Samuel Belkin

Rabbi Samuel Belkin (1911-1976) is best known as the second University President of Yeshiva University. He was born in Swislocz, Poland and studied in the yeshivas of Slonim and Mir. He went to the United States in 1929 and received his doctorate (concerned with the writings of Philo) at Brown University in 1935, one of the first awarded for Judaic studies in academia. He then joined the faculty of Yeshiva College, New York, and was appointed dean of its Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) in 1940. In 1943, Belkin became president of the college and the seminary and under his guidance the institution expanded to become Yeshiva University in 1945. As a scholar he published many works on Jewish law and Hellenistic literature.