Is Bar-Ilan a "religious university"? What does that even mean?

[The following post is based on my own thoughts and a long talk I recently had with a former professor of mine on the subject. Constructive feedback is welcome - aiwac]

I am a proud graduate of Bar-Ilan University. I consider it a badge of honor. Unlike some, I have no feelings of inferiority towards the "secular" universities (Hebrew U, Tel Aviv U &c). I have read the scholarship of people from both areas, and I can proudly say that BIU is no less a bastion of academic excellence than the other institutions of higher learning in this country. Besides, I'm 6'5", so I don't even have to raise my head to "look down" on HUites J. [Those of you who have surmised my identity from this, please do not "out" me. I cherish my privacy. If you disagree with what I say, please do so on based on the merits of my arguments. aiwac]

But lately, I've gotten to wondering about BIU's claim to be a "religious university". To be sure, the "university" part is, to my mind, unquestionable. Professors at Bar-Ilan conduct research, give classes and debate issues according to the accepted scientific standards of empirical proof and formal logic just like everyone else. Nor (for the most part) is there censorship (self or otherwise), as far as I can tell. In the department in which I studied (no, no more hints), ideas and scholarly opinions that are anathema to Orthodox Jews were discussed openly and honestly. Nor should it be otherwise – to hide or whitewash unpleasant opinions or facts would destroy the credibility of the scholars of BIU.

But this brings us back to the original problem – what right does Bar-Ilan University have to bill itself as a "religious university" if there is no substantive difference between BIU and secular institutions (nor should there be, at least when it comes to academic freedom)?

What exactly makes it "religious"? The fact that it happens to have a relative preponderance of Orthodox academic personnel? The "Basic Jewish Courses" that most BA students must take? The relative preponderance of religious facilities (shuls, the kollel and the midrasha &c)?

The above-mentioned facts would seem rather peripheral to the core dilemma (except perhaps for the "Basic courses", but there are a lot of problems with them) and at most bespeak a more "friendly" atmosphere for a religious Jew wanting to study in academia. It pretty much means that people who come to study in Bar-Ilan will have to face the same issues one would face in a secular university, but they would be delivered by people who would help the "bitter pill(s)" of theological problems go down easier – using a surgeon's knife rather than a sledgehammer, so to speak. Thus, structurally at least, Bar Ilan is little different than other universities.

Ah, but therein lies the rub. While it's true that BIU does not, nay cannot differ in structure from other universities, it does differ many times in substance – specifically where it places its research emphases. Jewish religious thought, education and history is given much more thorough treatment in BIU than elsewhere. Scholars like Professor Dov Shwartz, for instance, have done a great deal towards the fleshing out and explication of Modern religious (esp. religious Zionist) thought. Much of the research done in the school of education focuses on specifically religious environments. There is a ton of academic material that comes out of Bar-Ilan on various forums on all sorts of issues pertaining to religious life, thought and dilemmas that is simply not matched (volume-wise) elsewhere. This is to say nothing of the various symposia, conferences &c on religious issues that take place every year.

There's also something else – Bar-Ilan is much more politically diverse than other universities. It's an open secret that the overwhelming majority of professors in humanistic departments in universities worldwide (and in Israel) tend to come in one of two flavors – left and hard-left (regardless of whether you define left as "liberal" or "socialist"). People who are centrists or (gasp! Shock! Horror!) right-wing will often find themselves in the uncomfortable position of a minority (even a minority-of-one). That's not the case here at BIU. The charge of BIU being a hotbed of "right-wing" fanaticism is overstated, if not simply false, when it comes to the academic personnel (wing-nuts like Prof. Hillel Weiss notwithstanding). You can find the entire gamut here – from left-wingers to centrists to rightists. Most of the professors I'm acquainted with are middle-of-the-roaders of one stripe or another. It provides a good environment for people who don't want to have to declare their ideological bona-fides every three seconds while doing research.

So I guess what I'm saying is this: Bar-Ilan University has not solved all the problems of Orthodox Jewry and the challenges of modern scholarship and science, and if that was the expectation (talk about ridiculously ambitious!) then it has only very partially lived up to it (in publications like BDD &c). But what BIU has done is create an institution where religious Jews can comfortably and more easily deal with the issues involved and develop their intellectual talents in studying and developing subjects close to them.

So is that enough to justify the "religious university" moniker? You decide.