As a precursory evaluation to the University's Israel school reaccredidation process, YU has removed five schools from its S. Daniel Abraham Israel Program. The decision was made by a committee headed by Revel and Stern College Professor Ephraim Kanarfogel under the aegis of the Office of University Life.
No formal statement was released by the University explaining the decision to part ways with these schools before the first formal stage of the reaccredidation process begins.
The list includes three men's yeshivot: Neveh Zion, Shaarei Yerushalayim and Shvut Israel. The two women's seminaries no longer on the Program are Ba'er Miriam and Neve Yerushalayim. All changes to the SDAIP school list were updated last week on the Program's website and will be effective for the '08-'09 academic year.
In addition to the two seminaries, Michlelet Esther, a branch of Neve Yerushalayim, was also removed from the SDAIP.
YU's formal reevaluation of the remaining 43 schools on the Israel Program commences later this month. According to University officials, the reevaluation of undergraduate credit for these schools will involve four major factors: the percentage of students who had formerly planned to attend Yeshiva who do so after their year in Israel, the academic and programmatic quality of the Israeli yeshivot and seminaries, the ideological and educational stances of Israeli schools compared to those of YU and the Israeli programs' overall openness and willingness to communicate with YU.
None of the men's schools on this list send a critical number of students to YU. Currently, there are only two students living on Wilf Campus Housing who previously attended Neveh Zion, one from Shaarei Yerushalaim and none from Shvut Yisrael in Efrat.
Among the women's schools, only Ba'er Miriam served as a considerable feeder seminary for Stern College. In addition, Ba'er Miriam is the sister school of Rabbi Levi Orbach's, one of the men's schools removed from SDAIP.
Prior to this, only three schools have been removed from the S. Daniel Abraham Israel Program; Bais Yisroel, Derech Etz Chaim and Toras Moshe. One women's seminary, Bnot Torah headed by Rabbi Label Sharfman voluntarily asked to be removed from the Program.
