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Shelley Akabas, Columbia U social work pioneer who transformed the world of work, dies at 92
(JTA) — Sheila (Shelley) Akabas, a retired professor of social work at Columbia University who pioneered research into how labor and management could expand employment opportunities for people with disabilities and other challenges, died Nov. 17. She was 92.
Trained as a labor economist, she joined the Columbia faculty in 1969, and was soon appointed director of the Industrial Social Welfare Center, which promoted equal employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities.
The center was launched in an era when few companies thought it was their business to address the emotional problems, physical challenges and other stress factors that might affect an employee’s work. Akabas and her peers urged management to train supervisors to identify struggling employees and workplace stressors, provide direct services and link employees with community facilities.
Now known as the Center for Social Policy and Practice in the Workplace, the center Akabas led provides research and guidance for helping a range of people enter the workforce, from those with mental illness to the formerly incarcerated.
“It might be said that the world of work is my ‘beat,’” Akabas wrote in a statement for Columbia’s School of Social Work website. “My special interest through a long career has been in equal opportunity in the labor market for diverse populations.”
When she retired in 2013, Columbia’s School of Social work estimated that she had educated more than 1,000 of its students and mentored hundreds. In addition to developing the Workplace Center, she developed, designed and led the Social Enterprise Administration program, which trains social workers in management and organizational theory, and championed the World of Work field, which helps clients navigate obstacles in the workplace, including discrimination and unequal opportunity.
Sheila Epstein was born in New York City to a Jewish family. After attending Hunter School for Girls, she enrolled at Cornell University in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at age 16, graduating first in its class at age 19. Akabas was a founding member of Cornell Hillel’s board of trustees and remained active in the student organization for most of her life.
“In the mid-nineties, Shelley helped revitalize our Hillel and helped create the organization it is today,” Cornell Hillel said in a statement on their Facebook page. “Over twenty years as a Hillel Trustee and Honorary Trustee, Shelley imagined programs, recruited more than a dozen board members, and, more recently, offered sage advice as a Hillel elder.”
Akabas earned a PhD in economics at NYU and became one of the first women to join the tenured graduate school faculty at Columbia University in 1969.
She and her husband, Aaron Akabas, were active at the Manhattan synagogue B’nai Jeshurun. Among her many affiliations were the Statewide Educational Advisory Board of the NYS Office of Mental Health, the New York State Workers Compensation Board and the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities.
Jeanette Takamura, then dean of Columbia’s School of Social Work, paid tribute to Akabas when she retired in 2013. “Dr. Akabas demonstrated over four decades the importance and the value of faculty who are not necessarily social workers by professional training, but who are social workers in spirit because of their orientation and their lived dedication to the profession and its ideals,” she said. “She helped make the School what it is today.”
Akabas is survived by her husband; a brother, Howard; three children, nine grandchildren and nine great grandchildren.
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The post Shelley Akabas, Columbia U social work pioneer who transformed the world of work, dies at 92 appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.