Norman Lamm, the longtime leader of Yeshiva University who encouraged the Orthodox Jewish institution to engage with the secular world and, in doing so, The New York Times said, rescued the school from the brink of bankruptcy, died May 31 at his daughter’s home in Englewood, NJ. He was 92.

After he was elected president in 1976, Rabbi Lamm championed the concept of Torah U’madda — leading a life that blends rigorous adherence to Jewish law with pursuit of worldly knowledge and immersion in the wider society. The idea was controversial because Hasidic and other ultra-Orthodox rabbis argued that exposure to decadent influences would erode traditional Jewish life. But Rabbi Lamm, as a clergyman, philosopher, teacher and administrator, made a forceful case for his synthesis of the spiritual and temporal during his 37 years as the university’s president or chancellor.