Jehuda Reinharz never wanted to be the president of Brandeis University. In fact, the chairman of the Board of Trustees had to ask Reinharz three times, over the course of three months, to take the job. Finally, Reinharz accepted the position in spring of 1994 under pressure from his colleagues, as well as his wife Shulamit, who told him that he was always criticizing the way the University was run and, according to Reinharz, said, "Why don't we see what you can do?"

Now, 10 years since the Board confirmed Reinharz in a matter of minutes, he sits confidently behind a mammoth desk in his wood-paneled office. It is a room dotted with pictures, commemorative plates, plaques and a variety of books, all bearing testament to the honors Reinharz has received as a result of his hard work at Brandeis.

Perhaps the most symbolic piece in the room is the Daffy Duck coffee mug-with the cartoon character's full orange bill protruding from its side-that frequently sits on the desk of the president. Ten years ago, when the Justice first interviewed Reinharz in the same room, the same coffee mug sat on the same desk.

Daffy may not realize it, but he has had the fortune of watching Reinharz transform this university from a struggling institution plagued with financial and administrative problems, to the little-engine-that-could research and academic powerhouse that it is today.

During his inaugural address, Reinharz stated that Brandeis is supported by four major pillars: Academic Excellence, Social Justice, Non-Sectarianism and Jewish Sponsorship. Under his leadership, each of these areas have grown and developed in the past decade.



Academic Excellence

"Academic excellence can be defined in many, many ways," Reinharz said. "The faculty has always been outstanding. It was excellent when I was a graduate student here and it was excellent when I was a faculty member here, and it was excellent when I became president. Nothing has changed. I think it is just getting better all the time, and we continue to get the best faculty that we want to hire anytime we have a position open."

While Reinharz feels that he has merely continued the tradition of an excellent faculty, he speaks with confidence about changes in the student body under his leadership.

"I think that we used to have weakness in terms of the student body," Reinharz said. "We accepted too many students, and too few accepted us. The acceptance rate when I came in was 68 percent, which is way too high for an institution like Brandeis."

According to Dean of Admisions Deena Whitfield, the acceptance rate is now around 43 percent. Reinharz wants it to dip below 40 percent.

Professor David Hackett Fischer (HIST), who has taught history at Brandeis since 1962, said that the quality of both the faculty and student body hit hard times in the late 1960s. Since then, Fischer said he has witnessed a continuous rebuilding of the school, which he said really took off under the leadership of President Samuel O. Thier, Reinharz' predecessor.

"I have seen a remarkable improvement in the quality of students I have taught over the past 10 to 15 years," Fischer said. "Though this process may have begun slightly before [Reinharz'] time, the improvement has been striking in his presidency."

Not only has Reinharz worked to improve academic standards of applicants, but he has also worked to diversify the campus by increasing the number of international students and recruiting more racial and ethnic minorities.

"The University is not a static body," Reinharz said. "It's a living organism that changes all the time. There are lots of new programs, new imaginative combinations of ideas that have merged to create new units, institutes and centers. They only speak to the creativity, imagination and excellence of the faculty."



Social Justice

Reinharz said that in terms of social justice, Brandeis works to ensure equal access for students of all financial backgrounds.

"First of all, we continue to admit students with the goal in mind of accepting absolutely the best students, regardless of their ability to pay. I could save myself a lot of time, a lot of aggravation, and a lot of fundraising trips, if we only admitted students who could pay. So, we have well over 50 percent of our students who are on financial aid," he said.

Reinharz mentioned the Transitional Year Program (TYP) and the POSSE, both program, founded under his presidency, which bring students from inner-city schools in Boston and New York to Brandeis on full scholarships. With these programs, Reinharz said that Brandeis helps students who have not been given as many opportunities in their lives and works to diversify the campus at the same time.

"Of course, all of these programs that we do cost money, but we do them because we think they are important," Reinharz said. "We do them because it adds to the fabric of what we feel we ought to be as a university."

Other expressions of social justice surface in outreach programs, Reinharz said, noting a recent student service trip to Nicaragua and the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life that he created.

