‘Lead with love’: Yale installs Maytal Saltiel as university chaplain
Lifted by soaring music and words of blessing, Yale’s multi-faith community gathered in Battell Chapel on Sept. 8 to celebrate the next chapter in the university’s spiritual life.
Students, faculty members, university religious leaders, local clergy, family, and friends watched on — adding their voices in affirmation — as Maytal Saltiel officially became Yale’s eighth university chaplain.
The ceremony reflected the diversity of faith traditions at Yale and the vital role of the chaplaincy in championing love, respect, and kindness during challenging times.
“We gather this afternoon to celebrate religious and spiritual life at Yale, past, present, and future, and its critical role in the educational mission of the university and caring for the well-being of all our community members,” Kimberly Goff-Crews, Yale’s secretary and vice president for university life, said in words of welcome.
“More particularly, we gather to celebrate Maytal and all she has already done to keep our community together — and look forward to the new directions she will take us,” Goff-Crews said.
Saltiel, who joined Yale 11 years ago as an assistant and later associate chaplain, initially served as interim university chaplain following the retirement of Sharon Kugler in 2023 and was named the eighth chaplain in January. As chaplain, Saltiel shepherds Yale’s varied faith and spiritual programs on campus, work she said she will approach by “always” leading with love.
“I deeply, deeply believe in our ability to be an interfaith community, to be a mosaic of diverse identities, and for our office’s ability to be a support for all on this campus,” said Saltiel, who is Yale’s first Jewish chaplain.
Saltiel is an exceptional leader and community builder who “brings a depth of knowledge, compassion, and openness that can embrace diversity across every dimension,” said Yale President Maurie McInnis, who formally installed Saltiel in the role.
“She understands that intellectual rigor and religious devotion can co-exist, and, indeed, be complementary,” the president added.
McInnis reflected upon the role of spirituality in Yale’s history — both in its original mission to educate Congregational ministers, and in painful past events the university is now beginning to confront. Most of Yale’s early trustees owned enslaved people, for example, and prominent members of the community helped halt a proposal, in 1831, to build a college in New Haven for Black youth.
McInnis noted that Connecticut Hall, the oldest building on campus and one that was built, in part, using the labor of enslaved persons, will be reconstituted as the new home of Yale’s chaplaincy program — a program that has created a space for all to come together to mourn, celebrate, repair, and heal.
“What began as a modest training ground for male Congregational ministers,” McInnis said of Yale, “has become a truly multi-religious community through the efforts of the first Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Roman Catholic, and other non-Protestant religious students, as well as those representing different cultures, races, and nations from around the globe.”
This diversity of traditions permeated the installation ceremony in Battell Chapel.
The event was structured around a series of blessings delivered by students and members of the chaplaincy program, including the Rev. Ian Oliver, senior associate chaplain for Protestant life and pastor of the University Church at Yale; Shawkat M. Toorawa, the Brand Blanshard Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and professor of comparative literature; the Rev. Jenny Peek, associate university chaplain; Rabbi Avigayil Halpern ’19; and the Rev. OrLando Yarborough III, pastor of the Black Church at Yale.
Student speakers from Yale College were Nola Dorji, Maanasa Nandigam, Medad Lytton, Zawadi Kigamwa, and Sarah Mahmoud.
The ceremony also included performances by the University Church in Yale Choir; Magevet, Yale’s Jewish, Hebrew, and Israeli a capella group; and the Yale Gospel Choir.
In her own blessing, Yale’s former chaplain, Sharon Kugler, lauded Saltiel for her empathy, conviction, and insight. Kugler met Saltiel when both were at Johns Hopkins University, where Kugler was then chaplain and Saltiel was a student.
“Maytal, bless your own, daring dreams for this work at Yale,” Kugler said in tender and personal remarks that left some audience members dabbing tears. “May those dreams be supported, trusted, celebrated, and realized.”
Saltiel offered a concluding prayer of her own, abundant in hope that Yale and its communities of faith can commit to showing up for each other as their best selves, listening more than talking, suspending pre-conceived notions, and pursuing joy.
“As we leave this space today,” she said, “may we move slowly, may we breathe deeply, and may we always, always, lead with love.”
