Stephen P. Cohen, Middle East intermediary, dies at 71

Stephen Philip Cohen, a Canadian-born academic and Jewish organizational leader who served as a confidential intermediary between Israeli and Arab leaders for three decades, died Jan. 23. He was 71 and had been in poor health.

A social psychologist by training, Cohen arranged and participated in historic breakthroughs between Israel and its neighbors, including meetings with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat prior to Camp David, the first-ever official talks by Israeli intermediaries with the PLO and what he and others called “near-miss” negotiations with Syria.

In 1978, Cohen met with Sadat in Alexandria, Egypt, months after the Egyptian leader had flown to Israel urging its leaders to return the Sinai in exchange for peace. The two discussed the Israeli leadership under Prime Minister Menachem Begin and how the Palestinian situation might play into any agreement between Israel and Egypt. Later that summer, President Jimmy Carter invited Begin and Sadat to Camp David for an intense round of negotiations that led to a peace agreement between Egypt and Israel after three decades of hostilities.

Cohen met PLO leader Yasser Arafat for the first time in 1981, when both Israel and the United States boycotted contacts with the group.

In 1986 Cohen, with the approval of Prime Minister Shimon Peres, arranged a meeting between Israeli intelligence officials Shlomo Gazit and Yossi Ginossar and two main officials of the PLO, breaking a long-standing taboo. The sides met twice more over the next two months, but any progress was cut short when the Likud leader, Yitzhak Shamir, rotated into the premier’s seat. However, much of the content of their talks eventually found its way into formal agreements made between the PLO and Israel years later.

Cohen was close to the administration of President Barack Obama and was reported to have contributed to Obama’s controversial 2009 Cairo speech, in which the president reiterated his call for a two-state solution and called on each side to see the conflict through the eyes of the other. The outgoing White House listed that speech on a list of Obama administration accomplishments in advancing religious freedoms, although it was controversial among pro-Israel groups at the time for the emphasis it put on the Holocaust as a justification for Israel’s founding and legitimacy.

Cohen is survived by his wife, educator Dr. Elaine Shizgal Cohen; daughters Rabbi Tamara, Rabbi Ayelet and Maya Cohen; and several grandchildren.

—JTA News and Features

‘Foremost authority’ Irwin Corey dies at 102

Irwin Corey, a stand-up comic and actor who was often billed as “The World’s Foremost Authority,” died on Feb. 6 in his Manhattan home, the New York Times reported. He was 102, and his death was confirmed by his son, Richard Corey.

Born on July 29, 1914 in Brooklyn as Eli Irwin Cohen, he and his five siblings were placed in the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of New York, a fact the comedian proudly denoted on his website. At age 13, he made his way to California and enrolled in Belmont High School in Los Angeles. The world’s foremost authority in fact only completed one year of high school.

In the early 1940s, Corey returned to New York and began to develop his “professor” character, an absent-minded academic, who found no question too simple to complicate, and notably began his answers with “However.”

Asked to provide advice for aspiring comics, the Huffington Post reported, his advice was: “However … we all know that protocol takes precedence over procedures. This Paul Lindsey point of order based on the state of inertia of developing a centrifugal force issued as a catalyst rather than as a catalytic agent, and hastens a change reaction and remains an indigenous brier to its inception. This is a focal point used as a tangent so the bile is excreted through the panaceas.”

In other words, Corey said, “Marry a rich woman.”

Corey’s wife, Frances, died in 2011. In addition to their son, Richard, Corey is survived by two grandsons and two great-grandchildren. His daughter, Margaret, died in 1997, the New York Times reported. n

—Justin Katz

‘The People’s Court’ Judge Wapner dies at 97

Joseph Wapner, the retired judge who starred on “The People’s Court” — the first television reality show — has died.
Wapner died Sunday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 97.

“The People’s Court” premiered in September 1981, and Wapner heard thousands of cases during his 12 years on the show, according to the entertainment website TMZ.

Before appearing as a judge on television, Wapner served as a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge.
Wapner, a Los Angeles native who grew up in the city, was the son of immigrant parents. His father came from Romania and became an attorney. His mother was from Russia.

He graduated from the University of Southern California and its law school.

During World War II, he was awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star for heroism while serving in the Pacific in Cebu.
He was appointed to the Los Angeles Municipal Court in 1959 and two years later to the Superior Court, where he served for 18 years before retiring in 1979. He also served as president of the California Judges Association.

Wapner received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2009. He wrote a popular memoir titled “A View from the Bench.”
Wapner’s son, Fred, followed in his father’s footsteps to become an attorney and then a judge. His son David Miron-Wapner also became an attorney.

Wapner’s daughter, Sarah, died in 2005. He and wife, Mickey, were married for 70 years. n

—JTA News and Features

Physicist Mildred Dresselhaus, ‘Queen of Carbon,’ dies at 86

Physicist Mildred Dresselhaus, the daughter of impoverished Polish Jewish immigrants whose pioneering research into the

Official White House photo by Pete Souza

thermal and electrical properties of carbon earned her the nickname “Queen of Carbon,” has died.

Dresselhaus, who was an advocate for women in science fields, died Monday at 86.

Her research was foundational to the field called nanoscience, in which matter is manipulated at an atomic and molecular level.

Her pioneering work earned her the $1 million Kavli Prize in Nanoscience in 2012, the National Medal of Science, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and IEEE Medal of Honor, the highest award of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Dresselhaus had gained wider fame in recent weeks with her starring role in a television commercial promoting General Electric’s efforts to promote women in science. The commercial, titled “What If Scientists Were Celebrities?” imagines a world in which young girls dress up as Dresselhaus, glossy magazines feature her on their covers and gossip columns keep tabs on her comings and goings.

Dresselhaus, nee Mildred Spiewak, was born in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn in 1930 and grew up in the Bronx.

“The Bronx, I remember, was a very poor neighborhood, but that was all that immigrants could afford at that time,” she recalled in a 2013 interview. “Life was tough. I grew up — my father didn’t have a job, but there weren’t too many people who did have jobs.”

The prestigious Bronx High School of Science was not open to girls in her day, so she attended the selective Hunter College High School in Manhattan. She received a bachelor’s degree in 1951 from Hunter College, where she took an elementary physics class with another daughter of Jewish immigrants, Rosalyn Yalow, a future Nobel laureate in medicine. Dresselhaus often said it was Yalow who pushed her to go down the path of science and physics at a time when educated women were expected to become secretaries, nurses or teachers.

Dresselhaus went on to earn a master’s degree from Radcliffe College and a doctorate from the University of Chicago.

Two years after her marriage to fellow physicist Gene Dresselhaus in 1958, both were offered faculty positions at MIT. In 1968 she became a professor at MIT, where her research led to advances in carbon-based materials used in solid-state electronics.
As early as the mid-1970s she became a public advocate for women in engineering and science, and mentored countless young women during her time at MIT. Later in her career, MIT named her institute professor emerita, its highest distinction, and she continued teaching and researching until shortly before she died.

Dresselhaus is survived by her husband, their four children and five grandchildren. n

—JTA News and Features

Martin Alan Davis

Martin Alan Davis of Chevy Chase died Feb. 20. He was the beloved husband of 45 years of Belle Negrin Davis; dear  brother of Joel (Evelyn) Davis, Gale (the late Naftali) Teitelbaum, Rabbi Edward (Meira) Davis, Rabbi Kenneth (Anita) Davis, Marcelle (the late Moshe Aronstein and the late Sam Shayowitz) Aronstein and the late Daryl Brown Klonoff. He was a loving uncle to 55, great-uncle to 115 and great-great-uncle to four. He was a graduate of the Hebrew Academy of Washington, Roosevelt High School and the University of Maryland. He had a 47-year-career at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Interment at Elesavetgrad Cemetery, Washington. Contributions may be made to The Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy or to the charity of choice. n

David Rubinger, right, with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin
Wikimedia Commons

David Rubinger, Israeli photographer who took iconic Six-Day War photo, dies

David Rubinger, the Israeli photographer who took the iconic photo of Israeli paratroopers standing in front of the Western Wall after its capture in the Six-Day War, has died.

Rubinger, whose photos chronicled much of the history of the Jewish state, died March 2. He was 92.

Rubinger was awarded the Israel Prize in 1997 for his body of work, making him the first photographer to receive the award. He reportedly took 500,000 photos of Israeli people and events during his career.

An immigrant from Austria, he arrived in what was Palestine in 1939 at 15 and fought in 1944 with the Jewish Brigade, a military division of the British army led by British-Jewish officers in Europe.

He began his career as a photojournalist in 1955 with the daily HaOlam Hazeh and then for Yediot Achronot. He was also Time-Life’s main photographer in Israel for five decades, beginning in 1954. He also served as the Knesset’s official photographer for 30 years.

The photo at the Western Wall was taken on June 7, 1967, after paratroopers pushed into the Old City of Jerusalem and reached the narrow space between the Western Wall and the houses that faced it at the time. Rubinger maintained that the photo wasn’t successful from an artistic perspective but that its wide distribution has made it famous.

His own favorite work, he told interviewer Yossi Klein Halevi in 2007, depicted a blind boy who arrived as a new immigrant in Israel in the 1950s stroking a relief map of Israel.

