A San Francisco rabbi can sue a former president of the city’s Jewish Community Federation for defamation, a court ruled. Overturning the ruling of a trial judge, members of the First District Court of Appeal said Rabbi Pinchas Lipner can sue Richard Goldman for allegedly defamatory comments made in a documentary on Jewish philanthropy in the Bay Area, the Daily Journal reported. In the oral history, Goldman reportedly criticizes Lipner’s treatment of students and says the school he runs, the Hebrew Academy of San Francisco, is a financial drain on the Jewish community. In another portion of the interview, the Journal reports, Goldman compares Lipner to Hitler. Lipner’s lawyer said the comparison was especially painful because Lipner lost family in the Holocaust. The lower court had ruled that Lipner could not sue because of a statute of imitations. However, the appellate court said that because the interview was stored in a library for eight years before ! Lipner found out about it, it falls under the category of delayed discovery, allowing him to sue.
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