OUR VISION

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was an historic turning point that led to major changes in the cultural-economic-political reality of Europe as we know it today. With the dissolution of the seventy-year division between Eastern and Western Europe, two developments of great consequence began to take form which, 14 years later,  would intersect and lead to the establishment of the Lauder Business School in Vienna, Austria:

• The phenomenon of economic globalization.
• A revival of Jewish life in post-communist Eastern Europe and a renewed search for Jewish identity in Western Europe, that jointly led to renaissance of Jewish life extending across Europe to the Former Soviet Union (FSU).

Together with the emergence of the multi-lingual/multi-cultural European Union, these factors led the founders of the Lauder Business School to the conclusion that the study of Business Administration would be an attractive area of education for European Jews of university age.

The Lauder Business School opened its doors in Vienna, Austria, in 2003. Here, young Jews could find a university setting that both nurtured their newfound Jewish identity and enabled them to pursue training in a profession at the forefront of the new global economy. The financial generosity and commitment to the future of the Jewish People in Europe of the Honorable Ron S. Lauder, a former US Ambassador to Austria and President of the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, helped transform this idea into reality, and the Lauder Business School (LBS) opened its doors with the accreditation of the Austrian government and full endorsement of the Viennese municipality.

As the generation of university-age Jews in Europe (and elsewhere in the world) has gained the freedom to choose where and how to build their futures, they are also seeking to understand what it means to be Jewish and how to conduct business in today’s global economy. The rate of growth of the Lauder Business School and the potential for its model to expand into other disciplines of study is spearheading a dynamic that can encompass the entire Jewish world. By the year 2015 we anticipate that LBS will have a student body of more than 1500 and be ranked among the world’s leading universities serving Jewish students. it will be a leading university in general?  or only among Jewish universities? (of which there are only a few, e.g., the Israeli universities, Yeshiva University, Carmel College, Stern College, and I suppose a few more. This needs to be clarified!!. We envision in the not too distant future a worldwide network of professionals, all graduates of branches of LBS, that will be linked across continents and Jewish communities.

We invite you to be our partner in helping the Lauder Business School’s combined academic and Jewish Studies model to cultivate an expanding cadre of professionals who will  be part of a dynamic network of global Jewish leaders of the future.

Support us now!