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Yeshiva University President Richard Joel spoke at Congregation Ohr Torah Feb. 7 as part of its series on issues in modern orthodoxy. Joel spoke about the importance of higher education and the role that Torah values play in that education.

Joel opened his speech by discussing a meeting he had with former President George W. Bush two years ago at the president's annual meeting with leaders in Jewish higher education. Bush told Joel that he believed higher education is important because students need to learn how to compete in the global economy.

"I asked him, 'Mr. President, we all agree with that,'" Joel said. "I know I come from a university where the theme is that the purpose of education is to ennoble and enable. Maybe we should teach them what values they should bring to the competition, how they should compete in the world economy, and what they should do once they're successful in competing in the global economy."

Joel said the discussion was a good one because it pushed the discussion of what school systems need more of.

"We spent a lot of our hard labor on education as if it's a matter of life and death," Joel said. "But it's not a matter of life and death. It begs the question: Do we really believe in education or do we believe in the job competition in the global economy?"

Joel pointed out that an Orthodox home could send their children to Baltimore yeshiva Ner Yisroel, receive a bachelor's of teaching and learning, and go to law school, virtually bypassing the educational experience but getting a great education in Torah values.

"I've heard concerns: when did the Jewish community lose its commitment to liberal arts and science?" Joel said. "When did we lose our commitment to a broad liberal arts education? I don't know if we ever really had that commitment. For our parents and our grandparents, the goal was to get a college education. And for many, it was just that simple -- get a college education. What came with the college education, much more then than now, was the glory of ideas, expanding the mind to acculturate to the United States and its culture."

If a liberal arts education was not a high priority in the Orthodox community, Joel said, why is it necessary?

"I do know my understanding of what it means to be a serious Jew," Joel said. "Knowledge of the world, not just competing in the global economy; knowledge of ideas and exploration is central to the mission of what a Jew is supposed to do in the world. And therefore, ignoring that mutates the Torah… education is not about how to compete in the global economy. Education is not about downloading information."

Joel said in his speech that he firmly believes that education is a socialization experience "and not just an information download." However, the pressure on students in colleges to succeed today ruins the social aspect of college for some. Additionally, Joel believes that an "enormous sense of greed that's filled… the news cycle" has affected all aspects of a student's life. What Joel seeks to fix is the conversation around the Shabbat table, which he says reflects this greed and does not reflect on the values of the Jewish community.

"We are, as a community, what we say at our Shabbos table," Joel said. "We are not what we eat, but what matters to us. It's what matters to us as a people."

Opposite of what a program at Ner Yisroel might offer, Joel believes that "an education without values is valueless."

"We go to terrible lengths in this country to strip the education systems from values," Joel said. "We're increasingly creating a technocratic soul. So while the rest of the world is lurching after their extremism and fundamentalism based on poor values, we are trying to compete with the global economy."

The pressure to succeed and to choose a career that will bring the most money is so great that more and more kids are taking off before college solely because they do not know what they want to do with their lives, Joel said.

Another factor affecting students' decisions regarding majors and life courses is affected by globalization, which Joel said "made individuals feel more anonymous."

"Everything's pushed together and automated," Joel said. "We were able to have that gift of unawareness. Couple that smallness with the fact that extremism has destroyed values. If you have crazy people who are willing to give their own lives in order to destroy others, values don't help you anymore."

This feeling of anonymity, combined with technological advances that dumb down culture and conversation to "instant intimate communication," can leave a student lost and confused while getting his education, Joel said. He believes that the way to combat this is to encourage children "to focus on the values."

"We need to re-teach them what the freedom of commitment means," Joel said. "We are a people of obligation, where we give our kids the gift to say they get to matter by taking responsibility and education is the process of enforcing and reinforcing in students the passion and the possibilities of taking the responsibility for themselves, for their loved ones, and for those around them."

The Torah perspective, Joel concluded, is to live a life informed by Torah in order to take on the world and improve it.

"I think higher education is to ennoble and enable the student," Joel said. "Of course they should be able to work on Wall Street. But in a context and wholeness and in a context of holiness, they need the balance of ideas and ideals. I believe that in higher education, you need to expose your children to a place where they can grow in Torah, in quality academics, and an environment of inspiration."