Shuly Rubin Schwartz began her work as the chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary nearly two years ago, but it wasn’t until May 17, 2022, that the Conservative Movement flagship formally celebrated Schwartz’s appointment, which makes her the first woman to lead the 136-year-old seminary.

In a speech delivered at the seminary’s Manhattan home, the chancellor remarked on her own Conservative Jewish upbringing and the inspiration of her mother, an executive director of a Jewish children’s services agency. She said that studies show that “fewer Jews are building rich, sustaining Jewish lives bound up with the Jewish story, Jewish practice and learning, and helping Jews in need.” To address this, she said JTS would expand its cultural programming, both in person and virtually.

Prior to the chancellorship, she served as provost at JTS and was for 25 years dean of the Albert A. List College of Jewish Studies.

This just in: Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of the year. In the U.S., he has an over 70% approval rating — a hero and an everyman.

Élizabeth Borne, whose family fled the Nazis in Poland in 1939, has been named the new Prime Minister of France, the first time in 30 years that a woman has held the position. Borne will replace Jean Castex in the role, the Elysée Palace said in a statement o May 23. Borne formerly served as minister of the environment, transportation and labor. Her appointment follows President Emmanuel Macron’s reelection on April 24.

Borne, 61, was born in Paris to Joseph Bornstein and Marguerite Lecésne. Her father is a Jew of Polish origin.

On March 30, the U.S. Senate officially confirmed Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt’s nomination to become the Biden administration’s special envoy to combat and monitor antisemitism. 

A wide range of Jewish groups had been lobbying the Senate to swiftly confirm Lipstadt pointing to her lofty qualifications and arguing that leaving the position open was significantly hampering the US’s ability to address a growing wave of antisemitism. Pressure to hold a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee rose following the January standoff at a synagogue in Colleyville, TX, where a gunman held four worshippers hostage.

Lipstadt, 75, is best known for her appearance in a landmark British legal case in which she fought a libel suit brought by Holocaust denier David Irving. That experienced was depicted in the Hollywood feature film “Denial,” with Rachel Weisz playing the part of Deborah Lipstadt.

She served most recently as the Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust studies at Emory University in Atlanta, where she was the founding director of the Institute for Jewish Studies. She has also served in several roles at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and was asked by President George W. Bush to represent the U.S. at the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Lipstadt’s new position carries the rank of ambassador. 

Eating hand-made shmurah matza in space during Passover may sound like something out of a sci-fi film, but that is what happened this year. On April 9, a week before Passover, Israeli astronaut Eytan Stibbe, 64, a former Israeli Air Force fighter pilot and philanthropist, was given a box of shmurah matza before boarding Axiom 1 bound for the International Space Station.

During a press conference earlier in the week, Stibbe said, “The seder, Passover, is all about freedom, which is a value we celebrate annually and remind ourselves about the importance of freedom, based on a 3,000-year-old story when Moses said the famous sentence, ‘Let my people go.’”

The New York Times has named Joseph Kahn, currently the paper’s managing editor, as its next executive editor, succeeding Dean Baquet, 65, who is retiring after eight years in the position. Kahn is the fifth Jewish editor in the top spot, following A.M. Rosenthal (1977-1986), Max Frankel (1986-1994), Joseph Lelyveld (1994-2001, 2003), and Jill Abramson (2011-2014).

Kahn joined The Times in January 1998 after four years as China correspondent for The Wall Street Journal. Before The Journal, he was a reporter at The Dallas Morning News, where he was part of a team of reporters awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1994 for international reporting on violence against women around the world. 

In 2006, Kahn and Jim Yardley won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for The Times, covering rule of law in China.

Shul members Hedy Campeas and Graham Diamond, co-authors of a  new mystery thriller Diner of Lost Souls, have reported the book’s release on ePubs, and its trade softcover release upcoming on June 3. It is this month’s featured release on bookbub.com/. 

For a fun read with “action, adventure, murder, manslaughter and terrorism,” according to an Amazon review, join sleuth Cora Drakos, proprietor of the Athena Diner, in an adventure tale from New York to Athens and back to New York.

Mazel tov to Hedy and Graham on their first literary collaboration.