At the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), we educate Jewish leaders as klei kodesh; that is, skilled organizational visionaries in the service of God and the Jewish people. None embodied that mission with more unadorned authenticity than Richard Siegel, of blessed memory. In 2007, Richard became interim director of the School of Jewish…
Rich Siegel, one of the creators of The Jewish Catalog, died Wednesday evening in Los Angeles after a two-year battle with cancer. He was 70. The news was shared in an email to friends and colleagues by Barry Holtz, professor at The Jewish Theological Seminary. In 1973, Siegel, along with Michael and Sharon Strassfeld, created…
Robert S. Rubin, a philanthropist and investment banker, has died at 86. As chairman of the board of the Brooklyn Museum, Rubin defended the institution from censorship after then-mayor Rudy Giuliani took offense at one of its planned exhibits. His son Nathaniel told The New York Times’s Sam Roberts that the cause of Rubin’s death…
Dr. Fanya Gottesfeld Heller, the Holocaust survivor, author, and educator, has passed away. Heller authored the book, “Love in a World of Sorrow: A Teenage Girl’s Holocaust Memoirs,” and was the subject of the 2009 documentary film, “Teenage Witness: The Fanya Heller Story.” She was 93. Fanya Gottesfeld was a teenager when she was forced…
In the spring of 1976, the Democratic presidential candidate Jimmy Carter appointed Zbigniew Brzezinski (March 28, 1928 – May 26, 2017), who was teaching at Columbia University, as his foreign policy adviser. I served at that time as the director-general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, and I knew that Brzezinski had never visited Israel, so I…
Before my mother died, I didn’t think about her aesthetic vision, though I always loved her fantastical photographs (1980s–2000s) and large abstract paintings (1970s) that filled our family’s brownstone in Manhattan’s West Village. But at her funeral, Rabbi David Adelson, dean of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and a family friend, delivered a eulogy…
I was shocked to read Forward,com this morning and find two hespedim for the fine Hebraist and scholar Alan Mintz. I want to share with you my one strong memory of him, not exactly as scholar but in a transformative moment. What I remember goes back to 1973. Alan was the original energizer for calling…
Here’s how he might have covered it: Roger Ailes, whose scandal-ridden career ended in disgrace when years of sexual harassment allegations finally caught up with him, died this week — some say of shame, others of the morbid obesity that plagued him throughout his life. Of course, that would be both unfair and vulgar. Ailes…
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