be accepted to an Ivy League school, you have an opportunity through which you will be able to help our nation. To throw that aside — to ditch the Ivies — would be short-sighted and an abdication. I urge you to take advantage, and I look forward to working with you from here in Washington Heights.

Matthew Minsk is a sophomore at Yeshiva University majoring in political science and mathematical economics. He is a Straus Scholar at the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought.