Joseph Lieberman, the former Connecticut senator and the Democratic vice presidential candidate in 2000, will teach at Yeshiva University during this school year in a position named for him.
Lieberman was appointed the Joseph Lieberman Chair in Public Policy and Public Service. He will teach one undergraduate course as well as give three public lectures, two concerning Judaism and the Middle East.
“I am excited about working with the students at Y.U. to engage and inform their interest in public policy and public service,” Lieberman said in a statement distributed Thursday by the university.
The Lieberman Chair was established through a gift from Ira and Ingeborg Rennert, benefactors of the university in New York.
Lieberman in the statement said he was “surprised” to be the chair’s first occupant.
“Joe Lieberman was the first Jewish candidate on a national ticket and has become an iconic figure – that’s important for history,” said Y.U. President Richard Joel. “But Joe Lieberman is much more than that. He’s a passionate Jew, a statesman and a man of integrity.”
Lieberman was the first Orthodox Jew to serve in the Senate and was a Connecticut senator from 1989-2006 as a Democrat and from 2007-2012 as an Independent who caucused with Democrats. He holds an honorary doctorate from Yeshiva University.