“I call it, ‘Seeing the Homeland,’” Rubinger told Halevi.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin eulogized Rubinger in a statement.

“There are those who write the pages of history, and there are those who illustrate them through their camera’s lens,” Rivlin said. “Through his photography, David eternalized history as it will be forever etched in our memories. His work will always be felt as it is seen in the eyes of the paratroopers as they looked upon the Western Wall, and in the expressions on the faces of the leaders of Israel, which he captured during the highest of highs and lowest of lows.” n

—JTA News and Features

Jack Galek

Jack Galek, 99, of Albany, N.Y., died in his sleep on Jan. 22 at his residence. He was born Sept. 15, 1917, in Chiechanow, Poland, an only child of Abraham Galek and Sharon Guziker.

Galek was a survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp, where his talent for tailoring kept him alive. After being liberated in 1945, he went to Paris to live with his cousins. There he met Doris Perlmutter, who survived the Lodz Ghetto. They married in 1948. In 1949, they sailed for the United States and were sponsored by his cousins, the late David and Pearl Bray.

The couple had a daughter, Helene, and soon ran a successful business, Kenmore Cleaners in Albany. Galek was active in Congregation Beth Emeth in Albany as a member of the Brotherhood, Couples Club and soup kitchen volunteer along with his wife. When he retired in the late 1980s, he and his wife sat in on classes at local universities, went on Jewish study retreats in the Catskills, spent winters in Sarasota, Fla., and visited New York City. He was a history and politics buff and had a keen interest in language.

Galek is survived by his wife, Doris; his daughter, Helene; cousins Arthur and Anna Bray, Paul and Barbara Bray and Howard Bray; his nephew, Greg Rozines of Aldie, Va., and sister-in-law, Sylvia Rozines of Rockville. Donations may be made to Congregation Beth Emeth, and to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Alan Colmes, sparring partner of Fox’s Sean Hannity, dies

Alan Colmes, the longtime, moderate liberal sparring partner of Fox News’ Sean Hannity, died of lymphoma on Feb. 23, The New York Times reported. He was 66.

His death was confirmed by his wife, Jocelyn Elise Crowley, a professor of public policy at Rutgers University.

The show “Hannity & Colmes” premiered in 1996, and had Hannity, a conservative firebrand, co-hosting with Colmes, a moderate liberal who authored books such as “Red, White & Liberal: How Left Is Right and Right Is Wrong” (2003) and “Thank the Liberals for Saving America” (2012).

While the show’s ratings were good, especially in the run-up to the 2008 presidential election, liberal viewers often criticized it, saying Colmes was overpowered in debates by the combative Hannity.

Colmes was born in Brooklyn to Jewish immigrants from the Ukraine on Sept. 24, 1950. He grew up in Lynbrook, N.Y., and attended Ithaca College and Hofstra University. Before his time as Hannity’s “sidekick,” as some referred to him, he was a stand-up comic and radio personality.

“When we started, neither of us had a lot of TV experience,” Hannity told the Times. “Every day we would go to work and say, ‘Somebody made a mistake,’ and say, ‘What are we doing here?’ We felt like the luckiest guys on earth. We built the show together, and we were both really proud of it.”

After “Hannity & Colmes” ended in 2008, Colmes stayed with Fox News as a political commentator.

“The thing that most people never understood about us,” he told the Times, “is, we had political differences, but were best friends. What we did on the air was real, but when the show ended, we put all that aside, and we could do that because of his fundamental decency.” n

—Justin Katz

Hope 4 Adam. Facebook.

Adam Krief, Jewish father of 3 whose bone marrow search inspired celebrities, dies

Adam Krief, a Jewish cancer patient whose search for a bone marrow donor captured the attention of social media and celebrities including Kim Kardashian, Mayim Bialik and Jason Biggs, has died.

Krief, a father of three from Los Angeles, died March 14, a family friend confirmed. He was 32.

Krief was diagnosed with primary myelofibrosis, a rare form of blood cancer that is likely fatal if a stem cell transplant match is not found. To find an HLA, or gene complex match for Krief — something more difficult to track down than a blood type match — drives were held around the world, including in North America, Israel, France and Mexico.

Kardashian posted about Krief on Facebook in September, saying he was a friend of a friend.

A bone-marrow donor was found last December — seven matches were found, in fact, through the donor drives organized for him.

“This is what cloud 9 looks like … I’m so grateful to let you all know that a donor has been found,” Krief wrote at the time, sharing a video with two of his children.

The Hope 4 Adam Facebook page on March 8 called for a Worldwide Unity Shabbat for March 11 and March 18 for the recovery of Krief, asking followers to “Help us bring about a miracle.”

On Monday, the Eretz Kabbalah Facebook page of the Los Angeles-based Eretz Cultural Center posted a call for followers to recite tehillim, or psalms, on behalf of Krief.

“After a long search for a bone-marrow match to save his life, he finally received one. However, after some complications, he is said to only have a few hours to live,” the post said.

Krief is survived by his wife, Lia, and his children.

—JTA News and Features

Historian Elliott Horowitz, expert on Jewish violence, dies at 64

Elliott Horowitz, the author of “Reckless Rites: Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence” — considered the most wide-ranging book on Jewish violence — has died.

Horowitz, who taught early modern Jewish history at two Israeli universities, died on March 18 of a heart attack. He was 64.

“Reckless Rites,” published by Princeton University Press, describes actual anti-Christian practices that became part of the playful, theatrical violence of the Jewish festival of Purim.

Horowitz, a cultural-social historian of early modern Europe, served as co-editor of the Jewish Quarterly Review, a peer-reviewed journal of the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, which he and co-editor David Myers are credited with revitalizing in the past decade.

“He embodied the scholarly ideals of wide-ranging curiosity, cutting observation, and generous friendship, and he wrote with grace, erudition, and, often, mischief,” the Katz Center said in a post on its Facebook page. “His absence from our halls and from the collegial networks of Judaic studies will be dearly felt.”

Horowitz was educated at Princeton and Yale universities before moving to Israel in 1982, where he taught early modern Jewish history at Ben-Gurion and Bar-Ilan universities.

He also is known for his article on “Coffee, Coffee Houses, and the Nocturnal Rituals of Early Modern Jewry.”

—JTA News and Features

Woman who earned doctorate 80 years after Nazis’ denial, dies at 104

Ingeborg Syllm-Rapoport, a German neonatologist who passed her doctoral defense exam nearly eight decades after she was denied the opportunity by the Nazis, has died at 104.

She reportedly died March 23 in Berlin. A funeral will be held in the German capital in May, her son told The Associated Press.
Syllm-Rapoport, a former professor of pediatrics and head of the neonatology department at Berlin’s prominent Charite

Hospital who retired in 1973, passed the exam on May 13, 2015, at the University of Hamburg.

She completed her thesis on diphtheria in 1938, but was refused entrance to the oral exam by the Nazi authorities because her mother was Jewish.

Syllm-Rapoport immigrated to the United States in 1938 and was required to study for two additional years to be certified as a doctor, although she had graduated from a German medical school. She married in 1946, and the couple returned to Germany in 1952 after her husband was persecuted by anti-communist efforts during the McCarthy era.
She is survived by four children, nine grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.

—JTA News and Features

Chuck Barris, creator and host of ‘The Gong Show,’ dies

Chuck Barris, best known as creator of “The Gong Show,” “The Dating Game” and “The Newlywed Game,”  — TV hit game shows that put the spotlight on contestants  — died March 21 at his home in Palisades, N.Y., according to The New York Times. He was 87.

In the 1960s, he came up with “The Dating Game,” in which bachelor and bachelorette contestants expressed their romantic desires, and “The Newlywed Game,” which highlighted contestants’ honeymoon happiness and adjustments. In the 1970s, he was the creator and host of “The Gong Show,” which gave contestants who were generally short on talent their moment in the spotlight until one of the celebrity judges couldn’t take it anymore and hit the gong to terminate the performance. Previously, he wrote the pop song “Palisades Park,” a rock ’n’ roll hit for Freddy Cannon in 1962, according to the Times.

Writing for The Forward, Ben Ivry said that Barris “proved that one Jewish man’s inner conflicts could entertain America in a series of game shows,” and also said: “A sense of humor fixed at the level of an overstressed bar mitzvah boy in desperate need of Ritalin was a trademark of Barris’ successful career.”

He noted that Barris was considered everything from a king of trashy shows to someone who helped struggling artists to a man whose funny shows celebrated the variety of human beings. He quoted critic Tom Shales’ 1977 comments on “The Gong Show,” in which Shales said: “People make fools of themselves, but not for Amana freezers. They do it for the incomparable thrill of fleeting fame.” Shales also called the show “human comedy” and said it was “life itself.”

Barris was born in 1929 in Philadelphia to Nathaniel Barris, a dentist, and the former Edith Cohen, and graduated from Drexel University in 1953, the Times said.

He started in a management training program at NBC in 1955, but the department he was in was eliminated. In 1959 he was ABC’s chief of West Coast daytime programming, though he yearned to make his own shows, the Times said. “The Dating Game” — in which a contestant quizzed three unseen others of the opposite sex and then chose one for a date — was the first hit.

