Sam Sokol
By Sam Sokol
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News Lenora Garfinkel, 89, Noted Orthodox Architect Who Lost A Son And Grandson To COVID-19
(JTA) — In the world of Orthodox Judaism, men may run the synagogues — but Lenora Garfinkel built them. Garfinkel was one of the first women to study architecture at the prestigious Cooper Union College in New York and went on to build Jewish community buildings across the New York metropolitan area over the course…
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News Avraham ‘Bobby’ Katz, 73, Helped Establish Hasidic Community In New Jersey
(JTA) — When Rabbi Meyer Yosef Rottenberg, the leader of the Kosover Hasidic sect, sought to help young families priced out of Brooklyn in Linden, New Jersey, several years ago, he turned to Rabbi Avraham “Bobby” Katz for help. Katz had cycled through a number of jobs in his life already, from postman to stockbroker…
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News Chaim Gantz, 50, Hasidic Social Worker Who Worked With Youth
(JTA) — Chaim Gantz didn’t conform to expectations. Born to Israeli immigrants in the ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn neighborhood of Borough Park in 1970, he attended the more moderate Yeshiva Torah Vodaas and went clean shaven even though he was a dedicated member of the Vizhnitz Hasidic sect. After a gap year in yeshiva in Israel, he…
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News Alan Hurwitz, 79, Progressive Educator, Anti-Racism Advocate, Bank Robber
(JTA)— Alan Hurwitz led a complicated life. He was a dedicated anti-racism activist who spent years advocating for desegregation. He was a military reserve veteran who became a middle school teacher. And he was a prolific bank robber who was featured on “America’s Most Wanted” and spent two decades behind bars. Hurwitz, who died of…
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News Bernard Israel, 90, Longtime Sexton Of Highland Park Synagogue
(JTA) — For more than 40 years, Bernard Israel served as the sexton of Ahavas Achim, an Orthodox synagogue in Highland Park, New Jersey. A man with a booming voice who would stand at the entrance greeting congregants, Israel was known for walking around during weekday prayers rattling a charity box to raise money for…
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Fast Forward Israeli Parliament Women’s Committee will be led by a man
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli feminist groups responded with outrage on Monday after it was announced that a male lawmaker had been chosen to lead a parliamentary panel tasked with advancing gender equality in the country. Oded Forer, a member of the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party, succeeded the outgoing chair, parliament member Aida Touma-Sliman, as head…
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News Cyril Wick, 90, race car driver who ‘dressed British, thought Yiddish’
(JTA) — There was something exotic and debonair about Cyril Wick in the 1950s. Wick had just completed his service in Britain’s Royal Air Force and was studying engineering when he decided that he wanted to become a race car driver. In the years that followed, he would take part in prestigious races like that…
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News Ira Beer, 82, Dedicated His Retirement Years To Torah Study
(JTA) — In many ways, Ira Beer represented the ideal of the Orthodox Jewish scholar-businessman. Beer spent years working as a food service design consultant before opening his own firm, Beer Associates. But after selling his business in 2012, he devoted himself to Jewish study, meeting daily with a partner and finishing the entire Talmud…
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