Torah or Academics? No Need to Choose
Lander College for Men's David Manheim found everything he was looking for
As devout as he is smart, David Manheim knew he was in the right place when he arrived from Israel to study at The Lander College for Men. A longtime yeshiva student, he was grateful for the school’s dual mission of challenging academics coupled with a commitment to Torah learning. “There was a tremendously positive environment among the students and a flexibility among the faculty,” says Manheim, who graduated in 2008 with a Mathematics degree.
Equally important was academic rigor. “I was inspired by the classes I took in mathematics, computers and political science,” says Manheim, who is now an assistant policy analyst and Ph.D. candidate at the RAND Corporation. “A lot of the work I do now is informed by a class on the Mathematical Theory of Computation. I had some great professors.”
He uses mathematical models to help solve problems in the real world. “How communities and organizations can achieve resilience,” says Manheim, 31. “For example, helping cities like New York recover after disasters like Hurricane Sandy or allowing the military to respond flexibly to unanticipated challenges.”
Manheim is happily pulled out of the order of his day by his toddler sons, 2 1/2 and six months old: “One exhausts me during the day and the other tries to keep me up at night. They’re wonderful!”