He tried his hand in the movies with “The Gong Show Movie” in 1980. He directed it and wrote it with Robert Downey Sr.; it flopped, according to the Times.

He had also turned to writing. In his alleged 1984 autobiography “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” he asserted that he’d been a CIA assassin while working in TV in the 1960s. A film version was produced, and both drew the question of whether that was true. The CIA said no, the Times wrote.

He continued writing, including the 2010 book “Della: A Memoir of My Daughter,” about his only child, who died of a drug overdose in 1998, at 36, according to the Times.

Two marriages ended in divorce. He is survived by his wife, the former Mary Clagett, the Times said.
The Times noted that during a 2007 appearance at the Book Passage bookstore in Corte Madera, Calif., he spoke about how he probably would remembered:

“I would love to be known as an author, but I don’t think it’s written that that’s the way it’s going to be. I think on my tombstone it’s just going to say, ‘Gonged at last,’ and I’m stuck with that.” n

Rabbi Amnon Haramati, Jewish scholar and teacher, dies at 86

Rabbi Amnon Haramati died on March 30. He was 86.

Haramati was born in Jerusalem in 1930, son of Shmuel and Sarah (nee Mirkin) Haramati. As a teenager, he was recognized as an exceptional student and began a teaching career before his 16th birthday.

During the War for Israel’s Independence in 1948, he was severely injured and declared dead, before being saved by an observant nurse. Following his recuperation, he began teaching in the Israeli educational system, while continuing his academic studies in pedagogy and Jewish education at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Haramati and his wife, Dinah, were recruited by Joel Braverman to teach at the Yeshivah of Flatbush High School in Brooklyn, N.Y., and relocated there in 1956. Over the next 45 years, Haramati led the Bible department and taught thousands of students, while also leading classes in the wider community.

Haramati spent many summers as a leader in Camp Massad, a pioneering Jewish camp immersed in Hebrew language, Jewish tradition and Zionism.

In 1994, he received the prestigious Covenant Award in Jewish Education, during which time he expressed his life’s mission: “I strongly believe that my calling is to guide our young people in their formative years… As our sages said: ‘One who teaches Torah to another person’s child, it is as if that person gave birth to that child.’ With these strong motivational words in mind, I have dedicated myself to my chosen profession: the education of Jewish youth.”

In 2001, he and his wife retired from full-time teaching and relocated to Silver Spring, where they resumed teaching evening classes to the community.

He was buried in Jerusalem. In addition to his wife of 64 years, he is survived by three sons, Aviad (Claire) Haramati of Silver Spring, Nogah (Linda) Haramati of New Rochelle, N.Y., and Raz (Debra) Haramati of Englewood, N.J.; 14 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. n

Max Klein

Max Klein died in his home on March 2 at the age of 92.

His parents, Morris and Jennie Klein, immigrants from Eastern Europe, faced severe economic hardships during the Depression, but worked hard to ensure he received a proper education.

His childhood years were spent in New Bedford, Mass., surrounded by many relatives with whom he kept in touch until his final day.

After graduating from the University of Massachusetts and serving in the Navy, Klein went on to Columbia University to study for his master’s degree. Before completing his master’s, he moved to Washington and began working as a physicist for the government. He earned a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Maryland.

In 1954, Klein married Ruhama Dmiel, who was born in Israel and was working for the Israeli Embassy.

In 1963, with their two young children, and with Klein hardly speaking any Hebrew, they moved to Rehovot, Israel. Klein began working for the Weizmann Institute.

They returned to the Washington area in 1965 and eventually settled in the Kemp Mill area of Silver Spring.

Most of Klein’s career as a physicist was spent at the National Bureau of Standards (later NIST) in the area of thermodynamics.  After his retirement from the government, he went to work at the Gas Research Institute in Chicago.

In 1976, Ruhama died at the age of 45. After Klein’s daughter graduated from high school, he moved to Chicago where he spent the next 10 years. During that period, in 1985, he married Suzette Alden Pollak, also widowed, who had two children.

The couple moved to Washington and became active members of Kesher Israel Congregation. After Suzette died in 2015, Klein moved to Ring House but spent Shabbatot with his son and daughter in Potomac.

Klein was a board member of the Berman Hebrew Academy; Kesher Israel Congregation, where one of his tasks was to run the Hospitality Committee; and the National Capital Mikvah. He was also an active member of many professional societies and a volunteer for many chesed organizations.

Klein is survived by his three children, Nehemiah (Rina), David (Michele), and Sara (Paul); Suzette’s children Molly (Phil) and Danny (Esther Goldie); 20 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. Other survivors include his sister Beverly Zuller, and many nieces and nephews.

Donations can be made to Bikur Cholim of Greater Washington, Berman Hebrew Academy or Kesher Israel Congregation. n

Comedian Don Rickles at Book Soup in West Hollywood, Calif., in 2007. Photo by Mark Mainz/Getty Images

NEW YORK — Don Rickles, the bullet-headed comedian and actor whose pioneering brand of insult comedy earned him the nickname “Mr. Warmth,” has died at 90.

Rickles died Thursday morning at his home in Los Angeles from kidney failure, according to his publicist. He would have turned 91 on May 8.

Bald and squat, Rickles would pace the stages of nightclubs and late night talk shows seeking out “victims” in the audience, riffing on their weight, ethnicity and dress, calling them “hockey puck,” but usually pulling back from the edge of causing any real offense by offering a wide smile and an intentionally unctuous declaration of universal fraternity. His targets included fellow comedian Jerry Lewis (“You annoy me”), Frank Sinatra (“Make yourself comfortable, Frank — hit somebody”) and an Asian man sitting in the front row of one of his shows (“There are 40 million Jews here in Los Angeles; how did you get such a good seat?” ).

But Rickles also was a serious actor who trained at the famed American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and he had supporting roles in a number of memorable films including  “Kelly’s Heroes,” with Clint Eastwood; “Run Silent, Run Deep,” with Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster, and “Casino,” directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert DeNiro.

Younger audiences would recognize his voice as that of Mr. Potato Head in the Pixar film “Toy Story” and its sequels. He appeared in countless television shows.

An auxiliary member of the “Rat Pack,” a loose fraternity of entertainers led by Sinatra, Rickles kept on performing nearly to the end of his life and outlived most of the entertainers of his era.

Rickles was born and raised in Queens, New York. His father, Max, immigrated to the United States as a child from Kaunas, Lithuania. His mother, born in New York, also was the daughter of Jewish immigrants.

Rickles served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and after his service honed his act at small and often seedy nightclubs.

“I had a tough time – I had no other jobs – so I reached out to comedy,” he said in an interview with the Jewish Standard of New Jersey in 2013. Sinatra spotted Rickles at a Miami club, and the famed singer helped make him a headliner in Las Vegas. Rickles first appeared on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” in 1965, and would return as a guest at least 100 times.

In 2012, Jon Stewart presented Rickles with the “Johnny Carson Award For Comedic Excellence” at the Comedy Awards run by the Comedy Central cable network.

In his 2007 memoir, “Rickles’ Book,” he recalled a visit to his father’s grave on Long Island along with the cantor who would perform his wedding to Barbara Sklar.

“The cantor put on his white robe and prayer shawl,” Rickles recalled. “In the still of the morning, standing over my dear father’s grave, he sang the Hebrew prayer for the dead. He wailed; he sang with such tender feeling and heartfelt anguish that I felt the presence of God Almighty in every fiber of my being. Afterward, we recited the Kaddish, the Jewish mourners’ prayer, our words melting the morning fog to tears.

“Before we left, the cantor sang a prayer in Hebrew, inviting Dad to my wedding. Then he finished by saying, ‘May your soul be with us forever.’”

Barbara Rickles survives her husband, as does their daughter, Mindy. Their son, Larry, an Emmy Award-winning producer, died at 41 in 2011 of respiratory failure.

Rickles often tried to distinguish between the “character” he played on stage and his real-life persona.

“I don’t care if the average guy on the street really knows what I’m like, as long as he knows I’m not really a mean, vicious guy,” he said. “My friends and family know what I’m really like. That’s what’s important.”

–JTA News and Features

Ted Cutler, Boston philanthropist, businessman, dies

Ted Cutler, a philanthropist, businessman and visionary arts patron whose charitable giving included Jewish causes, hospitals and feeding the hungry in Boston and Israel, has died.

Cutler died March 30 of complications from a lung disorder. He was 86.

Cutler, who served in the early 2000s as board chairman of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies and also as a board member of AIPAC, is being remembered for his passion and devotion to the city where he rose from meager beginnings as the son of Jewish immigrants to become one of Boston’s most beloved and influential philanthropic leaders. Over the years he served on the board of a number of institutions, including Emerson College, his alma mater; Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, and the Boston Ballet.

Over 25 years, Cutler and his late wife, Joan, donated tens of millions of dollars to human services, education, the arts and health care. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker told the Boston Globe, “It’s a shame his very gentlemanly and old-fashioned manner and kindness won’t be with us anymore.”

Cutler led a $35 million campaign for a new building for the Greater Boston Food Bank that opened in 2009.

