Piper Laurie, a respected actress with three Oscar nominations, an Emmy Award, and eight other Emmy nominations, died on Oct. 14 at a nursing facility in Los Angeles. She was 91. Moviegoers will recall her performances in “The Hustler,” “Carrie,” and “Children of a Lesser God.” She won an Emmy for “Promise,” a CBS movie about schizophrenia. When asked in a 2011 interview with the Archive of American Television what acting advice she would offer, [...]
Alice Shalvi, an educator and social activist, died on Oct. 2 at her home in Jerusalem. She was 96. Dr. Shalvi was best known for her leadership of Pelech, an experimental school in Jerusalem that provides an egalitarian secular and religious education for Orthodox girls, and for her work as the founding director of the Israel Women’s Network. The network lobbies the government to reform Israeli laws treating women differently in the military, marriage, employment [...]
Russell Sherman, a music educator and a pianist admired for his poetic interpretations of Schoenberg, Beethoven, Debussy, Liszt and others, died on Sept. 30 at his home in Lexington, MA. He was 93. Mr. Sherman began giving public concerts in the 1970s, performing with the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra as well as major European orchestras. His concerts drew devoted fans [...]
Eva Kollisch, who escaped Nazi-occupied Austria when she was a teenager to become a professor and memoirist who broke new ground in feminist studies, died on Oct. 10 in Manhattan. She was 98. The author of two memoirs, Ms. Kollisch taught for 30 years at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY, where with Gerda Lerner, Joan Kelly and Sherry Ortner, she helped introduce a foundational women’s studies curriculum. Raised in a prosperous, secular Jewish family [...]
The U.S. Postal Service has unveiled a new forever stamp featuring the image of U.S. Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The stamps cost 66 cents each or $13.20 for a sheet of 20. The stamp’s oil-painting portrait is based on a photograph captured by Philip Bermingham, a well-known portrait photographer. Bermingham had long anticipated the session, but in the early going of the shoot, things didn’t seem to be working out. Finally, he decided [...]
The Nobel Assembly has awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19. The discoveries by the two Nobel Laureates were critical for developing effective mRNA vaccines during the pandemic that began in early 2020. “Through their groundbreaking findings, the laureates contributed to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during of [...]
Shul member Francis DuBois was the guest speaker at the North Fork Unitarian Universalist Fellowship on Sunday, Oct. 8, at the historic Jamesport Meeting House. His topic was “Varian Fry: A Forgotten Hero.” Varian Fry was an American journalist who ran a rescue network that helped thousands of Jewish refugees escape Nazi Germany. Francis DuBois enjoyed a long and distinguished career in the United Nations, serving in the Middle East with the rank of Ambassador.
Claudia Sheinbaum, the former mayor of Mexico City, is in line to become Mexico’s dominant ruling party’s presidential candidate in the June 2024 election. If elected, Sheinbaum, who is Jewish, would be the country’s first female president. Sheinbaum is a close ally of the popular López Obrador, the country’s current president, who is barred by Mexico’s constitution from running for a second six-year term. As the Morena party’s candidate, she will enjoy a distinct advantage [...]
Jewish worshippers in the Old City of Jerusalem pray during Hoshana Rabba and the weeklong festival of Sukkot. The holiday commemorates the Israelites 40 years of wandering in the desert. AP Photo
The Codex Sassoon, the millennium-old manuscript received a warm welcome when it arrived at Ben Gurion Airport. It is expected to make its permanent residence at the ANU Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv. Yehonastan Bnay photo
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