Bernard Lander

Bernard Lander (June 17, 1915 – February 8, 2010), founder and first president of Touro College, was a rabbi, social scientist and educator, a leader in the Jewish community and a pioneer in Jewish and general higher education.

Biography Lander went to Yeshiva University High School for Boys and graduated from Yeshiva University and earned a PhD in sociology from Columbia University, with a dissertation exploring "how the schools, police and courts deal with juvenile delinquency." where he established the university's graduate schools of education, psychology and social work and served as dean of its Bernard Revel Graduate School.

In 1971, he founded Touro College and presided over its growth into a multi-campus, international university with approximately 18,000 students at campus locations in New York, California, Florida, Nevada, Israel, Russia and Germany.

Lander served as a consultant to three United States Presidents and was part of the seven-member commission that established the historic War on Poverty program in the U.S. He served as a consultant to the White House Conference on Children and Youth; on an advisory council on public assistance established by Congress; and was a member of the President's Advisory Committee on Juvenile Delinquency and Youth Crime under the Johnson and Kennedy administrations.

For eight years he served as a senior director of a national study for the University of Notre Dame of South Bend, Indiana on the problems of youth. He is the author of a book and numerous articles in the field of sociology. He also served as a consultant to the Maryland State Commission on Juvenile Delinquency. Lander has been honored by the Council of New York State College Presidents for his lifetime contributions to higher education. A former Rabbi of Beth Jacob Congregation of Baltimore and former president of the Queens Jewish Center in Forest Hills, Queens (NY), Lander was also an Honorary Vice President of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.

His son, Rabbi Doniel Lander, is the rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Ohr HaChaim in Queens, New York.

He died on February 8, 2010.