“Ted clearly articulated the moral imperative of Jews to give back, to make sure that the Jewish community would be there for those in need,” according to Steve Grossman, former Massachusetts state treasurer and a longtime leader and philanthropist in Jewish institutions.

As a teen, Cutler, who played bass in a cowboy band, worked his way through Emerson College, graduating in 1951, and entered the world of business by booking bands. He branched out to the wider world of charter tours, entertainment, hospitality and conventions, where he earned his wealth. Among his business partners over the years was his childhood friend Sheldon Adelson; their joint ventures, with others, included the purchase of the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas.

—JTA News and Features

Masha Leon, longtime Forward columnist, dies at 86

Masha Leon, the society columnist first for the Yiddish Forverts and then for the Daily Forward for nearly 30 years, has died.
Leon, a Holocaust survivor whose weekly column “On the Go” covered Jewish events and charity galas, died April 4. She was 86.

In February, she joined the staff of the Jewish news magazine Tablet after leaving the Forward at the end of 2016.
Leon, a native of Poland, and her mother were hidden by a Catholic woman in Warsaw during World War II. Her father, the journalist Matvey Bernstein, was arrested and imprisoned for his anti-communist sympathies.

Leon and her mother later escaped to Lithuania, where they were issued transit visas to Japan — among the 6,000 written by Japanese Consul Chiune Sugihara. After World War II they immigrated to the United States.

In 2011, Poland honored Leon with the Knight’s Cross Order of Merit, an honor granted to Polish citizens who live abroad for great service to the country. Leon was honored for helping to further the understanding of Polish-Jewish lives, history and culture through her writing.

She is survived by three daughters.

—JTA News and Features

‘Babi Yar’ poet Yevtushenko dies

Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, best known for his poem commemorating the slaughter of Jews by the Nazis at the Ukrainian ravine known as Babi Yar, has died at 84.

Yevtushenko died April 1 in Tulsa, Okla., where he had been a faculty member at the University of Tulsa since the mid-1990s.

“Babi Yar,” written in 1961 about the September 1941 massacre near the Ukrainian capital of Kiev that killed some 34,000 Jews, exposed the anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union by authorities who refused to recognize the Jewish victims of the Nazis. The poem was set to music by Dmitri Shostakovich in his Symphony No. 13.

Yevtushenko told The Associated Press in 2007 that he wrote “Babi Yar” after visiting the site of the mass killings and not finding anything to memorialize the tragedy that occurred there. An official memorial to Soviet citizens shot at Babi Yar was erected in 1976, and in 1991 the Ukrainian government allowed the establishment of a separate memorial specifically identifying the Jewish victims.

The poem begins:

No monument stands over Babi Yar.
A steep cliff only, like the rudest headstone.
I am afraid.
Today, I am as old
As the entire Jewish race itself.

The poem was a sensation in the Soviet Union, where Yevtushenko’s readings drew the kind of frenzied audiences re served for rock stars in the West.

—JTA News and Features

Roy Millenson, buried his tefillin in Antarctica

Roy Millenson, of Rockville, died from cerebrovascular disease on April 9. He was 95.

He attended Wilson Teachers College in Washington. During World War II, he was trained in Arabic and North African studies by the Army at the University of Pennsylvania. He served in the Army Air Corps from 1942 to 1946, and was stationed in Cairo, Transjordan, Iraq and Bahrain. He visited Palestine three times. After the war, he finished his undergraduate degree at George Washington University in 1947. He retired from the Air Force Reserve in 1965 with the rank of captain.

Millenson served as a legislative assistant and press secretary for then-Rep. Jacob Javits (R-N.Y.) for several years. He also worked with the American Jewish Committee and National Civil Liberties Clearing House. He assisted with legislation that created the National Science Foundation and the National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities.

During a 1974 Senate trip to the Antarctic to visit a National Science Foundation research site, Millenson performed a ritual burial of his tefillin that he received at his bar mitzvah at Adas Israel Congregation.

Millenson was member of Congregation Beth El of Montgomery County for nearly 50 years, and served on a variety of committees and boards.

Millenson was the son of Joseph Millenson and Helen Handen Millenson, who moved to Washington in 1915. He was predeceased by his wife, Charlotte Katz Millenson. He is survived by his children Janet Millenson (Herb Edelstein), Michael Millenson (Susan) and Elliott Millenson (Wendy Strongin); grandchildren David Edelstein, Daniel and Alissa Millenson and Carly Millenson.

Paul Stern, saved with other American Jewish soldiers

Paul Stern of Reston died on March 30. He was 93.

Stern graduated from the City College of New York. He went on to start a textile company in New York called Sterns & Sons, and was president of Wellington Textiles, also in New York.

During World War II, Stern was among 800 American soldiers captured by the Nazis on Jan. 27, 1945. Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds, who was posthumously honored by the Israeli Embassy in 2015, saved Stern and about 200 other American Jewish soldiers when he refused to comply with a Nazi commandant to order the Jewish soldiers to step forward.

“That one act of courage and bravery by [a] master sergeant saved my life, as well as all the Jewish prisoners at [the Nazi war camp] Ziegenhain,” Stern told Washington Jewish Week in 2015. By coincidence, Jan. 27, the day Edmonds saved Stern’s life, was also Stern’s birthday.

Stern was awarded a Purple Heart and Bronze Star for his service in World War II.

Stern was an officer at Temple Sholom in Westbury, N.Y., and an active member of Congregation Beth Emeth in Reston.
Stern was the son of Max and Jenny Stern of Bronx, N.Y. He is survived by his wife of 69 years, Corinne Stern; son, Jeffrey (Jill) Stern of Washington; daughter, Joanne  Stern (Tom) Fleeter of Reston; and grandchildren Allison and Emily Stern, and Daniel, Drew (Samantha) and Diana Fleeter.

Jesse Lurie, longtime Hadassah Magazine editor, dies at 103

Jesse Lurie, the longtime executive editor of Hadassah Magazine and a peace activist, has died at 103.

Lurie, an Israeli American, was the magazine’s founding executive editor in 1947 and held the post for 33 years. He professionalized a publication that had been run by volunteers since its launch in 1914.

Lurie also served as a correspondent for The Jerusalem Post covering the United States, according to a Post article about his passing published April 14. One of his six brothers, Ted, was among the founding journalists of The Palestine Post, which would become The Jerusalem Post and he would serve as editor-in-chief.

Lurie traveled extensively in the Jewish world, including Soviet Russia, writing about people he met, the political situations in those countries and how they affected the Jewish population. He was an ardent campaigner for peaceful coexistence between Jews and Arabs in Israel, and was among those who supported the founding of Neve Shalom, the cooperative village cohabitated by Jews and Arabs.

As one who also supported and encouraged media diversity in Israel among Jews and Arabs, he created the Eliav-Sartawi Award for journalism in Israel through Common Ground, an organization with which he was closely associated in his efforts to encourage conflict resolution in the country.

As for Israel’s future, Lurie said in a 2014 interview while visiting the country that he was sure it would remain secure, but was not overly hopeful of great progress on the peace front.
“Israel has been living in a bubble for 20 years or more, and will continue to live in a bubble for some time,” he said. n

—JTA News and Features

Trish Vradenburg, journalist, TV writer and Alzheimer’s advocate, 70

Trish Vradenburg, of Washington, died on April 17. She was 70.

Trish Vrandenberg
Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Vradenburg began her career as a speechwriter in the U.S. Senate. She wrote for various television shows, including “Designing Women,” “Family Ties” and “Kate and Allie.” Her novel, “Liberated Lady,” was chosen as Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selections and has been translated into three foreign languages.

As a journalist, Vradenburg wrote extensively for The New York Daily News, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, Ladies’ Home Journal and Women’s Day.

“Surviving Grace,” Vradenburg’s quasi-autobiographical play about a sitcom writer and her mom battling Alzheimer’s disease together, was produced at The Kennedy Center in Washington, and Off Broadway at the Union Square Theater. It is now being performed at community theaters throughout the country, as well as in Brazil.

She is survived by her adoring husband George; daughter, Alissa Vradenburg, and son-in-law, Michael Sheresky, of Los Angeles.; son, Tyler Vradenburg, and daughter-in-law, Jeannine Cacioppe Vradenburg, of Chicago; grandchildren Harrison Sheresky, Skyler Sheresky, May Vradenburg and Gavin Vradenburg; and her brother, Rabbi Michael Lerner, and sister-in-law, Cat Zavis, of Berkeley, Calif. She was preceded in death by her father, Judge Joseph H. Lerner, and mother, Bea Lerner.

Ruth Sulzberger Holmberg, Tennessee newspaper publisher

Ruth Sulzberger Holmberg, a newspaper publisher and civil rights activist in Tennessee, has died at 96.

Holmberg, a member of the family that controls The New York Times, challenged racial barriers, political skulduggery and environmental adversaries as publisher of The Chattanooga Times for nearly three decades, the newspaper reported April 20. She died in Chattanooga.

Growing up in a newspaper family in New York, Holmberg led the Chattanooga daily to become known for aggressive, analytical reporting and editorials that denounced racial segregation, exposed government corruption and demanded cleaner air in a city of heavy industry, according to the Times.

