Shul member Graham Diamond was one of the invited speakers at the Riverhead Free Library on Monday, May 6, to mark the observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day. The writer had collaborated with Holocaust survivor Aron Goldfarb on a memoir, Maybe You Will Survive, first published in 1991, in which Goldfarb tells the story of his experiences as a 12-year-old in Nazi-occupied Poland, his escape from a labor camp, his life in hiding, and his survival.

Following those boyhood years, Goldfarb immigrated to the United States, founded a leather outerwear company that grew into a publicly-traded organization with a portfolio of name brands.

“If someone like Aron could build a $3 billion business, think what six million of us could have done,” Graham Diamond said to the gathering.

Shul members will recall the dramatic story as the writer related it in a Lunch and Learn program held at our shul a few years ago.

Ted Comet, creator of New York City’s Israel parade, celebrated his 100th birthday on May 23. This year’s parade will take place on June 2, and Comet will be an honorary grand marshal.

He has played leading roles in Jewish organizations for more than 75 years, including the Joint Distribution Committee, American Zionist Youth Foundation, Council of Jewish Federations, Israel Folk Dance Festival, and the first large demonstration in support of Soviet Jewry.

After 64 years in broadcasting, John Sterling, the Yankees’ primary play-by-play announcer, has announced his retirement. Sterling is 85.

“There is no shortage of adjectives to describe John and what he means to this organization and our millions of fans around the world,” the team said in the release, adding that he was a “Goliath of the sports broadcasting world.”

Yankees fans will remember John Sterling’s now-famous refrain coming off the bat of a home-run hit: “It is high. It is far. It is gone.”

We will miss your calls, John. Enjoy your retirement.

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.