Robert S. Rifkind, who played a pivotal role in successfully defending Time magazine against a $50 million libel suit filed by Ariel Sharon, the former Israeli general, defense minister and, later, prime minister, died on March 12 at his home in Manhattan. He was 88.

Mr. Sharon’s suit was prompted by a single paragraph in the Feb. 21, 1983 issue of Time. It referred to an Israeli government report on the massacre months earlier by Christian Phalange militiamen of at least 800 and as many as 3,500 civilian refugees in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon. The massacre happened after Israel invaded Lebanon and the Phalange leader was assassinated. The article suggested that Mr. Sharon had sought revenge and that the Israelis looked the other way when the Phalangists attacked.

The jury found in 1985 that Time had misrepresented Mr. Sharon’s role in the massacre, but concluded that the magazine’s reporting did not meet the legal threshold for libel because it did not publish the article with actual malice or a reckless disregard for the facts.

According to the New York Times, reporters trying to get interviews with Steven Spielberg would sometimes grouse that his publicist’s job amounted to speaking a single word: “No.”

But Marvin Levy, who served as Mr. Spielberg’s publicist for 42 years, was responsible for much more than body blocking reporters. Mr. Spielberg did not become Mr. Spielberg bccause of his filmmaking alone: Mr. Levy was behind the scenes — promoting, polishing, spinning, safeguarding, strategizing — to ensure that his boss was viewed worldwide as Hollywood’s de facto head of state.

In addition to representing him personally, Mr. Levy helped devise and lead publicity campaigns for 32 movies that Mr. Spielberg directed. Mr. Levy received an honorary Oscar in 2018 for his work.

Mr. Levy died on April 7 at his home in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles, after a 73-year entertainment career. He was 96.

Rick Levine, an award-winning television commercial director who brought a big-screen sensibility to the small screen with widely celebrated spots, died on March 11 at his home in Marina del Rey, CA, age 94.

Mr. Levine won a total of four Clio Awards — advertising’s equivalent of the Oscars — for Super Bowl ads for Diet Pepsi and DuPont. In explaining these success and many others, he told The New York Times, “I attract the story kind of commercial. People don’t come to me just for pictures; they come with stories.”

May he rest in peace.

The Shofar joins the membership in extending condolences to Rochelle Garmise and her family on the death of Stuart Garmise, brother of our beloved shul member, the late Alan Garmise. Stuart died on Feb. 28, and was buried in New Jersey on March 4.

Rose Girone, believed to be the oldest survivor of the Holocaust, died in North Bellmore, NY, on Long Island, on Feb. 24. She was 113. Her secret to longevity, she said: dark chocolate and good children.

Rose Girone was eight months pregnant and living in Breslau, Germany, in 1938, when her husband was sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp. She secured passage to Shanghai, only to be forced to live in a bathroom in a Jewish ghetto for seven years. Once settled in the United States, she rented whatever she could find while supporting her daughter by knitting. She made friends with other refugees, including a Viennese Jewish businessman who helped her turn her knitting into a business. It would be a lifeline for decades to come. Eventually, she had saved enough money to open a knitting store with a partner in Rego Park, Queens, and she opened a second store in Forest Hills. She continued to work and teach knitting until she was 102.

There are about 245,000 Jewish Holocaust survivors alive around the world, according to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. “This passing reminds us of the urgency of sharing the lessons of the Holocaust while we still have firsthand witnesses with us,” said Greg Schneider, the organization’s executive vice president. “The Holocaust is slipping from memory to history, and its lessons are too important, especially in today’s world, to be forgotten.”

M. Paul Friedberg, a landscape architect whose playgrounds, pocket parks and plazas transformed areas of New York City, died on Feb. 15 in Manhattan. He was 93.

Mr. Friedberg grew up in rural Pennsylvania, but he believed in the promise of cities to create happier, healthier societies with inviting public parks and plazas. In New York and other cities across the country, he became the go-to designer for reinvigorating public space. He tucked vest-pocket parks into vacant lots and the dead space between buildings. He set plazas on top of parking garages, and playgrounds on rooftops.

“I think we tend to destroy the creative side of human nature, and in play is where we are most creative,” Mr. Friedberg said in his oral history. “There are people whose whole life is dedicated to play, and those are the people we call artists.”