A Man of Vision: Rabbi Dr. Bernard Lander ז"ל

I remember the first time I met him as if it was yesterday. It was after a long five hour flight from my hometown of San Diego and my first New York City taxi ride from JFK Airport to Kew Gardens Hills, Queens that I met one of the greatest Jewish leaders of the 20th century. Rabbi Dr. Bernie Lander welcomed us, the second class of students to inhabit the magnificent space of The Lander College for Men. He did not just speak about providing an institution of academic excellence or about making it, the experience of college education, more accessible to Orthodox Jews; he spoke about the creation of a new generation of Jewish Orthodox leadership. He spoke about the leadership that Jews who at once firmly rooted in their Mesorah and also highly engaged in their professional lives could exhibit in the Jewish community. He told us that "Landers," as we affectionately called our college, would be the place that would forge us into the best of citizens, members of the public square, and talmidei chachamim, serious life-long students of Torah and our tradition.

To hear him speak was so utterly inspiring. It was not only inspiring because you could feel the passion with which he spoke but because here was a man that was well past the age of retirement going about the business of transforming the Jewish educational world throughout the entire world. He did not rest after the creation of Touro College in Flatbush nor after creating his subsequent schools in Manhattan, Queens, California, Russia, Germany and in every other place where there was potential to positively impact Jewish lives.

He gave his entire life to the betterment and advancement of Jewish and secular education. He had a vision one day many years ago and carried that vision with him through the many decades of his life. He was relentless in the fulfillment of that vision and worked tirelessly to see its realization. There are few times in a person's life where one gets to sit at the feet and learn from true greatness. I feel tremendously fortunate to have had such an opportunity during my college years with Dr. Lander. The entire Jewish community has suffered a tremendous loss with his passing and I for one will truly miss him.

May his resting place be in Gan Eden and may his soul be bound up in the bonds of life.