 Furstenberg was born in Germany, in 1935 (originally named "Fürstenberg").In 1939, Shortly after Kristallnacht, his family escaped to the United States and settled in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City, shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War.He attended Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy and then Yeshiva University, where he concluded his BA and MSc studies at the age of 20 in 1955.