"[The Center] does lots of great work around the world, but not for credit. It is there because students really want to improve humankind," he said.

Brandeis just created a Master's degree program in co-existence, probably the first of its kind in the world, according to Reinharz.

"So how do you measure what you have done? I cannot measure it, but if you talk to graduates of the University and say, 'What values spoke to you at Brandeis?' They will always talk to you about social justice."



Mastering the Paradox: Non-Sectarianism and a Commitment to Jewish Sponsorship

"The fact is that if you stop somebody in the street here and ask, 'What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the name Brandeis?' they will say, 'Jewish,'" Reinharz said. "I think people have sort of forgotten that the percentage of Jews on this campus has decreased to something like 54 percent. This is not by design, not because of quotas ... It is because the only way to get in is on the basis of your qualifications."

Reinharz was quick to mention that although he wants this school to be open to anyone, he cannot deny its Jewish heritage. He said Jews tend to give large gifts here partially because of this background, he said, but added that he sees Jews donating generously to institutions throughout the country.

"There is a natural tendency on the part of many Jews, many who have never attended Brandeis, many who have never set foot here, to give money to the University," Reinharz said. "Had they not done it, you and I would not be sitting here, because there would be no university. We do not discriminate who we get money from. We try to get money from everybody. Do more non-Jews give money now than ever before? Probably, but I don't count. The largest gifts still come from Jews."

The very idea of a sectarian, Jewish-sponsored university seems contradictory to some, but Fischer sees it as natural to this school. He said he doesn't see Brandeis' Jewish affiliation as a detriment to the school, but also said that any top university must be non-sectarian.

"[Jehuda] is pushing very hard on both sides of this paradox, as he wants to make Judaic studies here the strongest in the country and world," Fischer said. "At the same time, he wants to diversify the University, and I don't think that is a contradiction. The welfare for Brandeis hinges on getting both of these things right. Jehuda, more than any other leader I can think of, has done exactly that."



A Man of Many Countries

Reinharz was born in Haifa, Israel, in 1944. When he was only four years old, the War of Independence began. While Reinharz doesn't remember that war like he remembers the 1956 Sinai Campaign, he said, "I do remember having to go into basements in shelters in the middle of the night, but I don't remember the details."

Reinharz' parents emigrated from Germany before the war, and in the late 1950s, wanted to immigrate to the United States. Reinharz said that he and his two younger siblings, along with his parents, were unable to secure visas to America, so they went back to the only place they could: Germany.

Growing up in Israel, the Reinharz family was not well off, and their situation when they moved back to Germany improved only slightly. Due to world events at that time, and the economic situation in Germany, Reinharz' father was not educated past high school and spent much of his life working in factories, just as Reinharz' mother did.

Reinharz said that his experience as a Jew in post-war Germany is a long and complicated story, but he said it was difficult. At the same time, he said that his German was fluent because he had only spoken German at home in Israel.

When Reinharz went to high school in Essen, Germany, which was the same high school from which his father graduated, he was the only Jewish student. He said that this was the beginning of his interest in Jewish history, as he often had to defend himself, his religion, and his native country with historical facts.

The Reinharz family immigrated to Newark, New Jersey in 1961. The family shared a house with another family they were friends with in Newark-the only people they knew in that city. The living space could not accommodate everyone, so Reinharz was sent to live with a relative in nearby Bergen County, where he would stay a month.

Reinharz said that he didn't know one word of English when he moved to America, and he had a year and a half of high school still to complete. It was on his first day of school in Bergen County that he met Shulamit. She was someone he was able to speak to because she knew Hebrew. They immediately connected and eventually married.

Reinharz decided to go to college and learn more about history. He earned concurrent bachelor's degrees from Columbia University in European History, and the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he earned a degree in Jewish History.

Reinharz earned his master's degree in medieval Jewish history from Harvard University in 1968 and a Ph.D. in modern Jewish history from Brandeis in 1972.

"I came to Brandeis because it was the best university in my field, anywhere in the country," Reinharz said. "I should have gone here from the beginning."

