Martin Greenfield, born in a part of Czechoslovakia that is now Ukraine and who was sent to Auschwitz as a teenager and later became a tailor for clients, including six U.S. presidents and numerous celebrities, died on March 18 at his home in Brooklyn. He was 95.

Beaten in the camp for ripping a shirt, a fellow prisoner taught him to sew. At age 19, he was freed, and he boarded a ship to New York with $10 in his pocket. Mr. Greenfield became arguably the best men’s tailor in the United States.

Evan Gershkovich, a Jewish reporter for the Wall Street Journal, imprisoned for a year in Russia, has been ordered to remain in jail there on espionage charges until at least June, when his case may be reviewed. Friends and colleagues have organized fundraisers to bring attention to his plight in the hope that publicity may hasten his release.

Zach Hyman, a star hockey player for the Edmonton Oilers, scored his 50th goal of the 2023-24 season on March 24.

Ruth Levy Gottesman, an American educator, chair of the board of trustees of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (AECOM) in the Bronx, New York, and a long-time professor there, last month donated $1 billion to the medical school to ensure that tuition would be free in perpetuity to all future students. It is the largest gift ever made to any medical school in this country.

With her husband David, she donated $25 million to AECOM in 2008, which was used to found the Ruth L. and David S. Gottesman Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Research, the Ruth L. Gottesman Clinical Skills Center and the Faculty Scholar in Epigenetics at AECOM.

          When David died in 2022, he bequeathed a portfolio of stock in Berkshire Hathaway to Ruth, with the instructions for her to do with it as she pleased. Wanting to support education, Ruth Gottesman announced the $1 billion gift in February to the Albert Einstein institution.

Yup, check this out. There they are — our own Miriam Gabriel and Adrianne Greenberg — all decked out for Hawaii in Florida. Shirts, leis, and a grass skirt on friend Meg.

Of course, it’s all about golf and good fun, too at the Legacy Golf and Tennis Club’s member-guest tournament. Would you believe that some of the aloha revelers even dressed up their golf carts in grass skirts?

Now for the scores. Our Miriam was the hands-down winner of the “closest to the line drive contest.” For this feat, you drive the ball with a mighty swing and, if you do it right, you come three inches from the line set way, way down the fairway. If you’ve ever seen Miriam take a swing, you know not to question that woman’s ability to put the ball exactly — exactly — where she wants it. She might argue, but take it from your Shofar editor, who learned the game at the feet of the master,  no surprise there.

About Adrianne, another champ player, her team was one little stroke away from the winning circle. She may be losing sleep over that darn ball that put on its brakes a quarter-inch from the hole.

All in all, a great day for golf and for fun.

In a ceremony held Saturday, Feb. 24 at the Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall in Los Angeles, Barbara Streisand, a director, actor and writer, accepted a lifetime achievement award at the 30th annual Screen Actors Guild (SAG)

awards. She had joined SAG more than six decades ago.

In her acceptance speech, she paid tribute to the Jewish founders of the film industry — Samuel Goldwyn, Louis B. Mayer, and Marcus Loew. “They were all fleeing the prejudice they faced in Eastern Europe simply because of their religion,” she told the crowd at the SAG awards. “They were dreamers, like all of us tonight,” she said. “And now I dream of a world where such prejudice is a thing of the past.”

Jewish actor Ebon Moss-Bachrach was cast as Ben Grimm, aka The Thing, in the upcoming Fantastic Four movie. Grimm is one of Marvel’s Jewish characters, having had a bar mitzvah and Jewish wedding in the comics.