Meet Coach Halpert

Dr. Jonathan Halpert

Dr. Jonathan Halpert
Head Coach

Email: coach@jonathanhalpert.com

Dr. Jonathan Halpert, a New York City basketball icon, is entering his 42nd season at the helm of the Yeshiva University basketball program. He is the longest tenured men’s college basketball coach in New York City history – on a list that includes CCNY’s Nat Holman; NYU’s Howard Cann; and St. John’s mentors Lou Carnesecca and Joe Lapchick. Additionally, Halpert is currently the fourth-longest tenured active head coach in all of basketball, ranking only behind Jim Smith (Saint John’s, Minn. – 50th season), Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Herb Magee (Philadelphia Univ. – 47th season) and Glen Robinson (Franklin & Marshall – 43rd season).

An alumnus of Yeshiva University High School for Boys, and Yeshiva University as both an undergraduate and doctoral student, Halpert enters the 2013-14 season with 409 victories which puts him in exclusive company with: Carnesecca (526); Howard Cann (NYU; 429); Joe Nesci (NYU; 424); Nat Holman (CCNY; 423); Ray Rankis (Baruch; 419); and Claire Bee (Rider/LIU Brooklyn; 412).

The Melvin Furst Gymnasium opened in 1985 and the court was named in Halpert’s honor in May 2012. Since the opening of the gym Halpert owns a 344-332 record, and led the Maccabees to 15-straight 500-plus records (1987-88 to 2001-02). He has coached four teams to the Eastern College Athletic Conference postseason championship tournaments (1987-88, 1990-91, 1992-93 and 1996-97), as well as to the Skyline Conference playoffs in 11 of the last 14 seasons.

Halpert has been the subject of numerous articles in the New York media, as well a feature piece on ESPN in early 1997. He received a pair of Skyline Conference Coach of the Year awards (1999-00, 2009-10), as well as the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) “Guardians of the Game” honor in 2003-04. The Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association (MBWA) bestowed on him its “Good Guy” award in 1997-98, and he led YU to a pair of College Basketball Officials Association (CBOA) Sportsmanship Awards in 1979-80 and 1996-97. During his illustrious career, Halpert has coached over 300 student-athletes, including five father/son pairs.

Halpert received his BA and BHL (Bachelor of Hebrew literature) degrees from Yeshiva in 1966. He went on to earn a master’s degree in 1967 from New York University in Educational Psychology and a Ph.D. in 1978 from Yeshiva University’s Ferkauf Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, with a concentration in mental retardation. He served for twenty-five years as the CEO of Camelot, a not-for-profit social service agency that provided residential, transportation and day-program services for developmentally disabled and traumatic brain injured adults.

Halpert resides in Flushing, N.Y. with his wife, Aviva. The couple are the proud parents of Tzippora and David Baratz; Ariella and Jonah Kaszovitz; Tzofit and Jason Goldfarb; Yehuda and Shoshana Halpert; and Rafi and Michelle Halpert as well as the proud grandparents of 20 grandchildren.