After teaching at the University of Michigan for several years, he returned to Brandeis as a NEJS professor until 1991, when he served as Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs until he was named president in 1994.



The Grit Work

"When you sit at this desk, it is somewhat schizophrenic," Reinharz said about the difficulties in leading a major university. "You have to appear like you know what you are doing, because otherwise, your senior staff and others begin to get worried. If they get worried, then you are in trouble. . .On the other hand, you sometimes really need help. You need help from people who can give you advice, and you need help from people who can help you financially."

One person who has been around to help Reinharz since the beginning of his presidency is Jack Conners, a founder and chairman of Hill, Holiday, Connors Cosmopolis, Inc., the 15th largest advertising company in the United States.

Connors, who is on the Board of Trustees, never went to Brandeis and had no formal connection to the University. He said that he became interested in serving on the board after he met Reinharz, who asked him to join.

"Jehuda is a very effective salesman, and in four weeks he convinced me to take the position," Connors said.

Connors attributed Reinharz' success to his ability to raise as much money as he does, which Connors said is far more than a school of this size usually raises. Connors also said Reinharz is very effective in energizing the board.

Reinharz spoke about the rewards of being a president.

"I had such a memorable moment last week," Reinharz said, pointing across the room to a framed document hanging on the wall. "I had an event at the house for members of the Student Union, and they presented me with a proclamation from the student body which really touched me, because you don't even always know whether the students pay attention to what is going on here."

Reinharz said that other great moments happen when he least expects them.

"It is not the largest donation that you get, it is not a pot of money, but it is usually a combination of things. It is a feeling that now when I go into the community, the larger world community, I hear people talk about Brandeis in extremely positive terms. That was not the case 10 years ago."

Donations are nice, however, and Reinharz is known as a fundraising machine. Since his inauguration, he has strengthened alumni-giving, increased the donor base and permanently raised the level of annual fundraising: alumni giving by 197 percent, friends giving by 199 percent, corporations & foundations giving by 189 percent, and total giving by 197 percent. In addition, Reinharz secured the largest gift in Brandeis History: $25 million.

Another perk of the presidency is meeting famous and extraordinary people. "Probably the most exciting was the Dali Lama," Reinharz said, "because I thought he was one of the most interesting people I have ever met."

Turning to look at a picture behind his desk showing him and the Dali Lama at Brandeis, Reinharz continued, "He is one of the few people that had something close to a spiritual impact on me ... I met him a few times since in a number of contexts."

"I've met all the presidents since I came to this job. I have met heads of states in other countries. But sometimes the most interesting people are people who are not as famous, who are not statesmen."



Leaving a Legacy

Fischer painted Reinharz as a great president for a number of reasons. He said, "Jehuda's got his priorities right. He knows what a university is about. It's mainly about teaching and learning...of administrators don't understand that. They might as well be running a business corporation. Jehuda is one of us-one of us teachers and learners, and so he knows that. That is what makes him so special, it's that set of values that he's got. This is one of the keys to his success."

Connors said that Reinharz needs to continue to strengthen the quality of the faculty, attract new faculty, and make sure the University is paying them more than they currently make.

Reinharz says he wants to accomplish a number of things before he finishes his presidency, which will continue at least another five years. He wants to build a number of new buildings, continue to increase the amount of financial aid in order to attract better students, continue his massive fundraising campaign to increase the endowment, improve the quality of life for faculty at Brandeis, and lastly, increase alumni participation in the university.

Reinharz hopes to leave his own legacy, different from other presidents. He smiled and said, "I want [people] to say this one thing: that I have left the University in much better shape than I found it. That in the time I plan to stay here, people will say this place is in much better shape than when Reinharz first took over.

"This would include everything. It would include the quality of the institution, and its visibility in the world. I want Brandeis to be a first destination for high school students who apply to college. I want it to be as difficult to get into Brandeis as into the finest Ivy League schools in the country. I want the infrastructure to be in great shape. I want us to have adequate resources, so that whoever comes after me can take it to the next level. That is probably the best I can hope for.