View source for Stern College for Women

{{Short description|Jewish women's college in Manhattan, New York}}
{{Use American English|date=September 2025}}
[[File:Stern College for Women - Yeshiva University (51878226726).jpg|thumb|325x325px|245 Lexington Avenue, known familiarly as "the Stern Building," is a campus hub, including a beit midrash (study hall), cafeteria, library, and science labs.]]
The '''Stern College for Women''' (SCW) is the [[undergraduate]] [[Women's colleges in the United States|women's college]] of [[Liberal arts|arts and sciences]] of [[Yeshiva University]]. It is located at the university's Israel Henry Beren Campus in the [[Murray Hill, Manhattan|Murray Hill]] section of [[Manhattan, New York|Manhattan]].

The college provides programs in the sciences, social sciences, humanities, and Jewish studies, along with combined degree programs in dentistry, physical therapy, and engineering, among others. It grants the bachelor of arts degree, and also awards the [[Associate of Arts]] degree in [[Hebrew language]], literature, and culture.  SCW's dual undergraduate curriculum includes the Basic Jewish Studies Program, a one- to two-year introduction to [[Bible]], [[Jewish law]], and [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] that allows students without traditional [[yeshiva]] or [[day school]] backgrounds to be integrated into SCW's regular Jewish studies courses.  The Rebecca Ivry Department of Jewish Studies offers courses ranging from elementary to advanced levels in Bible, Hebrew, Jewish history, Jewish philosophy, and Jewish laws and customs. The S. Daniel Abraham Honors Program stresses writing, critical analysis, cultural enrichment, individual mentoring, and the development of leadership skills.

SCW was established in 1954, based on a gift from the late industrialist [[Max Stern (businessman)|Max Stern]].<ref name=about />  Today it serves more than 2,000 students from approximately two dozen U.S. states and a similar number of nations, including students registered at Syms School of Business.

==History==

SCW opened in September 1954 with an incoming class of 32 students. The school was named in honor of Emanuel and Caroline Stern, the parents of [[Max Stern (businessman)|Max Stern]], who was a major contributor to the building of the college. SCW was founded as a response to YU’s post-WWII goals within the Orthodox Jewish community, one of which was to expand the impact of Orthodox Judaism on the greater American Jewish community<ref name="auto">{{Cite book|last=Gurock|first=Jeffrey S.|date=June 23, 2021|chapter=Stern College for Women|title=Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women|url=https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/stern-college-for-women#:~:text=Founded%20in%201954%2C%20Stern%20College,and%20in%20traditional%20Jewish%20studies.|website=Jewish Women's Archive}}</ref> Between 1945–1954, YU also opened a medical school, and graduate schools for Jewish social work, education, and psychology, as well as a community service department.<ref name="auto"/> Enrollment in SCW quickly grew to 500 students as the school offered diverse programs, which met the educational needs of students from different religious backgrounds. In the early years, the majority of students’ career goal was to be a school teacher, thus making it easy to develop a curriculum.

Karen Bacon, a 1964 graduate of SCW who had earned a PhD in microbiology from UCLA and worked as an assistant professor of biology at UCLA, was appointed the dean of SCW in 1977. She was the first woman to hold the position. In 1977, shortly after Rabbi Norman Lamm was appointed the president of YU, the administration worked to develop a more intensive, text-based Jewish studies program for SCW, including creating a Beit Midrash (Jewish study hall).<ref name="auto1">{{Cite web|last=Berman|first=Saul|date=October 9, 2017|title=Forty Years Later: The Rav's Opening Shiur at the Stern College for Women Beit Midrash|url=https://thelehrhaus.com/commentary/forty-years-later-the-rav%E2%80%99s-opening-shiur-at-the-stern-college-for-women-beit-midrash/|website=The Lehrhau}}</ref> On October 11, 1977, Rabbi Joseph Dov Soloveitchik delivered the introductory shiur (lecture) to inaugurate the program.<ref name="auto1"/> In 1980, SCW restructured its Jewish studies department to offer students the opportunity to study classical Jewish texts. In 1987, the Sy Syms School of Business (since renamed Syms School of Business) was established.

In 2001, the Graduate Program in Advanced Talmudic Studies (GPATS) was established. The program offers high-level Torah study, and graduates move on to serve as scholars in communities and schools in the United States and Israel.<ref name="auto"/> As of 2019, there are 977 students enrolled in SCW and 187 in the Syms School of Business.

==Building==
[[File:Packard Commercial School, Lexington Ave. And 35th St., New York (NYPL b12647398-79510).tiff|thumb|Packard Commercial School]]

The school's building at 253 [[Lexington Avenue]] at the corner of [[35th Street (Manhattan)|East 35th Street]] in the Murray Hill was built in 1911 for the Packard Commercial School &ndash; which later became [[Packard Business College]] and Packard Junior College &ndash; at the cost of $250,000. In 1954 it was taken over by Yeshiva University for the inaugural class of the Stern College for Women.<ref>[http://maps.nyc.gov/doitt/nycitymap/?z=8&p=990067,211338&c=GISBasic&s=a:253,LEXINGTON+AVENUE,MANHATTAN "253 Lexington Avenue"] on the New York City Geographic Information Services map</ref><ref name="about">[http://yu.edu/stern/about/mission-history/ "Stern College for Women: About"] on the [[Yeshiva University]] website</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=32hYAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22253+Lexington+Avenue%22+Manhattan+architect&pg=RA10-PA60 |title=The American Contractor |volume=31 |publisher=F.W. Dodge Corporation |year=1910}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[List of Jewish universities and colleges in the United States]]

==References==
'''Notes'''
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
*{{official website|http://www.yu.edu/stern/}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070524040311/http://www.yu.edu/jumpstart/page.aspx?id=10850&ekmensel=586_submenu_0_link_2 The Basic Jewish Studies Program]
*[http://www.yuobserver.org/ ''Observer'']
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{{Yeshiva University}}
{{Current women's universities and colleges in the United States}}
{{Midtown South, Manhattan}}
{{Midtown East, Manhattan}}

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[[Category:Jewish universities and colleges in the United States]]
[[Category:Orthodox Jewish universities and colleges]]
[[Category:Universities and colleges in Manhattan]]
[[Category:Women's universities and colleges in the United States]]
[[Category:Yeshiva University]]
[[Category:1954 establishments in New York City]]
[[Category:History of women in New York City]]