For years she was a pariah in a city where many regarded her as an Eastern liberal interloper, also because she was Jewish, according to the article.

Holmberg served as publisher of The Chattanooga Times from 1964 to 1992, then stayed on as publisher emeritus and chairwoman until 1999, when it was sold to a small chain and merged with a rival newspaper.

She was a granddaughter of Adolph Ochs, who bought The Chattanooga Times in 1878 and The New York Times in 1896, and the second of four children of Iphigene Ochs and Arthur Hays Sulzberger, the publisher of The New York Times from 1935 to 1961.

Her brother, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, who died in 2012, became publisher of The New York Times and chairman and chief executive of the Times Company. One sister, Marian Sulzberger Heiskell, became a New York civic and philanthropic leader.

Another, Judith Sulzberger, who died in 2011, became a doctor affiliated with the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University.

A Red Cross volunteer in England and France during World War II, she had four children with her first husband, Ben Hale Golden, before they were divorced in 1965. She replaced her husband as publisher of The Chattanooga Times in 1964.

The Chattanooga Times championed the racial integration of schools and universities, supported civil rights legislation in Congress and backed clean-air laws, provoking anger in a city where industrial pollutants shrouded scenic mountain backdrops and whose air, according to a 1969 federal report, was the dirtiest in the nation.

The Times also endorsed reforms to root out corruption in government, expand the voting franchise and give black residents, a third of the population, a larger voice in municipal affairs.

In 1972, she married Albert William Holmberg Jr., who oversaw the production, advertising and circulation departments at the paper. He was later named its president.

In 1987 she became the second woman, after Katharine Graham, the longtime publisher of The Washington Post, to be elected a director of The Associated Press, the dominant news service in the United States.

—JTA News and Features

Isaac Vatkin, 91, and Teresa Vatkin, 89. Photo via Facebook/Leo.Vatkin

Chicago couple married 69 years die moments apart

A Chicago Jewish couple married for 69 years died moments apart in the same hospital room while holding hands.

Teresa Vatkin, 89, died at 12:10 a.m. April 22 at Highland Park Hospital. Her husband, Isaac, 91, died at approximately 12:50 a.m. as they wheeled his wife from the room and their hands separated, according to local reports.

Teresa Vatkin had been suffering from dementia for the past decade. Isaac was her caregiver, staying by her side even when she entered a memory care facility.

“The moment he felt we removed her hand from his, he was able to say ‘OK, I’m done protecting her. I can go and rest as well,’” their son, Daniel, told the Chicago Sun-Times. “The ultimate in chivalry — so he could go to heaven and open the door for her.”

“I saw it with my own eyes,” their daughter, Clara Gesklin, told the newspaper. “All of a sudden, when their fingers separated, he just stopped breathing.”

Isaac Vatkin had been admitted to the hospital with influenza and his wife with pneumonia. They were moved to the same room on April 21, when both were breathing shallowly and were unresponsive.

The couple grew up in Argentina, on opposite ends of the country, and wrote love letters to each other three times a week until they married in 1947. Isaac, known as Alberto in Argentina to avoid anti-Semitism, was a leathermaker.
The Vatkins moved to Chicago in 1968, where Isaac worked as a kosher butcher and invested in apartments. n

—JTA News and Features

Anita Lee Blum Cohen

Cohen, of Potomac, died on May 1. She was 69 years old.

Anita Lee Blum Cohen was born on July 7, 1947 and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y.  She was the loving and devoted only child of Sophie and Morris Blum.  She graduated from Wingate High School in 1965 and Brooklyn College in 1969. After moving to Northern Virginia, she later received a master’s degree in education from George Mason University.  She was an early education specialist, teaching children from ages pre-kindergarten through second grade, primarily in the Arlington County school system.  She also briefly ran her own business, a day care center out of her own home in Springfield, Va.  Cohen was a talented seamstress and cook, a lover of music and movies, and a grammar and spelling aficionado.  She also devoted much of her free time participating in fundraisers for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

In Dec. 1981, Cohen was in a single car accident at nighttime at a shopping mall, during which she broke her jaw and her kneecap.  The aftermath led to her ultimately being diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease that eventually left her totally blind.  Despite her condition, she and her husband Frank moved to Maryland, and Cohen began the first of many years working as an administrative assistant for Hillel of Greater Washington.  Cohen subsequently learned to read braille, started a Low Vision Support Group housed at the Bender Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington, and performed free phone counseling through a suicide hotline.

Cohen suffered from multiple forms of cancer during her lifetime, including thyroid cancer in her younger years, localized breast cancer, and, finally, uterine cancer metastatic to her lungs.  She is survived by her loving and devoted husband of 32 years, Franklyn Terry Cohen of Potomac.  She is also survived by her four children and four grandchildren Michelle Erin Fox Day and Barton Edward Day of Damascus; Charles Andrew “Chuck” Fox and Amy Pamela Goldenberg Fox of Atlanta, Ga.; Elianna Ruth Day, Sophia Rose Day, Sydney Bess Fox, and Benjamin Stephen Fox. Cohen was also the loving owner of two guide dogs over the past 18 year, Hyra and Valentina.

She cherished all of her dear friends from throughout the Beth Sholom Potomac community, as well as those who are spread all across the country and in Israel.

Anita is a long-standing member of Congregation Beth Sholom of Potomac.  Donations can be made in her memory to: Guide Dogs for the Blind, P.O. Box 151200, San Rafael, CA 94915-1200.

Ruth Gruenberg, sociology professor, dies at 94

Photo provided.

Ruth Gruenberg, a longtime sociology professor at Montgomery College-Rockville, died May 5 at 94. She had dementia.

Born Oct. 31, 1922 in Romania, Gruenberg came to the United States with her parents, Jews who fled the Russian civil war and pogroms, when she was a year old. A longtime resident of Chicago before moving to Washington, she received a master’s degree in education from the University of Chicago.  She married Robert Gruenberg, who became a noted correspondent for The Chicago Daily News, in 1942. They were married for 50 years and had two sons. He later died.

Gruenberg taught sociology for several years at Herzl Junior College before leaving to raise a family. The Gruenbergs moved to Washington in 1961, and some years later she resumed teaching sociology at Montgomery College.  She taught there for several decades and was noted for developing a course in advanced field work, placing students with social service agencies to give them practical experience and having them analyze their service. The program inspired many of her students to continue in social service.

In retirement, Gruenberg was active in the League of Women Voters of Montgomery County, which had her give lectures on a variety of topics. She also was active in community events, book clubs at the Rock Creek Woods community and with Temple Sinai.

Survivors include her sons, Mark Gruenberg of Washington and Jeremy Gruenberg of Silver Spring; four nephews and nieces, Larry Schwartz of Bethesda, Lisa Zebovitz of Deerfield, Ill., Linda Gruenberg of Wilmette, Ill., and Myron Gruenberg of Northbrook, Ill.; and several great-nieces and great-nephews.  Contributions in her memory may be made to the Robert and Ruth Gruenberg Memorial Scholarship at Montgomery College-Rockville or to the charity of your choice. Arrangements by Hines-Rinaldi Funeral Home.

Anita Lee Blum Cohen, teacher, dies at 69

Anita Lee Blum Cohen, of Potomac, died of cancer on May 1. She was 69 years old.

Photo provided.

She was born on July 7, 1947, and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y. The only child of Sophie and Morris Blum, she graduated from Wingate High School in 1965 and Brooklyn College in 1969. After moving to Northern Virginia, she received a master’s degree in education from George Mason University. She was an early education specialist, teaching children from ages pre-kindergarten through second grade, primarily in the Arlington County school system. She also briefly ran her own business, a day care center, out of her home in Springfield.

She also was a talented seamstress and cook, a lover of music and movies and a grammar and spelling aficionado. She also devoted much of her free time to participating in fundraisers for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

She was a longtime member of Congregation Beth Sholom of Potomac.

In 1981, she was in a nighttime single-car accident at a shopping mall, during which her jaw and kneecap were broken. In the aftermath, she was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease that eventually left her blind. She and her husband, Frank, moved to Maryland, and she worked for many years as an administrative assistant for Hillel of Greater Washington. She subsequently learned to read Braille and started a Low Vision Support Group at the Bender Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington. She also counseled people through a suicide hotline.

During her lifetime, she suffered from multiple forms of cancer, including thyroid cancer in her younger years, localized breast cancer, and, finally, uterine cancer that spread to her lungs.

She had two guide dogs over the past 18 years, Hyra and Valentina.

Survivors include her husband of 32 years, Franklyn Terry Cohen of Potomac; children Charles Andrew “Chuck” (Amy) Fox of Atlanta, Ga., and Michelle Erin Fox (Barton) Day of Damascus; and grandchildren Elianna Ruth Day, Sophia Rose Day, Sydney Bess Fox and Benjamin Stephen Fox.

Donations can be made in her memory to Guide Dogs for the Blind, P.O. Box 151200, San Rafael, CA 94915-1200.

Janis Orleans Brown

Janis Orleans Brown, of Scottsdale, Ariz., died on May 1. She was 72 years old.

Born in Gainesville, Texas, she was raised in Silver Spring. She graduated from Montgomery Blair High School. She received her bachelor of science degree in nursing from the University of Maryland.

