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Citing ‘outpouring of interest,’ Yeshiva U restores women’s Talmud classes whose cancellation incited an uproar
(JTA) — Beginner and intermediate Talmud courses are back on the course schedule for undergraduate students at Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women, after an uproar over their cancellation.
Stern College administrators had said the school would not offer beginning and intermediate Talmud — courses about a foundational Jewish text for women at the country’s flagship Modern Orthodox university — because of low enrollment in those classes. That prompted more than 1,400 students, graduates and others to sign a petition urging the school to reinstate the classes and to endow a full-time chair of Talmud studies.
Now, Stern College says it is adding several Talmud classes to next semester’s schedule, citing increased interest among students. (Registration opens May 2.)
“It was heartwarming to see the outpouring of interest revolving around women’s Talmud learning on the Beren campus,” Shoshana Schechter, Stern’s associate dean of Torah and spiritual life, and Deena Rabinovich, chair of the Jewish studies department, said in a letter distributed to students by email and WhatsApp on Tuesday.
The two Talmud courses being added to the schedule will be taught by Rabbi Shlomo Zuckier, who studied Talmud and ancient Jewish texts at Yeshiva University and at Yale University, from which he received a PhD. He has already been teaching the advanced Talmud course for undergraduates, taking over after the death of Rabbi Moshe Kahn, the longtime advanced Talmud teacher who died of lung cancer in January. In the fall, he will teach intermediate and advanced Talmud, adding a second advanced option to the women’s course schedule.
“This is great news,” said Tamar Beer Horowitz, one of the organizers of the petition. “It’s amazing how much this was able to accomplish in only a few days. I think it really showed people how much this means to people. Everyone got a very clear message about the fact that there is interest and that this is something valuable.”
A beginner Talmud class for undergraduates called “Talmud Psychology” is also being added to the schedule, and it will be taught by third-year graduate student Ariella Etshalom.
A representative from Stern College did not respond to a request for comment.
The letter to students notifying them of the course schedule update did not refer further to a search for a full-time chair, which another note sent out by administrators on Friday invited people concerned about the future of women’s Talmud study at Stern College to support. It also did not mention a canceled graduate-level Gemara course, which is one class that Beer Horowitz, a current student in the Graduate Program in Advanced Talmud/Tanach Studies, wants to see make its way back onto the schedule.
“I’d love to see a reinstatement of the second GPATS shiur [study session] as well, and also further advancements in terms of the Gemara studies on the undergraduate campus,” Beer Horowitz said. “But this is a really great response and we’re very happy with it.”
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The post Citing ‘outpouring of interest,’ Yeshiva U restores women’s Talmud classes whose cancellation incited an uproar appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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UK PM Starmer Says There Could Be New Powers to Ban Pro-Palestinian Marches
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer gives a media statement at Downing Street in London, Britain, April 30, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Jack Taylor/File photo
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the government could ban pro-Palestinian marches in some circumstances because of the “cumulative effect” the demonstrations had on the Jewish community after two Jewish men were stabbed in London on Wednesday.
Starmer told the BBC that he would always defend freedom of expression and peaceful protest, but chants like “Globalize the Intifada” during demonstrations were “completely off limits” and those voicing them should be prosecuted.
Pro-Palestinian marches have become a regular feature in London since the October 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel that triggered the Gaza war. Critics say the demonstrations have generated hostility and become a focus for antisemitism.
Protesters have argued they are exercising their democratic right to spotlight ongoing human rights and political issues related to the situation in Gaza.
Starmer said he was not denying there were “very strong legitimate views about the Middle East, about Gaza,” but many people in the Jewish community had told him they were concerned about the repeat nature of the marches.
Asked if the tougher response should focus on chants and banners, or whether the protests should be stopped altogether, Starmer said: “I think certainly the first, and I think there are instances for the latter.”
“I think it’s time to look across the board at protests and the cumulative effect,” he said, adding that the government needed to look at what further powers it could take.
Britain raised its terrorism threat level to “severe” on Thursday amid mounting security concerns that foreign states were helping fuel violence, including against the Jewish community.
“We are seeing an elevated threat to Jewish and Israeli individuals and institutions in the UK,” the head of counter-terrorism policing, Laurence Taylor, said in a statement, adding that police were also working “against an unpredictable global situation that has consequences closer to home, including physical threats by state-linked actors.”
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War Likely to Resume After Trump’s Rejection of Latest Proposal, Says IRGC General
Iranians carry a model of a missile during a celebration following an IRGC attack on Israel, in Tehran, Iran, April 15, 2024. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
i24 News – A senior Iranian military figure said that fighting with the US was “likely” to resume after President Donald Trump stated he was dissatisfied with Tehran’s latest proposal, regime media reported on Saturday.
The comments of General Mohammad Jafar Asadi, one of the top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders, were relayed by the Fars news agency, considered as a mouthpiece of the the powerful paramilitary body.
“Evidence has shown that the Americans do not not adhere to any commitments,” Asadi was quoted as saying.
He further added that Washington’s decision-making was “primarily media-driven aimed first at preventing a drop in oil prices and second at extricating themselves from the mess they have created.”
Iranian armed forces are ready “for any new adventures or foolishness from the Americans,” he said, going to assert that the Iran war would prove for the US a tragedy comparable with what was for Israel the October 7 massacre.
“Just as our martyred Leader said that the Zionist regime will never be the same as before the Al‑Aqsa Storm operation [the name chosen by Hamas leadership for the October 7, 2023 massacre in southern Israel], the United States will also never return to what it was before its attack on Iran,” he said. “The world has understood the true nature of America, and no matter how much malice it shows now, it is no longer the America that many once feared.”
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Trump Says US Navy Acting ‘Like Pirates’ to Carry Out Naval Blockade of Iranian Ports
A view of Iranian-flagged cargo ship M/V Touska as the US Navy Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guided missile destroyer USS Spruance conducts its interception in a location given as the north Arabian Sea, in this screen capture from a video released April 19, 2026. Photo: CENTCOM/Handout via REUTERS
President Donald Trump said on Friday the US Navy was acting “like pirates” in carrying out Washington’s naval blockade of Iranian ports during the US and Israel’s war against Iran.
Trump made the comments while describing the seizure by US forces of a ship a few days ago.
“We took over the ship, we took over the cargo, we took over the oil. It’s a very profitable business,” Trump said in remarks on Friday evening. “We’re like pirates. We’re sort of like pirates but we are not playing games.”
Some of Tehran’s vessels have been seized by the US after leaving Iranian ports, along with sanctioned container ships and Iranian tankers in Asian waters.
Iran has blocked nearly all ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz apart from its own since the start of the war. Trump has imposed a separate blockade of Iranian ports.
The US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. Iran responded with its own strikes on Israel and Gulf states that host US bases. US-Israeli strikes on Iran and Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed thousands and displaced millions.
The war has raised oil prices and led to the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for about 20 percent of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.
Trump, who has offered shifting timelines and goals for the war that remains unpopular in the US, has faced widespread condemnation over his comments on the conflict, including when he threatened to destroy Iran’s entire civilization last month.
Many US experts said last month that American strikes on Iran may amount to war crimes after Trump threatened to target civilian infrastructure.