NYC Gazette

In the fall of 2024, a new undergraduate course titled "The Values of Verse: Sacred and Secular Perspectives" was introduced by the Zahava and Moshael J. Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought in collaboration with the English Departments at Stern College and Yeshiva College. The course was led by Dr. Shaina Trapedo, an Assistant Professor of English and Resident Scholar at the Straus Center.

Dr. Trapedo drew inspiration from Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein's model, who taught English literature at Stern College after earning his Ph.D. in English from Harvard in the late 1950s. Rabbi Lichtenstein emphasized that "[q]uite apart from the precision, economy, suggestiveness, and force, great poetry may be imaginative and passionate– and, as such, inspiring, exhilarating, and ennobling."

The course covered a range of poets from the Anglophone tradition spanning from the 16th to the 20th century. Authors included William Shakespeare, Alexander Pope, Phillis Wheatley, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost among others.

Guest presentations were also part of the curriculum with contributions from visiting scholars and YU faculty members. On October 31st, Yehoshua November—an award-winning poet and Assistant Teaching Professor at Rutgers Writing Program—participated in a reading session followed by a discussion on his works including "The Concealment of Endless Light." His poems offered insights into themes like faith and family.

During a Q&A session following his presentation, November discussed poetry as both sacred and secular art forms within Jewish life. He also shared his creative process which involves balancing universal truths with Orthodox Jewish traditions—a recurring theme in his work.

Other guest speakers included Dr. Yisroel Benporat who spoke about Puritan poetess Anne Bradstreet's career while Dr. Seamus O’Malley lectured on William Butler Yeats' influence on poetry intersecting politics during early 20th-century Ireland.

"The Values of Verse" aligns with Straus Center’s mission to educate students to become intellectual leaders familiar with both Torah teachings and Western literature.