When Daniel Pinkwater learned on November 3 that Car Talk host Tom Magliozzi had died, he sent a one-line condolence to Doug Berman, the show’s longtime producer: “He improved the lives of millions. Weekly. For decades. They give Nobel Prizes to the wrong people.” Tom, better known as Click (or was he Clack?), co-hosted the…
Armed with a razor-sharp mind, a disarming smile and an iconic bowtie, Ralph Goldman, who died October 7 at the age of 100, glided effortlessly through the Jewish mega-dramas of the 20th century. Born in Ukraine in 1914, raised in Boston and educated in Jewish studies and Hebrew, he grew up to be a world…
Norma Spungen, the former archivist at the Chicago Jewish Archives at Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership, has died. Spungen died Sunday at the age of 87. As the archivist at Spertus from 1986 to 1996, Spungen curated and assisted with several major exhibits mounted at the institute dealing with many important themes in…
Ralph Goldman, who as a young man helped shepherd the State of Israel into existence and later devoted his professional life to bringing humanitarian relief to Jews across the globe, has died at 100. Goldman, who worked with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee since 1968 – he served twice as its chief executive and…
Tony-winning actress Marian Seldes, regarded as one of the great ladies of the American stage and famed for never missing a single performance during an entire four-year Broadway run of “Deathtrap,” died her Manhattan home on Monday at age 86. Her death, which followed a prolonged illness, was announced by her brother, Timothy Seldes, in…
Polly Bergen, who won accolades as a film, television and stage actress as well as a singer, has died. Bergen, who starred in the 1962 film “Cape Fear, died Saturday at her home in Southbury, Conn., from natural causes, publicist Judy Katz told media outlets. She was 84. Katz said she was surrounded by family…
School was out on that wintry day around Thanksgiving of 1993, and my mother was charged with taking care of me, my siblings, and my best friend of that particular week. It was too cold to play outdoors, so my mother, car-less for the day, schlepped all of us on the B44 city bus to…
Alan C. “Ace” Greenberg, the former head of Bear Stearns investment bank and a major donor to Jewish causes, has died at 86. Greenberg, famous on Wall Street for his hard-charging manner, appetite for risk, and financial acumen, died on Friday in Manhattan of complications from cancer. He had been chief executive officer and then…
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