Dr. Fanya Gottesfeld Heller, the Holocaust survivor, author, and educator, has passed away. Heller authored the book, “Love in a World of Sorrow: A Teenage Girl’s Holocaust Memoirs,” and was the subject of the 2009 documentary film, “Teenage Witness: The Fanya Heller Story.” She was 93. Fanya Gottesfeld was a teenager when she was forced…
In the spring of 1976, the Democratic presidential candidate Jimmy Carter appointed Zbigniew Brzezinski (March 28, 1928 – May 26, 2017), who was teaching at Columbia University, as his foreign policy adviser. I served at that time as the director-general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, and I knew that Brzezinski had never visited Israel, so I…
Before my mother died, I didn’t think about her aesthetic vision, though I always loved her fantastical photographs (1980s–2000s) and large abstract paintings (1970s) that filled our family’s brownstone in Manhattan’s West Village. But at her funeral, Rabbi David Adelson, dean of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and a family friend, delivered a eulogy…
I was shocked to read Forward,com this morning and find two hespedim for the fine Hebraist and scholar Alan Mintz. I want to share with you my one strong memory of him, not exactly as scholar but in a transformative moment. What I remember goes back to 1973. Alan was the original energizer for calling…
Here’s how he might have covered it: Roger Ailes, whose scandal-ridden career ended in disgrace when years of sexual harassment allegations finally caught up with him, died this week — some say of shame, others of the morbid obesity that plagued him throughout his life. Of course, that would be both unfair and vulgar. Ailes…
Roxanne was happily married to Benjamin Hart, a successful stock broker and a golfing buddy in my group of friends. Ben’s parents had escaped the Holocaust, and they had shortened their name from Hartstein when they arrived in America. Roxanne Hart had worked as a hair dresser before she married Ben, and although he made…
While covering the Mother’s Day second line parade in New Orleans — a festive tradition in the city — on May 12, 2013, two young brothers sprayed bullets into the crowd. The shooting wounded 19 people, including reporter Deborah Cotton, a longtime correspondent for the local alt weekly Gambit and a cultural writer for Nola.com….
Most of the people whose lives Melvin Waskin touched likely never knew his name, and that was ok. A longtime writer and producer for Coronet Instructional Media, the educational films whose scripts he penned taught students about everything from the solar system to how to date. If you recently identified a planet correctly, or chose…
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