Apr 22, 2004 -- How democracy and theocracy coexist will take center stage at a May 2 lecture sponsored by Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women. The discussion, “Democracy and Religion: Fighting for Israel’s Soul,” will take place at 8 pm at the Teaneck, NJ, home of Leora and Jonathan Kukin. The event is the third in a seven-part lecture series celebrating Stern College’s 50th anniversary. Rabbi Seth Farber, a graduate of the YU-affiliated Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary and YU’s Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies, will speak. Rabbi Farber is the founder of ITIM: The Jewish Life Information Center, an organization that advises unafilliated Israelis on Jewish life cycle rituals, such as marriage, conversion, and burial. He received a PhD from The Hebrew University in Jerusalem and has taught at Maimonides School in Boston and at the graduate schools of Touro College and the Overseas School of The Hebrew University. In 1992, he co-founded Ma’ayan, a Boston-based adult education program for Jewish women. He is the author of An American Orthodox Dreamer: Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik and Boston’s Maimonides School (Brandeis University Press, 2004), a member of the Israel rabbinate, and the spiritual leader of a congregation in Ra’anana, Israel. The lecture is co-sponsored by Dr. Marcia Robbins-Wilf, founder of Stern College’s Dr. Marcia Robbins-Wilf Scholar-in-Residence Program and a founding SCW board member. Upcoming lecture topics include medical ethics and Halakhah (Jewish law), and the challenges confronting modern Orthodox families and women. Co-chairs of the lecture series are Stern College alumnae Debbie Niderberg ’86 and Cali Orenbuch ’85. Sharon Herzfeld, MD, ’88 and Susan Ungar-Mero, MD, ’87, also Stern graduates, are co-chairing the college’s yearlong celebration. For more information on future lectures and other Stern-at-50 events, call 212-340-7862, or e-mail rentas@yu.edu. Admission to the lectures is free, although advance reservations are required. Online registration is also available at www.yu.edu/sternjubilee.