She held both clinical and administrative nursing positions during her career.

Brown moved to Arizona in 1975, where her life focused on her daughters, granddaughters and many close friendships. She was an enthusiastic athlete whose activities included playing tennis, running and hiking. She particularly enjoyed being outdoors and the Arizona lifestyle, relishing each day as if she was on vacation.

Survivors include her devoted and loving husband of 50 years, Terry, of Scottsdale; daughters Jennifer (Mark) Vandroff of Bethesda and Lauren (Larry) Dee of Scottsdale; granddaughters Lily and Lainie Dee, and Vivian Vandroff; and brother Ronald Orleans of Bethesda. Contributions may be made to the Jewish Genetic Diseases Center of Greater Phoenix, the Jewish Free Loan Association, or the Face In the Mirror Foundation. n

Annette Cooper

Annette Cooper, of Silver Spring, died from complications of meningitis on April 24. She was 86 years old.

Daughter of Archie and Ida (Brooks) Alterman, she attended Tilden High School in Brooklyn. She worked as a dental hygienist in Brooklyn and sold products for the beauty company Avon in Wethersfield, Conn.

She was involved in the Jewish Residents of Leisure World and Red Hatters of Leisure World.

She was the widow of Israel Robert Cooper.

She is survived by a son, Andrew (Debra) Cooper; grandchildren Cole, Jared, Dean and Grant Cooper; stepson, Joel Cooper, and step-grandson, Justin Cooper. n

Arthur S. Herman

Arthur S. Herman, of Potomac, died on May 13.

He was the former husband of Shelby Herman; devoted father of Dorothy (Sean) Herman; loving brother of Ernest Herman; and cherished grandfather of Sophia Brandt.

Herman was a graduate of the City College of New York City. He received his master’s degree from Columbia University.

Herman worked for Bureau of Labor Statistics for more than 35 years. Upon retirement, he worked in the office of Rep. Elliott Engel (D-N.Y.). Arrangements by Sagel Bloomfield Danzansky Goldberg Funeral Care. n

David Hirschberg

David Hirschberg, 83, of Potomac, died May 8, surrounded by his loved ones.

He was predeceased by his devoted wife, Ronnie. He was the loving father of Amy, Stacy and son-in-law Steve Gussen, and loving brother of Trudi Weinstein.

He served for more than 40 years as a government economist at the Small Business Administration, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Social Security Administration.

He authored “The Job-Generation Controversy, The Economic Myth of Small Business,” originally published in 1999, which exposed the fallacy of the role that small businesses play in job creation. He will be remembered for his loving kindness, generosity and devotion to his family. Arrangements by Sagel Bloomfield Danzansky Goldberg Funeral Care. n

Miriam Ostrow

Miriam Ostrow, 92, of Bethesda, died May 6.

Born in Cleveland to Rose and Harry Brown, she grew up in Washington, graduated from Wilson High School and lived in Silver Spring.

She attended Beaver College in Glenside, Pa., worked for a food broker for many years and, after marrying her high school sweetheart, Bernard Ostrow in 1945, worked while he attended medical school. The couple recently celebrated their 71st wedding anniversary.

She took many continuing education courses at American University. She was active in the League of Women Voters and was a longtime member of the Washington Hebrew Congregation, having been confirmed and married there.

Ostrow is predeceased by her sister, Janet Cohen. In addition to her husband, survivors include two daughters, Karen (Scott) Stempel of Potomac and Joanne Ostrow (Liz Shane) of Denver, and three grandchildren, Alison Stempel McCanon (Neil McCanon), Andrea Stempel and Anna Ostrow. Arrangements by Sagel Bloomfield Danzansky Goldberg Funeral Care. n

Richard Schaengold

Richard Schaengold, of Washington, died on May 5. He was 90 years old.

Born in Hamilton, Ohio, he graduated from the University of Cincinnati and University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. A World War II Navy veteran, he was a devoted practitioner of psychiatry for nearly 60 years.

He was the beloved husband of Marylin for 62 years; cherished father of Michael (Carol) Schaengold and Howard (Teri) Schaengold; loving grandfather of Andrew, Matthew, Samuel and Sarah; devoted brother of Melvin Schaengold and the late Aileen Wolf. Arrangements by Sagel Bloomfield Danzansky Goldberg Funeral Care. n

Jacques Fein

Jacques Fein, beloved husband, father and grandfather, died peacefully on May 11, 2017 at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Howard County, Maryland after suffering a stroke at the age of 78. Jacques is survived by his wife, Judee Iliff, his sister, Annette Fein and his children and their spouses: Rachel (Lee) Burrows, Matt (Kelly) Fein and Laura (David) Alima. Jacques was a Pipa, Grandpa, and Grand Pere to his five grandchildren who were incredibly special to him — Sam and Zach Burrows, Adrienne Fein, and Maggie and Max Alima.

Jacques was born in Paris, France, in 1938 and led a remarkable life. Jacques often spoke of having “five families” — something that truly shaped who he was. Family one: His birth parents, Szmul and Rojsa Karpik, a Jewish couple originally from Poland who immigrated to France in the hopes of staying safe during World War II. As the Nazi threat grew, the Karpiks had the courage to send their two young children, Jacques (age 3-and-a-half) and Annette (age 1-and-a-half) into hiding. Family two: The Catholic family who hid Jacques and his sister during the war for close to three years, keeping them safe, healthy and alive. During this time, Jacques’ parents were murdered at Auschwitz concentration camp. Family three: After the war, Jacques and his sister were placed in two OSE orphanages (in Brittany and outside of Paris) with many other children who survived the war. Jacques remembers this as a happy time, free from the threat of Nazi soldiers. Family four: Rose and Harry Fein, the Jewish couple who adopted Jacques and Annette in 1948 and brought them to New Jersey, raising them as “regular” American kids. Jacques arrived at Ellis Island when he was 10, not knowing any English, but quickly acclimated to his new home, family and country. Family five: Jacques had two children, Rachel and Matthew, from his first marriage, and settled in Columbia, Md., in 1970. Jacques remarried in 1986 to Judee Iliff, welcoming to his life her daughter Laura.

Jacques attended Clark University, followed by Johns Hopkins University for graduate studies in Computer Sciences. Jacques joined CSC (Computer Sciences Corporation) in the early 1970s, where he worked on many projects, including the Space Program, for more than 35 years. Jacques and Judee were very active in the Jewish community and loved living in Howard County. In 2014, Jacques retired, allowing him to spend more time with his grandchildren and volunteering for numerous organizations.

Jacques dedicated his adult life to “payback” — which was his phrase for giving back to the community — as a way to repay the kindness of all the people who saved him and his sister during and after the War. Jacques’ community activities and accomplishments were plentiful. Just to name a few: He served as a past president of the Jewish Federation of Howard County, was a founder of the World Federation of Jewish Holocaust Child Survivors, was a weekly volunteer at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, frequently spoke to groups and children at schools about his Holocaust experience and was co-president/treasurer of OSE-USA. In 2011, Jacques was honored as Howard County Volunteer of the Year.

In honor of Jacques’ remarkable commitment to helping others, in lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in his name to one of the following organizations: Friends and Alumni of OSE-USA, c/o Norbert Bikales, 3408 Pointe Gate Drive, Livingston, NJ 07039 ose-france.org, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place SW, Washington, D.C. 20024-2126 ushmm.org or Jewish Federation of Howard County, 10630 Little Patuxent Parkway, Suite 400, Columbia, MD 21044 jewishhowardcounty.org.

Special thank you to Gilchrist Hospice Care of Howard County, who treated Jacques and his family with kindness, respect, and dignity throughout this difficult process.

Don Peretz, Middle East scholar, veteran, activist, dies at 94

Don Peretz, a leading scholar on the Arab-Israel conflict and Palestinian refugees at SUNY Binghamton, died on April 29 in Mitchellville. He was 94.

Peretz retired as professor emeritus from SUNY Binghamton in 1992. He started his teaching career there in 1966. He was the director of the Southwest Asia North Africa Program and the author of “Israel and the Palestinian Refugees,” an academic study of the 1948 Palestinian refugees. He authored 11 other books and more than 300 articles for various journals.

Peretz was a fellow at the United States Institute of Peace and a contributor to the Middle East Institute. He graduated from the University of Minnesota, and received his doctorate from Columbia University. He was awarded a Ford Foundation grant to study the Arab refugee problem from 1952 to 1954.

Peretz studied Japanese at the University of Minnesota and served with the Army as a Japanese interpreter for a naval medical unit in Okinawa, mostly treating civilians. “Thousands of them [Okinawans] were wounded during the American invasion,”

Peretz recounted. “Many of them had hidden in caves, and to get them out, the U.S. Army used white phosphorous bombs.” The experience, he said, “only reinforced my opposition to the war and the impact that it had on noncombatants.” He was discharged after the Japanese surrender in 1945.

In 1949, Peretz applied to work with the American Friends Service Committee (Quakers), which the United Nations selected to provide relief to the Palestinian refugees. He became head of relief work in the city of Acre and western Galilee. Peretz recounted that “some people in the Jewish community said, ‘How can a Jew be working for the Arabs like that?’ He responded, “There had to be accommodation between Jews and Arabs — especially within the borders, if there was ever to be peace.”

