Former Mayor Edward Koch, who presided over New York City during the turbulent late 1970s and ’80s and came to personify the city with his wry and outspoken style, died on Friday at the age of 88, his spokesman said. As mayor from 1978 to 1989, the forceful, quick-witted Koch, with his trademark phrase “How’m…
The first thing I learned about Ed Koch is how unusually accessible he was. It was September, 1977, and I was a new, eager student at the Columbia School of Journalism, passionate about city news and interested in learning photography. The school published a weekly newspaper at the time, and I wanted to be the…
Edward Irving Koch, New York City’s long-serving, charismatic, controversial 105th mayor and arguably the most visible American Jewish official of his day, passed away this morning at age 88 from congestive heart failure. His three epitaphs, chosen several years before his death, expressed the centrality of Judaism to his identity. The first quotes the murdered…
With his election last Friday, Michael Applebaum has become not only the first non-native French speaker in a century to hold the post. He is also the first-ever Jewish mayor of the second-largest French speaking country in the world. “It’s definitely a proud day,” Leo Kolber, a businessman, philanthropist, former Canadian senator and lifelong Montrealer,…
Montreal has its first Jewish mayor. Michael Applebaum, 49, won a City Council vote to serve as interim mayor for a year, with a promise not to run in the next municipal election, which is slated for November 2013. He also is the first Anglophone mayor in a century of the predominantly French-speaking Canadian city….
Dozens of prominent liberal New York City rabbis are demanding that 2013 mayoral frontrunner Christine Quinn approve a bill that would require city businesses to provide employees with paid sick days. Members of the City Council overwhelmingly support the bill, as do a handful of other potential mayoral candidates. Quinn, however, the speaker of the…
“Many people still believe the post of mayor is exclusively for men,” says Vera Baboun, aiming to become the first female mayor of the Palestinian town of Bethlehem, and in the process shake up a society where men still make the laws and do the deals. The university lecturer has a good chance of achieving…
Zev Yaroslavsky, the Los Angeles County Supervisor and longtime Southern California political force, has announced he will not enter the 2013 race for mayor of Los Angeles. The move signals not only an end to Yaroslavsky’s 40 years as the city’s most prominent and popular Jewish politician, but also clears the field for the three…
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