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Germany’s liberal rabbinical association expels rabbi at center of sweeping scandal
BERLIN (JTA) – The embattled Rabbi Walter Homolka, accused of abuse of power at the liberal rabbinical seminary he founded, has suffered yet another consequence: expulsion from Germany’s liberal rabbinical association.
The expulsion does not affect any work that Homolka might do as a rabbi or professor in Germany or beyond. But it strips him of a role in determining whether new rabbis are admitted to the group and in weighing in on actions that the group takes collectively — a substantial setback for a man responsible for the birth and growth of many of Germany’s non-Orthodox Jewish institutions.
The vote took place Wednesday at the Berlin headquarters of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. There, members of the General Rabbinical Conference, known as ARK, voted 19 to 8 to shift Homolka to an associate membership. The vote took place “at the request of some members,” the group’s leadership said in a statement. Homolka was not present.
The vote achieved the two-thirds majority required to pass but also revealed that Homolka continues to have substantial support despite two separate investigations finding in recent months that he created an “atmosphere of fear” among staff and students at the liberal Abraham Geiger College and other Jewish educational institutions he founded.
According to attendees, the vote followed a presentation by Central Council executive director Daniel Botmann, who reportedly outlined the findings of the two investigations – one by the University of Potsdam, which hosts two rabbinical schools that Homolka started and where he had been on the faculty, and the other commissioned by the Central Council itself.
Botmann was not present during the official ARK meeting where the vote was taken. Rabbi Andreas Nachama, chair of the liberal rabbinical group, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the vote took place without any further discussion.
The final report from the law firm commissioned by the Central Council, potentially containing new details, is expected to be released in the coming weeks. Homolka has firmly denied accusations of abuse of power since they first broke into public view last May. But he has lost or given up roles in a number of German Jewish organizations nonetheless.
At the same meeting, the ARK accepted into its ranks two recently ordained rabbis from the Geiger College and the conservative Zacharias Frankel College, both housed at the University of Potsdam. Homolka was the founder and rector of Geiger College but ceded it earlier this month to the Jewish Community of Berlin, which assured the Central Council that Homolka would no longer play any role there.
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The post Germany’s liberal rabbinical association expels rabbi at center of sweeping scandal appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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The Jewish vote for NYC mayor went to Cuomo, but the Israel vote went to Mamdani, exit polls show
Zohran Mamdani clinched the New York City mayoral race in a decisive victory last night, but Jewish voters favored former Gov. Andrew Cuomo by a nearly two-to-one margin.
A CNN exit poll showed 63% of Jews voted for Cuomo, 33% for Mamdani, and 3% for Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa.
Those numbers suggest Cuomo performed better among Jewish voters than New York City voters as a whole, 41% of whom voted for Cuomo and 50% for Mamdani. Jewish voters make up an estimated 10% of the city’s electorate.
Mamdani won decisively in Brooklyn and in younger precincts across western Queens and parts of Manhattan. Cuomo carried Orthodox and senior-populated neighborhoods in Borough Park and Riverdale.
The Orthodox-populated Borough Park saw record turnout, as did New York City overall, with more than 2 million voters casting ballots.
An outspoken critic of Israel, Mamdani’s stance on the conflict in Gaza resonated with a majority of voters, according to public opinion polls taken after his primary win. Nearly half of Mamdani voters, 49%, on Tuesday said his position was a factor in their support, according to a CNN exit poll. For Cuomo supporters, only 44% said his position on Israel was a factor in their vote.
Cuomo had banked on strong turnout from Jewish voters to boost his momentum in the general election, a bet that ultimately didn’t secure the win. In July, Cuomo said a key factor in his primary loss was Mamdani’s support from young, Jewish and pro-Palestinian voters. “I would wager that in the primary, more than 50% of the Jewish people voted for Mamdani,” Cuomo said at the time.
Mamdani’s positions on Israel have roiled Jews across the country, and he’s often had to defend himself against allegations of antisemitism for: refusing to outright condemn the slogan “globalize the intifada;” reiterating support for Palestinians in his statement on the Gaza ceasefire; vowing to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits New York; and saying he doesn’t recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
Yet Mamdani simultaneously built a coalition of Jews who support him. That included a surprise last-minute endorsement from a faction of the Satmar Hasidic community, though Cuomo had the backing of most Orthodox groups that helped swing the 2021 mayoral race for Eric Adams.
Jacob Kornbluh contributed reporting and writing.
