Edward Koch

In the mid-1970s, William Rapfogel, who was publishing a small Jewish newspaper on the Lower East Side, arranged a meeting at a café near Grand Central Station with Edward Koch, then an obscure member of Congress, and one of the representative’s aides.

Ed Koch, the three-term mayor of New York (1978-‘89), will be honored by Beit Morasha, the Jerusalem-based educational center, on Jan. 25 for “public service, leadership and commitment to the State of Israel and the Jewish people” at a special event and dinner at Guastavino’s in New York City.

Beit Morasha will inaugurate the Edward I. Koch Center for Public Policy and Jewish Ethics at Beit Morasha’s Robert M. Beren College, which supports research and advanced seminar programs on the connection between public policy and Jewish values.