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.

Judy Wald, a top headhunter and talent spotter, who shaped careers in advertising’s golden era and transformed the industry’s recruiting field, died Feb. 12 in Manhattan. She was 96.

Ms. Wald was a formidable Madison Avenue gatekeeper. From copywriters to top creative directors, everyone in the industry knew that the path to a new job often ran through her. “I believe she invented me,” said Jerry Della Femina, who founded his own leading agency and wrote a memoir that was an inspiration for the long-running television series “Mad Men.”

Ms. Wald was sometimes compared to that show’s fictional characters. She was a stylish, brash and supremely confident entrepreneur at a time when few women wielded executive power on Madison Avenue.

Conductor James Levine, who ruled over the Metropolitan Opera for more than four decades before being eased aside when his health declined and then was fired for sexual improprieties, died March 9 in Palm Springs, CA. He was 77.

Known for bushy hair and an ever-present towel draped over a shoulder during rehearsals, Levine greatly expanded the Met’s repertory, and was especially praised for his performances of Wagner, Verdi and Berg.

In addition to his lengthy tenure at the Met, Levine was music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Ravinia Festival from 1973-93, the Munich Philharmonic from 1999-2004, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 2004-11.

He led upward of 110 performances in a season in the 1980s, including tours. He started conducting from a chair in late 2001, when tremors in his left arm and leg became noticeable. His health worsened in 2006. In May 2013, he conducted from a motorized wheelchair that he would use for the remainder of his career.

Naomi Rosenblum, who wrote about the history of photography and helped elevate it as an art form, died Feb. 19 at her home in Long Island City, Queens. She was 96.

A socially progressive academic, Dr. Rosenblum taught the history of photography at several institutions in New York: Brooklyn College, New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, the Parsons School of Design, and the City University of New York Graduate Center.

She lectured around the world, and curated several major exhibitions, including one of the work of Paul Strand, the influential 20th-century modernist.

Actor Yaphet Kotto, who starred as ship engineer Dennis Parker in Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi horror film “Alien,” died March 14 in the Philippines. He was 81.

Kotto was born in New York to Cameroonian immigrants, who had converted to Judaism before Yaphet was born. He made his debut as a professional actor in 1960 in an all-Black stage performance of Shakespeare’s “Othello” in Harlem. He also played dictator Dr. Kananga in the 1973 James Bond film “Live and Let Die,” and received an Emmy nomination for playing Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the TV movie “Raid on Entebbe.” He appeared with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the thriller “The Running Man” in 1987, and later starred as Lt. Al Giardello in the NBC television series “Homicide: Life on the Street,” which aired from 1993 to 1999.

Hershel Shanks, who was captivated by the wealth of archaeological digs in Israel, published a magazine about intriguing discoveries and scholarly controversies in a field where the truthfulness of the Bible was tested and verified.

The magazine, Biblical Archaeology Review, which Mr. Shanks commanded for more than 40 years util his retirement in 2017, popularized what was considered arcane and technical subject matter and made it digestible for tens of thousands of readers.

In 1987, Mr. Shanks bought a second magazine, Moment, a Jewish affairs bimonthly that had been founded 12 years earlier by Elie Wiesel and Leonard Fein. He was its publisher and editor until 2004.

Hershel Shanks died Feb. 5 at his home in Washington. He was 90.