Penny Schwartz
By Penny Schwartz
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News Bradley Fields, 68, Renowned Magician Who Studied Talmud And Taught Math To Kids
(JTA) — Bradley Fields once performed a memorable magic show for the kids at his synagogue in which he levitated the rabbi’s school-aged daughter in the sanctuary. The audience was spellbound. “Everyone was in awe,” said Shmuel Herzfeld, the rabbi at Ohev Sholom in Washington, D.C., where Fields was a regular at the daily prayer…
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News Rabbi Ezekiel Musleah, 92, Captivating Reader Of Torah
(JTA) — When it came to chanting Torah, Rabbi Ezekiel Musleah was in a class by himself. As a child of ten, Musleah lost his mother. Two years later, partly as a way to console himself, Musleah dedicated himself to a meticulous three-year undertaking to learn to chant the entire Torah. There was no turning…
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News Sidney Forman, 95, Lived Out A Dream With Performance Of Musical Comedy He Wrote In The 1950s
BOSTON (JTA) – Sidney Forman performed before many audiences over the course of his life. He sang in barbershop quartets, in synagogue choirs and for the ordination of a cardinal. At Boston’s Hatch Shell concert venue, he sang for the legendary Boston Pops maestro Arthur Fiedler. But a year ago, when Forman packed the house…
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News Rievan Slavkin, 85, Beloved Rabbi And Champion Shofar Blower
BOSTON (JTA) – Long before he joined the rabbinate, Rievan Slavkin had an ear for music. Born into a musical family and gifted with perfect pitch, Slavkin led the choir at the Pittsburgh synagogue where he grew up and later became the organist for services during his rabbinic studies at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati….
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News Eva Konrad Hawkins, 90, Holocaust Survivor Who Designed Underwater Museum Exhibits
(JTA) – Against daunting odds, both historical and political, Eva Konrad Hawkins fulfilled her dream of becoming a scientist. At age 26, Konrad Hawkins fled her native Hungary with only the pack on her back, leaving her parents and brother behind to pursue her studies beyond what was available to her under the constraints of…
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News Sylvia Glenn, 98, Painter Who Befriended Margaret Mead
BOSTON (JTA) – As a young girl, Sylvia Glenn enjoyed making chalk drawings on the sidewalk outside her family’s Brooklyn apartment. As an adult, that creative impulse led to a degree in art, professional work at national magazines (including Life) and a lifelong passion for the arts that she pursued well into her 90s. Glenn…
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News Carolyn Becker, 83, Was Looking Forward To Life’s Next Chapter
BOSTON (JTA) – In February, Carolyn Becker was getting ready to embrace a new chapter in her life. Just three months earlier, the 83-year-old’s husband of 59 years had died, but Becker was determined to follow through on their plans to move to the Washington, D.C. area to be closer to her son. She visited…
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News Jeffrey Sanderson, 62, Took Pleasure In The Small Things
BOSTON (JTA) – For Jeffrey Sanderson, it was the small things in life that brought the most joy. He couldn’t get enough of old episodes of “I Love Lucy,” and “Leave it to Beaver,” which tickled his sense of humor. An outing to the park, with a stop for french fries at McDonald’s, were adventures…
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