NEW YORK (JTA) – The 92nd St. Y named Henry Timms as its new executive director, making permanent a change made after the Y’s previous director was fired amid a sex scandal.
Timms, who is not Jewish, succeeds Sol Adler, who was dismissed last July after a quarter-century at the helm of the venerable New York Jewish cultural institution following revelations that he had a long-term affair with his assistant, Catherine Marto.
Marto, the Y’s former liaison for board and donor relations, was fired after the Y decided that she provided unsatisfactory answers to an investigation of her son-in-law, Sal Taddeo, a former Y employee who allegedly received kickbacks from Y vendors while working there.
Before being named interim executive director following the scandal, Timms served as the Y’s deputy executive director for innovation, strategy and content.
“Our search for our new executive director was far-reaching and comprehensive,” Stuart Ellman, president of the Y’s board of directors, said in a statement Tuesday. “We were fortunate to have had such a strong internal candidate in Henry. The board voted unanimously to select Henry, both for his remarkable achievements and leadership to date, and as someone from whom we believe the best is yet to come.”
The Y also announced that Rabbi Peter Rubinstein, senior rabbi at Manhattan’s Central Synagogue, will join the organization’s staff in September as director of Jewish community and the Bronfman Center for Jewish Life at the Y. Rubinstein will oversee the Y’s Jewish programming, the organization said in a statement.
“This is a remarkable organization full of both creativity and compassion, and I’m proud to be a part of it,” Timms said in a statement. “It’s a team that is committed to serving every member of our community more fully and to thinking big about how we can increase our impact.”
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