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Yeshiva U.’s Credit Rating Downgraded by Moody’s as $380M Sex Abuse Suit Looms
For the third time in two years, Moody’s, the credit ratings service, has downgraded Yeshiva University’s debt, citing the school’s deep operating deficits, weak cash flow and uncertainty about a pending $380 million lawsuit filed against it. Just a few years ago, Moody’s gave Y.U. a healthy Aa3 credit rating. Moody’s latest report, released October…
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Bar Mitzvah Boy Sammy Cohen-Eckstein Mourned by Hundreds at Brooklyn Funeral
Hundreds gathered at Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope on Thursday for the funeral of a 12-year-old boy killed Brooklyn boy who was struck by a van and killed on Tuesday evening outside his home near Prospect Park. Amidst audible sobs in the packed synagogue, friends and family of Samuel Cohen-Eckstein stood to bid him…
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Trailblazing Reconstructionist Deborah Waxman Relishes Challenges of Judaism
Reconstructionist Judaism has a new leader. For the first time, she is a woman — and a lesbian. In fact, Rabbi Deborah Waxman, who will take the reins of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, the newly merged seminary and congregational apparatus of the Reconstructionist movement, is the first woman to ever head a Jewish congregational organization….
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Denmark’s Rescue of Jews From Nazis Driven by Cash — Not Just Heroism
In the coming weeks, the 70th anniversary of the rescue of the Danish Jews during World War II will be marked with speeches and toasts, gala performances and torchlight processions. The story of how the Danes helped their Jewish compatriots to safety on the coast of Sweden is always heart-warming. The fishermen who ran the…
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Debora Spar Says You Can’t Have It All
In her new book, “Wonder Women: Sex, Power, and the Quest for Perfection,” Debora Spar, president of Barnard College, offers a somewhat controversial new lesson for women: Don’t even bother trying to do it all. After feminism spent decades trying to convince women that, yes, they can have a corner office, a fulfilling family life,…
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Yeshiva U. Hires Lecturer With Criminal Record of Sexual Misconduct With Boys
UPDATED: October 10 Yeshiva University, still reeling from allegations that for decades its leaders dealt improperly with the specter of sexual abuse, has hired a new faculty member convicted of inappropriate sexual behavior with boys, the Forward has learned. Akiva Roth, who started this new school year as a Hebrew teacher at Yeshiva College, pleaded…
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Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Sephardic Kingmaker of Israeli Politics, Dies at 93
Ovadia Yosef, the rabbi responsible for turning religiously observant Sephardic Jews from a marginalized minority into one of Israel’s most politically powerful groups, has died at age 93. Yosef was widely revered as a kind of living saint during his lifetime. He inspired adoring love songs extolling his virtues, and his death is expected to…
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Ovadia Yosef, Sephardic Kingmaker, Dies at 93
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, an Iraqi-born sage who turned an Israeli underclass of Sephardic Jews of Middle Eastern heritage into a powerful political force, died on Monday at the age of 93, a hospital spokesman said. Dubbed Israel’s Ayatollah by critics who condemned many of his pronouncements as racist – he likened Palestinians to snakes and…
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Boundaries Blur Between Jews and Christians in Shocking Ways
Are you Jewish or Christian? Increasingly, Americans seem to be checking both boxes, according to the 2013 Pew Research Center Survey of U.S. Jews. It’s not just that a lot of Jews have Christmas trees, though 32% say they do; it’s that 34% of Jews said that they think being Jewish is compatible with believing…
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A (Mixed) Blessing on My Jewish Head
When I worked at a Catholic college, the nuns were forever blessing me, even when I hadn’t sneezed. The nuns’ blessings were like a warm, fuzzy blanket on a cold winter night. During my seven years at the college, I came to admire the dedication and selflessness of the sisters. I considered it the highest…
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Caryl Stern Believes in Zero
Each year on Yom Kippur, Caryl Stern mourns her father at Yizkor, the traditional prayer chanted to honor lost loved ones. In 2008, she also prayed for Fatima, a 6-day-old infant in Sierra Leone whom Stern watched die because the vaccine needed to save her life was unavailable to her. This year, Stern, president and…
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