In the 1950s, Peretz accompanied American Socialist leader Norman Thomas on a Mideast tour to visit socialist party leaders throughout the region, with Peretz providing counsel on Jewish affairs. They met Arab leaders, including Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nassar.

Peretz was born in 1922 in Baltimore to Haim Peretz and Josephine Lasser Peretz.

He is survived by his wife of 38 years, Maya Peretz, his daughter Debbie Peretz (Marcus Brandt), and sons Jonathan Chance and Ervin Peretz (Pauline Cooper), grandson Jonah and cousins Edith and Hanan Schaham.

Donations can be sent to the New Israel Fund or American Friends Service Committee.

Rabbi Jonathan Eichhorn, 80, dies

Rabbi Jonathan Eichhorn, of Chevy Chase, died May 12 of corticobasal degeneration, a rare, progressive neurodegenerative disease. He was 80 years old.

He attended Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati and Adelphi University in Garden City, N.Y.

He served as an Army chaplain from 1961 to 1965, and was stationed in Germany. He was a congregational rabbi at Temple Emanuel in Kingston, N.Y., for 36 years before retiring in 2001. He also served part time as a New York State prison chaplain for 30 years.

He is survived by his wife, Suzanne Eichhorn, of Chevy Chase; children Deborah Eichhorn (Steve Snyder), of Bethesda; Sharon Sokolik (David), of Dunwoody, Ga.; Daniel Eichhorn (Debra), of Montvale, N.J; and grandchildren Ari and Rebecca Snyder of Bethesda, Ben and Hannah Sokolik of Dunwoody, and Cooper and Simon Eichhorn of Montvale.

Contributions may be made to JSSA Hospice in Rockville, Autism NJ in Robbinsville, N.J., and Temple Sinai in Washington.

Barbara Ann Kasoff

Barbara Ann Kasoff, of San Francisco, died on May 23. She was 74 years old.

Her advocacy work with the National Association of Women Business Owners and her participation in the 1986 White House Conference on Small Business led to her co-founding Women Impacting Public Policy in 2001. WIPP is a nonpartisan organization which educates and advocates on behalf of women-owned businesses. She served as WIPP’s president for nine years.

In 2011, she served as a U.S. delegate to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum. She also served on boards for Women Business Owners Corporation, SCORE Pacific Gas & Electric and Detroit Edison Community Relations Board. In addition, she served on the National Women’s Business Council, representing WIPP and its partner organizations.

When she wasn’t working, Kasoff enjoyed traveling, spending time with family and friends, and reading.

She is survived by her husband, Marvin Kasoff, of San Francisco; her children Ben and Barbi Kasoff, of Alexandria and Beverly Hills, Mich.; Jon Kasoff, of Troy, Mich.; Danny and Pam Kasoff, of San Francisco; as well as grandchildren Maddy, Josh, Brooke, Drew, Tiffany, Mason, Ariel, Jonah and Jared.

Melvin Lenkin

Melvin Lenkin died in his sleep on May 27 in Chevy Chase.

He is survived by his beloved wife of 68 years, Thelma Z. Lenkin, along with his loving children Edward (Roselin) and Judy (Mark Lerner), and his treasured grandchildren Lauren Lerner-Naft (Noah Naft), Jonathan Lerner (Ilyse), Jacob Lerner, Jordan Lenkin and Grady Lenkin. He is predeceased by his sister, Natalie Clayman, brother, Lawrence Lenkin, and his daughter, Michele May Lenkin.

He was born in Washington and was a lifelong resident. He graduated from Roosevelt High School in 1945 and attended George Washington University after serving in the Merchant Marine.

In 2003, B’nai Israel Congregation in Rockville renovated its building following a $15 million capital campaign. The addition was named the Thelma and Melvin Lenkin Educational and Activities Center.
Contributions may be made to the Jewish Foundation for Group Homes’ Lenkin Family Fund or a charity of your choice.

Arrangements by Sagel Bloomfield Danzansky Goldberg Funeral Care.

Betty Ann Weintraub

Betty Ann Weintraub, of Chevy Chase, died on May 29.

She was the beloved wife of Alan M. Weintraub; devoted mother of Jeffrey (Cassandra) Weintraub, Andrew (Joanne) Weintraub and Lisa (Edgar) Bridges; loving sister of the late Albert Cohn; cherished grandmother of Racheland Alex Weintraub, Caleb (Amber) Weintraub, Noah (Brigid) Weintraub, Eliza Weintraub, Julian and Bernadette Bridges; loving great-grandmother of Finn Seneca Weintraub.

Also survived by many loving relatives. Contributions may be made to The Women’s Board of the American Heart Association or Washington

Hebrew Congregation. Arrangements by Sagel Bloomfield Danzansky Goldberg Funeral Care. n

Al Erlick, longtime Jewish journalist, served as acting editor of WJW

Albert H. Erlick, a longtime editor of the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent and, after his retirement, acting editor at Washington Jewish Week, died May 24. He was 88.

In 1998, four years after his retirement from the Exponent, he began commuting weekly between Philadelphia and Rockville to lead Washington Jewish Week while its owner searched for a permanent editor. His stint in Washington lasted a year.

“When Al came to Washington Jewish Week, he was a living legend in this business,” said Craig Burke, publisher and chief executive officer of Mid-Atlantic Media, which publishes Washington Jewish Week. “We were able to take advantage of his wealth of knowledge and experience. We treasure the time we had with him.”

“Al was a true gentleman,” said Aaron Leibel, who was then the newspaper’s arts editor and copy editor. “What I recall most about him was his passion for journalism, always telling the staff how much fun it was to put out a newspaper.”

He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on July 19, 1928, and moved to Philadelphia in 1935, where he attended Temple University. At the end of World War II, he served with the first occupational troops in Japan under Gen. Douglas MacArthur as a member of the office staff.

Philadelphia was his home until 2015, when he and his wife, Barbara, moved to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to be close to their daughter.

Erlick won multiple journalism awards for a series of editorials on the search for peace in the Middle East and for a series of articles on his visit to refuseniks in the former Soviet Union.

He was also the recipient of the American Jewish Press Association’s annual award for journalistic integrity. He interviewed world leaders from around the globe including multiple U.S presidents at the White House, and participated in many panels relating to political, social and religious unrest at home and abroad.

Before he worked at the Exponent, where he served for 24 years, Erlick edited the weekly Motion Picture Exhibitor magazine for over a decade. He also co-founded the Center City Philadelphian in 1959, which went on to become the Philadelphia Magazine.

All the while, he participated in his other lifelong love, the theater. He toured with national productions of “The Fantasticks” and “Julius Caesar,” among others. At age 87, he performed in Florida Children’s Theatre’s family series production of “Seussical” and, at 88, in its version of “Mary Poppins.”

A lifelong baseball enthusiast, Erlick never stopped rooting for the Cleveland Indians, with the Phillies a close second.

He is survived by his wife, Barbara, and their children Janet, of Fort Lauderdale, and Kenneth, of Portland, Ore.; grandchildren Jeremy, Benjamin, Gabriel, Marcus and Jason. He is also survived by his sister, friend and biggest fan, Mickey Zacher; and his brother, Samuel Dolnick, and their children.

Contributions may be made to Florida Children’s Theatre (flct.org) or to the International Center for Journalists (icjf.org).

Eliezer Jaffe, father of Israeli social work, dies

Eliezer Jaffe, considered a father of social work in Israel, has died at the age of 83.
Jaffe, who died on May 25, was a founder of Israel’s first academic school of social work, the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

A professor of social work specializing in philanthropy and nonprofit management, he was the first Centraid-L. Jacques Menard Professor for the Study of Nonprofit Organizations, Volunteering and Philanthropy at Hebrew University and co-chairman of the university’s Center for the Study of Philanthropy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was a professor emeritus at Hebrew University at the time of his death.

More than a week before his death, Jaffe was presented with the Bonei Zion Prize for lifetime achievement awarded annually by Nefesh B’Nefesh to immigrants from English-speaking countries in recognition of their significant contributions to Israel.
Jaffe immigrated to Israel from Cleveland, Ohio in 1960, three years after he spent time in Israel volunteering in the immigrant transit camps.

Between 1970 and 1972, at the request of Mayor Teddy Kollek, he headed the Jerusalem Municipal Department of Family and Community Services, introducing major administrative, conceptual and program reforms, that continue to be observed throughout the country today.

He also served as a consultant to several government ministerial committees dealing with topics such as poverty and disadvantaged youth, and headed by the sitting prime minister or president.

He founded a website and wrote a book both titled: “Giving Wisely: The Israel Guide to Non-Profit Organizations.” The book contained profiles of nearly 30,000 Israeli and nonprofit organizations. The website was closed down about six years ago, after the Israeli government took over the function of vetting nonprofits.

Jaffe founded the Israel Free Loan Association, which assisted the needy and new immigrants with interest-free loans; he also spent time working out personal repayment plans with them that also allowed others to benefit from such loans.

He is survived by his four children, grandchildren and other family members.

