Philanthropist Shlomo Yehuda Rechnitz Commencement Speech at the Touro University Graduation - 2026

More than 500 Touro University graduates were honored during the university’s 52nd annual commencement exercises held on May 31 at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. Graduating students, family members, faculty, and administrators gathered to recognize academic achievement and mark the beginning of a new chapter in the graduates’ personal and professional lives. Touro University President Dr. Alan Kadish congratulated the graduates while acknowledging the rapidly changing world they are entering. He pointed to advances in artificial intelligence, rising antisemitism, and geopolitical uncertainty as examples of challenges they will face throughout their careers. “Resilience and flexibility are the two most important things that you need to take forward into the future,” he said. “Use the skills and talent you have built at Touro to deal with the challenges, deal with them flexibly, deal with them with resilience, and you’ll succeed,” he said. In closing he advised the graduates to “anchor your approach to the world through Torah values.” “Of course, everyone and everything is under God’s control, but to earn His benefit, to earn His providence, requires our effort to interact w