Robie Harris, a children’s book author and former teacher whose writing about sexuality made her among the most banned authors in America, died on Jan. 6 in Manhattan. She was 83. Her best-known book, It’s perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies Growing Up, and Sexual Health (1994) with its explicit illustrations, has been pulled from library shelves all over the country. Detractors called it pornography; supporters said it is a frank and honest guide to sexuality for [...]

Rabbi Matisyahu Salomon, a spiritual counselor at America’s largest yeshivas who spearheaded a crusade to warn observant Jews of the risks posed by the internet, died on Jan. 2 in Lakewood, NY. He was 86. Rabbi Salomon was dean of students during his three decades at Beth Medrash Govaha, a religious school in Lakewood with an enrollment of more than 9,000 students, where he guided thousands of young men in ethical and pious conduct. A [...]

Anthony Epstein, a British pathologist whose chance attendance at a lecture on childhood tumors in Africa began years of scientific sleuthing that, with his colleague Yvonne Barr, led to the discovery of the virus known now as Epstein-Barr, and opened expansive research into its links to cancers and other ailments, died on Feb. 6 at his home in London. He was 102. Dr. Epstein’s work in the 1960s to isolate the virus — a type [...]

Rabbi Jules Harlow, who brought poetry and music to the style of prayer in Conservative Judaism, died on Feb. 12. He was 92. Rabbi Harlow’s major works — prayer books for daily, Sabbath, festival and High Holy Days use — became the standards for worship in Conservative synagogues in North America. Several of his books sold well over 100,000 copies each, according to the Rabbinical Assembly, which published them. Rabbi Harlow aspired to make the [...]

Marc Pachter, who transformed the National Portrait Gallery in Washington from a collection primarily of solemn paintings of old white men into a more up-to-date museum that now includes illustrations and interviews with diverse living luminaries, died on Feb. 17 while vacationing in Bangkok. He was 80. As director of the Portrait Gallery from 2000 to 2007, Mr. Pachter presided over a $300 million renovation that reimagined the museum while maintaining its artistic integrity.