For more than a half century, nearly every prominent singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera could expect to be approached backstage afterward by a wispy woman wearing thick eyeglasses, who held piles of memorabilia to be autographed while she praised the performance in a raspy Brooklyn accent.

This was Lois Kirschenbaum, one of New York’s biggest and longest-standing opera buffs and a nightly staple at the opera since the late 1950s.

Few operatic performances took place at the Met without being observed by Ms. Kirschenbaum, usually from a seat in the uppermost balcony. And few prominent singers went home without signing numerous items for Ms. Kirschenbaum, who had befriended some of the world’s most famous opera singers, from Beverly Sills to Plácido Domingo.

Ms. Kirschenbaum died March 27 at a hospital in Manhattan. She was 88.

Phyllis L. Marchand, the former mayor of Princeton, NJ, died March 25, at 81, at her home in Princeton.

Mrs. Marchand was a public official in Princeton Township for 22 years and was appointed mayor for 13 nonconsecutive one-year terms. That made her the township’s longest-serving chief executive, according to records dating to 1900, and earned her the unofficial title “mayor for life” until she retired in 2008.

She was widely known throughout central New Jersey for her energetic involvement in issues like affordable housing, the arts, social services, women’s rights, Jewish education and land preservation. She was severely criticized, however, for instituting a program to reduce the deer population that was running rampant and causing accidents. Critics said shooting was cruel, and that other methods to cull the birth rate were more humane. In the end, the program reduced collisions between deer and vehicles by 40 percent and, two decades later, the town is still using the services of the original contractor.

Yehuda Ben-Yishay, a psychologist whose experience working with wounded Israeli soldiers led him to make pioneering advances in treating traumatic brain injuries, died March 14 at the NYU Langone Health hospital in Manhattan. He was 88. His discoveries helped countless patients return to some semblance of the life they led before they were injured.

Before Dr. Ben-Yishay developed what he called holistic cognitive therapy in the 1970s, most scientists thought the adult brain was immutable, and that serious injuries — and the behavioral changes that resulted — were permanent.

Working at Rusk Rehabilitation at NYU Langone Health, Dr. Ben Yishay proved that functions like attention, memory and behavior could be strengthened or compensated for in recovering patients. His program has become the gold standard for treating brain injuries, inspiring similar programs worldwide.

Bernard Madoff, whose name became synonymous with financial fraud, died while serving a 150-year sentence in Federal prison. He was 82. His death on April 14 at the Federal Medical Center in the prison in Butner, NC, was confirmed by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

In February 2020, Madoff petitioned the courts for an early release from prison, stating that he had terminal kidney failure and a life expectancy of less than 18 months. But the U.S. Attorney’s office for the southern district of New York said Madoff’s crime was “unprecedented in scope and magnitude” and is “sufficient reason” to deny Madoff’s request. Madoff was the mastermind behind a $20 billion Ponzi scheme — the largest financial fraud in history.

Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee charged with recovering assets stolen by Madoff from his investors, had recovered $14.4 billion as of March of this year, distributing most of it to Madoff’s victims.

Howard Weitzman, an entertainment lawyer whose client list bristled with the names of some of the nation’s most famous and infamous celebrities, died April 7 at his home in the Pacific Palisades section of Los Angeles. He was 81.

In a career spanning five decades, Mr. Weitzman was the lead attorney in more than 300 civil and criminal jury trials, representing more than 1,000 people, including Marlon Brando, Magic Johnson, Sugar Ray Leonard, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Justin Bieber, Ozzy Osbourne, Morgan Freeman and Britney Spears. He also represented major motion picture studios as well as the powerhouse talent agencies William Morris, ICM and CAA. He had a reputation as a fixer, and was often ranked as one of the most influential lawyers in the country.

For all his showmanship in the courtroom, Mr. Weitzman opted out of what the media called the trial of the century: the case against O.J. Simson. Mr. Weitzman had accompanied Mr. Simpson to a police interview after the murders, but in less than 48 hours, he dropped out, saying he was too busy. After the trial and the not guilty verdict, Mr. Weitzman took the unusual step of saying that the jury had reached the wrong conclusion. He said he had no regrets about not participating in the spectacle.

Frank Jacobs, an inventive satirist who in his 57 years at Mad magazine mocked popular culture and politics, often in pitch-perfect verse and lyrics, died April 5 in Tarzana, CA. he was 91.

Mr. Jacobs brought a quick wit, a deep well of ideas, and a love of rhyming to Mad in 1957, becoming one of that smart-alecky humor magazine’s most prolific contributors, especially during the 1960s and ‘70s, when it was at the peak of its irreverence and its cultural influence. He wrote nearly 600 pieces for the magazine; numerous Mad paperbacks, and a biography of the magazine’s founding publisher, whom he described as “the last of the great fat eccentrics.” [Jack Davis illustration]

Susan Feingold, who had narrowly escaped the Holocaust as a girl, led a grass-roots effort to improve the lives of thousands of underprivileged children with a program that became a model for the national Head Start program, an early-childhood federal outreach initiative for low-income families. 

At first, Susan Feingold and her group of parents wanted only to make things better for their own children, calling their group the Bloomingdale Family Program, named after their sliver of a neighborhood on the Upper West side of Manhattan. In a neighborhood park, they provided gardening classes, athletic programs and reading lessons. The idea grew and ultimately reached President Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration, which adapted Bloomingdale into a signature initiative of Johnson’s War on Poverty. Susan Feingold became Head Start’s director for more than 40 years.

She was born in Krefeld, Germany, into a prosperous Jewish family. Her parents arranged for her to be sent to England through the Kindertransport. The last time she saw her mother and father was at a train station in Düsseldorf. They died in a concentration camp.

Susan Feingold died at age 95 on Sept. 27 at her home on the Upper West Side.