The post The Jewish vote for NYC mayor went to Cuomo, but the Israel vote went to Mamdani, exit polls show appeared first on The Forward.
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The Problem with ‘Business as Usual’ in Philanthropy
The personal belongings of festival-goers are seen at the site of an attack on the Nova Festival by Hamas terrorists from Gaza, near Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, Oct. 12, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
Many of today’s non-profit humanitarian organizations — well-funded, well-staffed, and highly visible — aren’t built for crisis. Their models are too slow. Their structures are too rigid. Their priorities are often disconnected from the realities on the ground. Most critically, too many are consumed by internal processes and fundraising goals that make real-time agility almost impossible.
This isn’t a condemnation of every non-profit — many do vital work. But there’s a growing gap between donor intentions and impact. People give from their hearts, yet their money often fails to reach the people or places they hoped to help — or doesn’t arrive in time to make a difference.
That gap became painfully clear after October 7, when Israel faced a national trauma that shook the Jewish world. Innocent civilians were attacked, families torn apart, and a nation’s very existence threatened. In those first few hours and days, the need for immediate aid — medical gear, protective equipment, trauma support — was overwhelming. And yet, the legacy systems of philanthropy couldn’t keep pace with the urgency of the moment.
The Jewish world, and Israel specifically, cannot afford to depend solely on these legacy systems. Too many aid dollars disappear into operations distant from the field and too removed from the moment. At a time when donor fatigue is real and scrutiny of nonprofits is higher than ever, transparency and efficiency aren’t just ideals — they’re survival tools.
This is not a call to tear down the existing ecosystem of aid organizations. It’s a call to evolve it. Large institutional NGOs play an important role, especially in the long-term recovery and rebuilding processes. But they cannot be the only model. The future of humanitarian response must include leaner, more nimble, and more accountable organizations that treat urgency as a core operating principle, not a marketing term.
Two years ago, when we launched Israel Friends, it wasn’t the result of a lengthy strategic planning process or a carefully crafted brand vision. It was a reaction and a necessity. A response to an absolute crisis. Our guiding question was simple: What can we do that will matter right now?
We come from the world of supply chains and logistics, not traditional philanthropy. Before starting an NGO, we used those skills in the private sector, and later, during moments of crisis, to get personal protective equipment to hospitals during COVID-19 and deliver trauma kits to frontline medics during the invasion of Ukraine. Those experiences shaped our approach: keep overhead low, move fast, cut red tape, and deliver aid directly where it’s needed most, as quickly as possible.
After October 7, that meant getting gear, medical supplies, and protective equipment to soldiers on the front lines — not months later, not after a funding cycle or committee review — immediately. We even invested our own money into purchasing aid at the start, and didn’t expect or want anything in return. Today, those needs have shifted. Mental health has become one of the most urgent and overlooked aspects of recovery, and we’ve shifted with it. Flexibility and responsiveness aren’t just features of our model; they are the model.
Operating this way isn’t easy – it runs counter to the grain of much of the nonprofit world, where large infrastructure and high administrative costs are often seen as signs of sophistication rather than inefficiency. But when lives are on the line, we believe the opposite is true: the ability to act quickly, with minimal overhead and maximum impact, is the defining measure of success.
We didn’t plan to build a new non-profit. We built it because, at that moment, it felt like we had no other choice. But now, two years in, we see this is bigger than one crisis. It’s about changing how we think about aid altogether. The future of philanthropy depends on the willingness to act first and fundraise later — to measure success not by size, but by speed and impact.
The next time tragedy strikes — whether in Israel or somewhere else — we hope there are more organizations ready to act without delay, to deliver without waste, and to serve without ego. Because that’s what the moment demands. If October 7 taught us anything, it’s that bureaucracy saves no lives. Agility, compassion, and courage do.
Teddy Raskin and Jordan Fried are co-founders of Israel Friends, a grassroots organization founded in the aftermath of October 7th, which has raised tens of millions in direct aid with minimal overhead since its launch.
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Mamdani’s victory worries many Jewish leaders
דער אַרטיקל איז אַ פֿאַרקירצטער נוסח פֿונעם ענגלישן אַרטיקל, וואָס געפֿינט זיך דאָ.
ווען זאָכראַן מאַמדאַני, אַ שאַרפֿער קריטיקער פֿון ישׂראל, האָט דינסטיק געוווּנען די ווײַלן פֿאַר ניו־יאָרקער בירגער־מײַסטער, האָבן אַ צאָל ייִדישע פֿירער אויסגעדריקט זאָרג בעת אַנדערע האָבן רעאַגירט מיט באַגײַסטערונג און אָפּטימיזם.
