Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Jonathan Sarna Improves With ‘Quiet 24 Hours’ — Condition Still Critical

Historian Jonathan Sarna, who was hospitalized after collapsing May 17, was said to be improving on Wednesday morning, though his condition is still critical.

According to a posting on the website CarePages, Sarna’s heart and lung functions are “improving” but that he remains sedated. A spokesperson for Yale New Haven Hospital said that he was in critical condition.

“Jonathan has had a quiet 24 hours, which is what was needed,” the CarePages posting read. “We are impressed with the doctors and the nurses at Yale New Haven and very grateful to them for a lot of hard work.”

Sarna entered cardiac arrest while in New Haven for his daughter’s graduation from Yale University. A cardiologist who happened to be on the scene began performing CPR before the ambulance arrived, according to the CarePages account.

Sarna is a professor at Brandeis University, a contributing editor at the Forward, and a leading scholar of American Jewish history. He has written and edited over two dozen books on American Jewry.

Members of the Jewish community have circulated well-wishes and requests for prayers for Sarna, whose Hebrew name is Yonatan Daniel ben Haya Hadassah.

“It’s a serious situation, but we are all hoping for the best,” said Sylvia Barack Fishman, a professor at Brandeis.

Fishman said that Sarna’s family has requested that good wishes be mailed to their home in lieu of calls or emails.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.