Robie Harris, a children’s book author and former teacher whose writing about sexuality made her among the most banned authors in America, died on Jan. 6 in Manhattan. She was 83.

Her best-known book, It’s perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies Growing Up, and Sexual Health (1994) with its explicit illustrations, has been pulled from library shelves all over the country. Detractors called it pornography; supporters said it is a frank and honest guide to sexuality for children and teenagers. It has sold more than a million copies, and has been translated into 27 languages. In all, she wrote more than 30 children’s books, but Normal drew the most attention.

Rabbi Matisyahu Salomon, a spiritual counselor at America’s largest yeshivas who spearheaded a crusade to warn observant Jews of the risks posed by the internet, died on Jan. 2 in Lakewood, NY. He was 86.

Rabbi Salomon was dean of students during his three decades at Beth Medrash Govaha, a religious school in Lakewood with an enrollment of more than 9,000 students, where he guided thousands of young men in ethical and pious conduct.

A decade ago, he led a campaign to warn observant Jews that new technologies were threatening observance of the laws, traditions and principles that are the backbone of their Ultra-Orthodox faith, beguiling pious Jews with videos, images and temporal content that would distract them from their family life, daily religious obligations, and pursuits like Torah study. In 2012, a rally in support of the concept packed Citi Field with 20,000 believers.

Anthony Epstein, a British pathologist whose chance attendance at a lecture on childhood tumors in Africa began years of scientific sleuthing that, with his colleague Yvonne Barr, led to the discovery of the virus known now as Epstein-Barr, and opened expansive research into its links to cancers and other ailments, died on Feb. 6 at his home in London. He was 102.

Dr. Epstein’s work in the 1960s to isolate the virus — a type of herpes — set the foundation for sweeping studies into viral and biological triggers for cancers, such as Hodgkin’s lymphoma, multiple sclerosis, lupus and, most recently, so-called long covid.

In 1991, at Oxford Brookes University in Oxford, England, Dr. Epstein was discussing the events leading to the Epstein-Barr discovery with Dr. Denis Burkitt, who had discovered a mysterious tumor in African children and had delivered the lecture that had so intrigued Dr. Epstein. “It was a series of accidents, really,” Dr. Epstein said. “Lucky quirks.”

“But you have to have two things,” said Dr. Burkitt. “You have to have the accidents, and you have to have the mind that can interpret them and look behind them and see their meaning.”

Rabbi Jules Harlow, who brought poetry and music to the style of prayer in Conservative Judaism, died on Feb. 12. He was 92.

Rabbi Harlow’s major works — prayer books for daily, Sabbath, festival and High Holy Days use — became the standards for worship in Conservative synagogues in North America. Several of his books sold well over 100,000 copies each, according to the Rabbinical Assembly, which published them.

Rabbi Harlow aspired to make the prayer book accessible to those who did not speak Hebrew, translating into English the rhyme and meter of the original Hebrew into Siddur Sim Shalom.

[Siddur Sim Shalom is the prayer book used at our synagogue here in Greenport.]

Marc Pachter, who transformed the National Portrait Gallery in Washington from a collection primarily of solemn paintings of old white men into a more up-to-date museum that now includes illustrations and interviews with diverse living luminaries, died on Feb. 17 while vacationing in Bangkok. He was 80.

As director of the Portrait Gallery from 2000 to 2007, Mr. Pachter presided over a $300 million renovation that reimagined the museum while maintaining its artistic integrity.

Mike Nussbaum, one of the oldest working actors in the U.S., who appeared in films, on TV, and on the stage, died Dec. 23, at his home in Chicago. He was 99.

On film, he appeared in “Fatal Attraction,” “Field of Dreams,” “Men in Black,” “House of Games,” “Things Change,” “Harry and Tonto,” “Losing Josiah” and “Steal Big Steal Little.” On television, he performed in “The Equalizer,” “The X-Files,” “Brooklyn Bridge,” “Separate But Equal,” “Frasier,” “L.A. Law,” “227,” “The Commish,” and “Early Edition.” He was the first actor to portray Teach in David Mamet’s “American Buffalo,” and originated the role of George Aaronow in the 1984 Broadway production of “Glengarry Glen Ross.” He also played Albert Einstein in Mamet’s “Relativity.”

Shecky Greene, a high-energy stand-up comedian who for many years was one of the big stars in Las Vegas, died on Dec. 31 at his home in Las Vegas. He was 97.

Mr. Green was a frequent guest of Ed Sullivan, Johnny Carson and other television hosts, and had acting roles ink movies and on television. In Las Vegas, though, he was “an institution,” The New York Times said. He told stories, he made faces, he ad-libbed, he did impressions, he sang — he would do just about anything for a laugh.

Interviewed by The Washington Times in 2017, Mr. Greene looked back on his career philosophically: “Why did I do this and that? At 90, I still don’t know. Once in a while I’ll have a nice sleep. Most nights, I wake up yelling, ‘Why did I do that?’”