מאַמדאַני, וואָס וועט ווערן דער ערשטער מוסולמענישער בירגער־מײַסטער פֿון ניו־יאָרק, האָט באַקומען 50.4% פֿון די שטימען. דער געוועזענער ניו־יאָרקער גובערנאַטאָר אַנדרו קואָמאָ, וואָס האָט קאַנדידירט אומאָפּהענגיק פֿון קיין פּאַרטיי, איז געקומען אויפֿן צווייטן אָרט מיט 41.6%. דער רעפּובליקאַנער קאַנדידאַט קורטיס סליוואַ האָט געקראָגן 7.1% פֿון די שטימען.
לויט די לעצטע אַנקעטעס דינסטיק בײַ נאַכט האָבן 60% ייִדישע וויילער געשטיצט קואָמאָ.
אַ צאָל ייִדישע כּלל־טוער האָבן אויסגעדריקט זאָרג וועגן דער צוקונפֿט פֿאַר ייִדן אין ניו־יאָרק איבער מאַמדאַניס מיינונגען וועגן ישׂראל. ער האָט למשל זיך אָפּגעזאָגט צו פֿאַרדאַמען די לאָזונג „זאָל די אינטיפֿאַדע זיך פֿאַרשפּרייטן איבער דער וועלט“ און האָט געוואָרנט אַז דער ישׂראלדיקער פּרעמיער בנימין נתניהו וועט אַרעסטירט ווערן אויב ער קומט קיין ניו־יאָרק. ער האָט אויך דערקלערט אַז ער אָנערקענט נישט ישׂראל ווי אַ ייִדישע מדינה.
דער פֿאַקט אַז מאַמדאַני איז נישט געווען גרייט אָפּצוּוואַרפֿן דאָס באַצייכענען די ישׂראל־מחלמה אין עזה ווי „אַ גענאָציד“, ווי אויך זײַן באַשלוס זיך נישט צו באַטייליקן אינעם יערלעכן ישׂראל־פּאַראַד, האָבן אַרויסגערופֿן כּעס בײַ אַ סך ייִדן אין דער שטאָט.
בעת זײַן נצחון־רעדע האָט מאַמדאני אָבער צוגעזאָגט אַז אונטער זײַן קאַדענץ וועט די שטאָט־רעגירונג „שטיצן די ייִדישע ניו־יאָרקער און וועט זיך נישט וואַקלען צו באַקעמפֿן די מכּה פֿון אַנטיסעמיטיזם.“
אַ צאָל ייִדישע וויילער, בפֿרט בײַם ייִנגערן דור, האָבן אָבער געשטיצט מאַמדאַני מיט באַגײַסטערונג. רעאַגירנדיק אויף זײַן צוזאָג צו באַקעמפֿן אַנטיסעמיטיזם, האָט דער שרײַבער מאיר לאַבין געשריבן אויף „עקס“: „דאָס איז בײַ מיר ווי מוזיק אין די אויערן. מזל־טובֿ, מעיאָר זאָכראַן מאַמדאַני!“
אַ טייל קאָמענטאַטאָרס האָבן ספּעקולירט אַז צוליב מאַמדאַניס נצחון וועלן אַ סך ייִדישע אײַנוווינער זיך אַרויסציִען פֿון ניו־יאָרק. ראַבײַ מאַרק שנייער, למשל, וואָס דינט ווי דער גײַסטיקער פֿירער פֿון דער האַמפּטאָן־שיל, אַן אָרטאָדאָקסישע סינאַגאַגע אין לאָנג־אײַלאַנד, האָט שוין געמאָלדן אַז ער האָט בדעה דאָרט צו גרינדן אַ ייִדישע טאָגשול — די ערשטע אין די האַמפּטאָנס.
„איך ריכט זיך אַז טויזנטער ייִדישע משפּחות וועלן פֿאַרלאָזן די שטאָט ניו־יאָרק און זיך אַריבערקלײַבן אין די העמפּטאָנס און דעם ראַיאָן פֿון סאָפֿאָלק־קאַונטי, כּדי צו אַנטלויפֿן פֿונעם אַנטיסעמיטישן קלימאַט פֿון מאַמדאַניס ניו־יאָרק,“ האָט שנייער געזאָגט.
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