—JTA News and Features

Israel “Izzy” Feldman Photo provided

Israel ‘Izzy’ Feldman

Israel “Izzy” Feldman, a serial IT entrepreneur, proud immigrant and strong supporter of Jewish causes, died on June 2. He was 86.

He was born in 1931 in Chernovitz, Romania, now in Ukraine, to an Orthodox Jewish family. His family had deep roots in the Chasidic movement and were direct descendants of the Chozeh M’Lublin, who brought the Chasidic movement to Poland. His Zionist family immigrated to Israel when he was 3 and he grew up in Tel Aviv.

He was proud of his participation in the youth movement supporting the Haganah and at 19 served in the Israeli Air Force during the War of Independence, building communication towers and supervising 50 soldiers. His family later housed and supported relatives who moved to Israel after surviving the Holocaust.

He received a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering and mechanical engineering from the Technion in 1955. Following his graduation, Feldman received the Benjamin Cooper Fellowship to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he received a master in science degree in industrial management.

Feldman also studied at the Harvard School of Applied Math and The New School for Social Research.

Feldman married Judith Feldman in 1958. They had three sons, Dan, Joel and Ron.

Feldman started his career in the 1950s with information technology pioneers, including Honeywell, MITRE and Univac. He transitioned to senior level IT-related positions in the federal government.  In the 1970s, he began creating organizations offering media, training and conference services to connect private sector providers with government users.

He founded Government Computer News, which he sold to Ziff-Davis in the 1980s, and E-Gov which he sold to 101 Communications in 2001.

Feldman was the first Technion graduate to become a Guardian and receive an honorary doctorate. He was on the Board of Governors of the Technion, where he endowed the chair of the Computer Department.

He also supported Camp Ramah and Hadassah, co-founded the Hi-Tech Division of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, was the chair of Israel Bonds and received the Chabad Lamplighter Award.

Feldman was a member of B’nai Israel Congregation in Rockville.

He married Sharon Doner in 2008.

In addition to his wife, his sons and the mother of his sons, he is survived by eight grandchildren: Isaiah, Gabe, Talia, Ethan, Eli, Sadie, Jed and Ilan. He is also survived by his sister, Shoshanah, in Israel.

Harold Lake

Harold Lake of Bethesda, beloved husband, father, grandfather, brother, great-uncle, cousin and restauranteur, died June 8. He was 88.

Lake was born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y.  He was the eldest of two sons born to the late David and Lillian Lake (née Panster).

Lake created, owned and ran the Zebra Room restaurant for 35 years. He served pizza to local families, the Washington Redskins, 1980 presidential candidate John Anderson, Supreme Court justices and Speaker of the House Carl Albert.

Family was of the utmost importance to Harold. His loving wife of 67 years, Anna Peltin Lake, died in April. Together they raised four boys: Gary (who died in 1973), Steven, Bradley and Richard.

In addition to his sons, he is survived by eight grandchildren, Gregory, Ryan, Devin, Jillian, Marisa, Ben, Gabriel and Ellie; daughters-in-law Maureen and Lisa; son-in-law William; his brother, Jerry, and sister-in-law, Freida; sisters-in-law Shirley and Sandee. He is predeceased by his brother-in-law Izzy.

Arrangements by Sagel Bloomfield Danzansky Goldberg Funeral Care.

Janice F. Mason
Janice F. Mason, of Silver Spring, died on May 31.

Born in 1929 in Pittsburgh, she was the loving wife of the late David Mason and beloved mother of Melinda (Peter) McArdle, Adam (Shannon) Mason, Jodi (Gary) Cohen and the late Garry Mason; cherished grandmother of Sara, Zac, Amanda, Matt, Jack and Shea.

Mason had a creative soul, spending her early years as a singer and entertainer. She was a talented artist, a beautiful pianist, great cook and excelled in her party planning business and was a visionary in a start-up cellular business.

Mason’s most fulfilling years were as a mother, grandmother and aunt. Her family made her very proud and filled her heart with joy.

Contributions may be made to Montgomery Hospice. Arrangements by Sagel Bloomfield Danzansky Goldberg Funeral Care.

Milton Siegel

Milton Siegel, of Silver Spring, died on June 4. He was 90.

He was the beloved husband of Sylvia, who died in 2014; loving father of Marci (George) Ward and cherished grandfather of Christopher.

Donations may be made to Montgomery Hospice. Arrangements by Sagel Bloomfield Danzansky Goldberg Funeral Care.

Beverly Zeidenberg  

Beverly Zeidenberg, of Rockville, died on June 8.

She was the beloved wife of the late Leonard Zeidenberg; devoted mother of Peter (Angela) Zeidenberg, Erica (Rob Glidden) Zeidenberg and Elizabeth (Tom) Singer; and loving sister of Arline Newman. She is also survived by seven grandchildren.

Contributions may be made to Montgomery Hospice. Arrangements by Sagel Bloomfield Danzansky Goldberg Funeral Care.

Emanuel Zolt

Emanuel Zolt, of Silver Spring, died on June 4. He was the beloved husband of Janet Zolt; devoted father of Ed Zolt (Andrea

Glashow) and Jeff (Andrea) Zolt, and also survived by loving grandchildren Danny Zolt, Abby Zolt, Noah Zolt and Dominic Zolt.

Contributions may be made to a charity of choice. Arrangements by Sagel Bloomfield Danzansky Goldberg Funeral Care. 

Otto Warmbier, U.S. student detained in North Korea, dies

Otto Warmbier, an American student who was held in North Korea for over 17 months and returned home comatose to Ohio last week, has died. He was 22.

“It is our sad duty to report that our son, Otto Warmbier, has completed his journey home,” Warmbier’s family told ABC News on Monday. “Surrounded by his loving family, Otto died today at 2:20 p.m.”

The Cincinnati native and University of Virginia undergraduate was traveling on a student tour of North Korea last year when he was arrested and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for taking down a propaganda poster.

When he was released last week in a coma, doctors said that all regions of Warmbier’s brain had suffered extensive damage.

“It would be easy at a moment like this to focus on all that we lost — future time that won’t be spent with a warm, engaging, brilliant young man whose curiosity and enthusiasm for life knew no bounds,” the family said in a statement. “But we choose to focus on the time we were given to be with this remarkable person.”

JTA reported last week that Warmbier was active at the University of Virginia Hillel after participating in a Birthright trip to Israel in 2014.

The university’s Hillel director, Rabbi Jake Rubin, called him “a beloved member of our Hillel community.”

Louis Datlow  

Louis Datlow, 91, died on June 23.

He was the last of eight children of Aaron and Rose Datlow. He was a custom luxury home builder, artist and philanthropist. He served courageously in World War II with his brothers Myer, David and Paul.

Datlow is survived by his beloved son, Ellis Datlow; predeceased by his beloved wife, June Geller Datlow; beloved uncle of Doris Hurwitz, Rhonda Hurwitz, Neil Hurwitz and Roger Hurwitz and remembered by cousins, nephews, nieces and many friends. Arrangements by Sagel Bloomfield Danzansky Goldberg Funeral Care.

Vivian Brenda Katzke  

Vivian Brenda Katzke (nee Sudberg) of Brookeville died on June 25. She was 76 years old.

She was born on Oct. 15, 1940, and grew up in New York City, the daughter of Joseph and Minnie Sudberg.

She married Stuart Katzke in 1962 and received a bachelor’s degree in psychology the same year. She later obtained a master’s degree in education and taught elementary school for several years.

After raising her children, Katzke went back to school and received an associate’s degree in computer programming and had a second career as a programmer-analyst.

In retirement, the Katzkes enjoyed traveling, camping, entertaining friends and going to the theater.

Katzke is survived by a loving husband of 54 years, Stuart Katzke; her brothers, Arnold, Stanley and Lenny Sudberg and their families; her children Robin Gilbert (Gary) and Evan Katzke (Michele) and grandchildren AJ and Kelsey Gilbert.

Contributions may be made to the Mercy Health Foundation with a request to support the oncology department and outpatient chemotherapy center. Arrangements by Sagel Bloomfield Danzansky Goldberg Funeral Care.

Lynne Rose Kaplan Zusman

Lynne Rose Kaplan Zusman, of Washington, died on June 23. She was 78 years old.

Zusman was born in New York City on March 27, 1939, to Claire Harris Kaplan and Edward Emmanuel Kaplan.
She graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1959 and was one of six women in the graduating class of Yale Law School where she earned her juris doctor in 1962.

After holding prominent posts in government — she was the first female section chief in the civil division of the U.S. Department of Justice — Zusman blazed a trail by becoming a solo law practitioner and advocating tirelessly on behalf of her clients for more than 30 years. She was fiercely dedicated to her law practice until her last breath.

She was also the editor of two volumes on counterterrorism following the Sept. 11 attacks, including “The Law of Counterterrorism,” published by the American Bar Association Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice in 2011.

Zusman is survived by her three children, Nancy-Ellen Zusman (Bob Lee), Karen Jill Zusman and Peter Michael Zusman; her sister, Anita Kaplan Linker; her ex-husband, Morris Zusman; and her grandchildren, Madeline and Jacob Lee. Arrangements by Sagel Bloomfield Danzansky Goldberg Funeral Care.