‘Homeless’ Benefactor ‘Lost in Translation’
Last week, Hebrew University announced a posthumous $100,000 donation from a homeless concentration camp survivor, but did not release the benefactor’s name. Well, the donor has been identified as Ida Fischer. And as it turns out, Fischer wasn’t homeless; she was a frugal Midtown Manhattan resident who fled Hitler’s Europe with her family, but was not a concentration camp survivor, the New York Daily News reports. According to the newspaper, Hebrew U.’s spokesman is calling the misinfomation it dispersed “a mistake; something got lost in translation.”
A message from our editor-in-chief Jodi Rudoren
![](https://forward.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Jodi-Headshot.jpg)
We're building on 127 years of independent journalism to help you develop deeper connections to what it means to be Jewish today.
With so much at stake for the Jewish people right now — war, rising antisemitism, a high-stakes U.S. presidential election — American Jews depend on the Forward's perspective, integrity and courage.
— Jodi Rudoren, Editor-in-Chief