H eadlines
NEWSBRIEFS Steven Spielberg Creates Foundation to Fund
Jewish-themed Documentaries
STEVEN SPIELBERG LAUNCHED a foundation
called Jewish Story Partners to fund documentaries
that “tell stories about a diverse spectrum of Jewish
experiences, histories and cultures,” JTA reported.

The Righteous Persons Foundation, which
Spielberg and his wife, actress Kate Capshaw, founded
after Spielberg’s experience making “Schindler’s List”
in 1993, will fund the foundation. Two Jewish philan-
thropies — the Maimonides Fund and the Jim Joseph
Foundation — also contributed.

“We are especially proud to help establish this initia-
tive — which will make visible a fuller range of Jewish
voices, identities, experiences and perspectives — at
a time when social divisions run painfully deep and
mainstream depictions too often fail to reflect the
Jewish community in all its complexity,” Spielberg and
Capshaw said in a statement.

The organization starts with $2 million and will
soon announce its first round of grantees, who will
receive $500,000 in total this year.

New Hebrew courses will be asynchronous, which
means students don’t interact with a teacher in real
time; the courses will be offered starting in fall 2022.

Nearly all Yeshiva students are required to take at
least one Hebrew course.

Selma Botman, Yeshiva’s provost and vice presi-
dent for academic affairs, said the change is the result
of student feedback and offers greater flexibility for
those with busy course schedules.

The move has met with some criticism. Lori Linzer,
a Hebrew professor at Yeshiva, said the move would
lower the quality of Hebrew language instruction.

“I don’t think you will be able to find anyone who
can credibly argue that the asynchronous model is a
better model for teaching Hebrew language,” Linzer
told the YU Commentator, a student newspaper.

Bernie Madoff Dies at 82
Bernie Madoff, who ran a $17.5 billion Ponzi scheme
ensnaring thousands of investors, including many Jewish
organizations and families, died April 14 at a federal prison
in Butner, North Carolina, JTA reported. He was 82.

Madoff was known as a money manager who made
Yeshiva U. to Eliminate In-person Hebrew Courses large yet consistent profits for clients until his opera-
Yeshiva University plans to eliminate its in-person tion was exposed as a scam amid the 2008 financial
Hebrew courses indefinitely, making a pandemic-in- crisis. His confession of his Ponzi scheme, in which
duced measure a permanent one, JTA reported.

he reported fake stock gains on paper and used new
investments to pay off withdrawals from other inves-
tors, impacted the Jewish philanthropic world.

Madoff’s investors included European hedge
funds, elderly retirees and many nonprofits. Victims
included Jewish celebrities like Holocaust survivor
Elie Wiesel and baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy
Koufax, Yeshiva University and Hadassah.

Many investors met Madoff through the small
world of Jewish philanthropy in New York and South
Florida, then placed their money via his friends.

Three Historians Quit Auschwitz Museum
Board Over Right-wing Appointment
Three board members of Poland’s Auschwitz-Birkenau
museum quit in protest after the government appointed
a right-wing politician to serve on it, JTA reported.

Jewish philosopher Stanislaw Krajewski and
historians Marek Lasota and Krystyna Oleksyall
announced that they were quitting after the culture
ministry appointed Beata Szydlo, a former prime
minister and top member of the country’s right-wing
Law and Justice ruling party, to the board.

Under Law and Justice, Poland’s government has
been accused of manipulating the Holocaust’s histor-
ical record by passing a controversial law that outlaws
publicly blaming Poland for Holocaust atrocities. l
— Compiled by Andy Gotlieb
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