He has written on topics that include Jewish leadership, the BDS movement on college campuses, and civil discourse.
[6] During his tenure at Hillel, Joel served as the head of the special commission impaneled by the Orthodox Union (OU) to investigate allegations that community leaders had ignored charges against the abusive outreach rabbi Baruch Lanner, an executive with the OU's National Conference of Synagogue Youth (NCSY).
[7] Joel established the Katz School of Graduate and Professional Studies,[8] and restructured Yeshiva University’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
The joint program provides opportunities for second-, third- and fourth-year RIETS students who plan to pursue a career in Jewish communal work.
He also established a Presidential Fellowship program that provides training and professional development to recent graduates to further their path toward communal leadership.
He and his wife Esther (née Ribner), who holds a PhD from YU's Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, have six children.