YCT Board Enthusiastically Endorses Rabbi Linzer as President of YCT

December 20, 2018

We are thrilled to announce that last week, the YCT board enthusiastically endorsed the appointment of Rabbi Dov Linzer as President of YCT. Rabbi Linzer’s title will now be President and Rosh HaYeshiva. “I am delighted to partner with Rabbi Linzer in this new role,” said YCT board chair Dan Perla. “Rabbi Linzer has long been involved in many of the yeshiva’s advocacy and development efforts. I believe he is uniquely suited to serve as the yeshiva’s public face and head of its development efforts.”

Since August, Rabbi Linzer has been largely assuming the responsibilities of president, in addition to those of Rosh HaYeshiva, and has truly distinguished himself in this new leadership role: the Beit Midrash is filled with energy, our musmakhim and stakeholders are engaged and inspired, donors have been increasing their support, and new donors are being cultivated. Rabbi Linzer has already shepherded new and exciting initiatives: the NYU-YCT Certificate Program in Spiritual Leadership and Social Impact; partnerships in training rabbis for Israel engagement with iCenter and iEngage; and new Torah podcasts: Pastoral Parsha, Parsha in Progress, and Iggros Moshe A to Z. One of Rabbi Linzer’s top priorities is an ongoing investment in bringing the depth and power of our Torah, and our vision of an expansive Orthodoxy that is engaging and empowering, to the larger Orthodox community and to all of Klal Yisrael.

“I am honored to have been named as President of YCT, and I am blessed to be working with an amazing team, and to have such strong supporters in the community,” Rabbi Linzer said. “It’s been an exhilarating first few months, and we have made great strides in this short time.”

“My first and primary love,” he continued, “has always been the Beit Midrash, the learning and teaching of Torah. Those will always remain my, and the yeshiva’s, priorities. In our semikha klaf we say that we have found this rabbi fit ‘to be marbitz Torah, spread Torah, to learn and to teach, to make God’s name beloved to all, and to connect individuals and communities to God.’ In all of our Torah learning and professional training, in our leading and serving in synagogues, camps, schools, on college campuses, and as chaplains, and as spiritual entrepreneurs finding new ways to engage young professionals and the unaffiliated, our goal is simply this: to be marbitzei Torah, to be there for people, in mind, body and soul, to spread a Torah that engages and elevates, that connects people to a life of Torah and mitzvot, to yiddishkeit, to the Jewish community, and to God. We have already seen enormous success in our first 20 years, with 125 musmakhim now in the field, and I pray that God continues to bless me and the yeshiva to go from strength to strength for our next 20 years and beyond, leading, sustaining and inspiring Klal Yisrael.”