Daily Kickoff: Day 6 in search for kidnapped boys | How Yeshiva University Lost $1B | US, Iran close to a deal? | NY Mistrial – No Yiddish Translation

By Jacob Kornbluh & JI Staff

DEEP DIVE: “How To Lose $1 Billion: Yeshiva University Blows Its Future on Loser Hedge Funds” by Steven I. Weiss in TakePart: “What they couldn’t have known… a decade ago was that the real danger in Yeshiva’s new leadership was not to the school’s spiritual welfare but to its very existence. Over the years to come, the new leadership at Yeshiva would ramp up risk in the school’s investment portfolio, vastly increase spending, and do little to insure against a rainy day. When rainy days did arrive, with the global financial meltdown of 2008, Yeshiva was heavily exposed. Today, its finances are overwhelmed by a sea of red ink. According to a recent announcement by credit ratings agency Moody’s, the school will run out of cash next year. (more…)

Bruce Ratner to succeed Morgenthau as chairman of the Museum of Jewish Heritage

The developer Bruce Ratner will succeed Robert M. Morgenthau, the former Manhattan district attorney, as chairman of the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, The New York Times reports. 

(L-R) Bruce Ratner, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, and Jay Z

Mr. Ratner will initially serve as chairman-elect, a new position created to help in an orderly succession. Following a transition period, Mr. Morgenthau will become chairman emeritus – also a new position, created to recognize his service as chairman since 1982.

 

Mr. Ratner has served on the board since 1996. He was the co-chair of the building committee, and his firm, Forest City Ratner Companies, provided pro-bono construction project management for the museum’s expansion, the Robert M. Morgenthau Wing, which opened in 2003.

 

The museum, which is located in Battery Park City and opened in 1997, is dedicated to educating people about Jewish life before, during and after the Holocaust.

 

“I strongly believe that Bob’s sense of justice and the power of the law are derived directly from his involvement with these issues,” Mr. Ratner said in a statement.

 

“The Museum of Jewish Heritage reminds us that we must always be vigilant,” he added, “and that we must all be prepared to say ‘Never again.’ ”