Lenny Schultz, a wild-eyed comedian who became known in the 1970s and ‘80s for high-energy performances that he delivered with a mouthful of sound effects and a table full of silly props, died on March 16 at his home in Delray Beach, FL. He was 91. “I can’t tell a joke,” Mr. Schultz told The Orlando Sentinel in 1972, but that didn’t matter, he said. “The guys I like and the guys I identify [...]
Richard Bernstein, a former correspondent and critic for The New York Times whose deep knowledge of Asia and Europe illuminated reporting from Tiananmen Square to the Bastille, and who wrote things as he saw them in 10 books driven by intellectual curiosity, died on March 31in Manhattan. He was 80. In more than two decades at The Times, Mr. Bernstein brought deep historical knowledge, a gracious writing style, and a stubborn contrarian streak to subjects [...]
Jeremiah Ostriker, an astrophysicist who helped set off a revolution in humankind’s view of the universe, revealing it to be as vaster, darker realm than the one we can see, ruled by invisible forms of matter and energy we still don’t understand, died on April 13 at his home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. He was 87. For more than four decades, mostly at Princeton University, Dr. Ostriker’s work altered our understanding of [...]
Robert S. Rifkind, who played a pivotal role in successfully defending Time magazine against a $50 million libel suit filed by Ariel Sharon, the former Israeli general, defense minister and, later, prime minister, died on March 12 at his home in Manhattan. He was 88. Mr. Sharon’s suit was prompted by a single paragraph in the Feb. 21, 1983 issue of Time. It referred to an Israeli government report on the massacre months earlier by [...]
According to the New York Times, reporters trying to get interviews with Steven Spielberg would sometimes grouse that his publicist’s job amounted to speaking a single word: “No.” But Marvin Levy, who served as Mr. Spielberg’s publicist for 42 years, was responsible for much more than body blocking reporters. Mr. Spielberg did not become Mr. Spielberg bccause of his filmmaking alone: Mr. Levy was behind the scenes — promoting, polishing, spinning, safeguarding, strategizing — to [...]
Rick Levine, an award-winning television commercial director who brought a big-screen sensibility to the small screen with widely celebrated spots, died on March 11 at his home in Marina del Rey, CA, age 94. Mr. Levine won a total of four Clio Awards — advertising’s equivalent of the Oscars — for Super Bowl ads for Diet Pepsi and DuPont. In explaining these success and many others, he told The New York Times, “I attract the [...]
May he rest in peace.
Members of our shul and the North Fork Reform Synagogue in Cutchogue will meet on Zoom on Wednesday, April 23, at 7:30 p.m., to join with Jewish communities around the world observing Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day — honoring the Six Million Jews murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust. As the number of Holocaust survivors dwindles, and antisemitism rises throughout the world, remembering those who were lost from 1939-1945 becomes critical to a mission [...]
Shul member Judith K. Weiner, working with the staff at Peconic Landing, has arranged a Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) program at the senior living community in Greenport. Judith Weiner will introduce the program and featured speaker Rena Wiseman will share her story with the residents as candles bearing the names of children lost in the Holocaust are lighted. Afterward, participants will view the film, “Zone of Interest.” Loosely based on the 2014 novel by Martin Amis, the [...]
The Book Circle will meet on Thursday, May 15, at 3 p.m., in the community room at the shul, where the group will talk about Goyhood, a debut novel by Reuven Fenton. Here, a devoutly Orthodox man discovers in middle age that he is not, in fact, Jewish. He is, however, a Talmud scholar, married into one of the greatest rabbinical families in the world. Now what? Meyer Belkin grapples with a God he believes [...]
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