It is with profound sadness that The Shofar announces the death of Philip Goldman, a long-time member of our shul and a stalwart supporter of the mission of our shul to be a beacon of Judaism here on the North Fork. To that end, he served in virtually every capacity necessary to maintain the ideals as well as the smooth operation of this institution. He died on Monday, Sept. 4, 2023, after a long illness. He was 95.

From President, Treasurer, and member of the Board of Directors, to committee chairman, committee member, builder, chef — even a one-time co-editor of this publication with his wife Elaine — and advisor to all who sought his wisdom, Phil Goldman willingly shared his vast knowledge and experience.

His shul came second only to his family — his brothers and sisters, his wife and children, nieces and nephews, and their children. To them, he gave his deep love, and from them he enjoyed their accomplishments, their companionship, and the love and admiration they showered upon him.

We miss your presence, Phil, but you will always be with us in spirit.

Arleen Sorkin, the veteran actor and screenwriter, was best known for portraying Calliope Jones on the NBC daytime serial “Days of Our Lives” from 1984-1990, and for serving as the real-life inspiration and voice for DC Comics villain Harley Quinn, co-created by her friend Paul Dini on “Batman: The Animated Series,” died August 24 in Los Angeles. She was 67.

Her writing included the television series “Tiny Toon Adventures,” and the screenplay “Picture Perfect,” starring Jennifer Aniston.

She also voiced Harley Quinn in videogames and, for the series “Frazier,” she was the voice of several callers to Frazier’s radio show.

Nancy Buirski, an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning documentary filmmaker, whose eye was honed as a still photographer and picture editor, died on August 30 at her home in Manhattan. She was 78.

Having founded the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in 1998 at Duke University and directing it for a decade, Ms. Buirski made her own first documentary, “The Loving Story,” in 2011. The film explored the case of Mildred and Richard Loving, who faced imprisonment because their interracial marriage in 1968 was illegal in Virginia. The documentary, directed by Ms. Buirski, won an Emmy for outstanding historical programming, long form, and a Peabody Award.

She went on to write and direct other films, but it was a still photograph by Kevin Carter, chosen by her to accompany an article about war and famine in southern Sudan, that secured a first-ever award for the New York Times. The photo showed an emaciated toddler collapsing on the way to a United Nations feeding center as a vulture lurked menacingly in the background. She wanted the image to appear on the front page; she said, “This is going to win the paper’s first-ever Pulitzer Prize for photography.” The photograph ended up appearing on an inside page in the issue of March 26, 1993. It won the Pulitzer in feature photography that year.

Claire Golomb, who fled to Holland with her family to escape the Nazis and who later became a renowned child psychologist, died July 26 in Boston. She was 95.

Her work focused on children’s art, make-believe play, story construction, and the role of gender in those pursuits. “Being master of an imaginary universe empowers the child, gives expression to often vaguely understood feelings, provides compensation for feeling helpless or powerless, and joy for having invented a world on its own,” she said in an interview in connection with the publication of her book, “The Creation of Imaginary Worlds.”

Of her chosen field, she said, “The events of the Holocaust and its effect on my family and my community no doubt influenced my decision to choose a career of service, a desire to improve upon the world in some ways,” she said. She was a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts for more than 40 years.

Jerome M. Hauer, who as the first director of the Office of Emergency Management oversaw New York City’s response to floods, manhole explosions, mold outbreaks, building collapses, water main breaks, blackouts, hurricanes, sink holes, downed trees, terrorist threats, vermin, and the uncertain digital impact on computer networks of Y2K at the turn of the millennium, died on August 11 at his home in Alexandria, VA. He was 71.

Reportedly, Mr. Hauer would visit the sites of catastrophes, sift through piles of rubble for a brick or other remnant, then bring it back to his office as a solemn reminder that his mission was to prepare for the worst in a world of what-ifs.

David Rowland, a lawyer who secured the recovery of hundreds of looted artworks for the heirs of Jewish collectors who had been persecuted by the Nazis, challenging some of the world’s leading museums in doing so, died on August 15 at his home in Manhattan. He was 67.

Among Mr. Rowland’s high profile successes was the 2006 recovery of “Berlin Street Scene,” a 1913 painting by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, from the Brucke Museum in Berlin. In 2020, he secured the return of 200 prints and drawings by Henri Matisse, Edvard Munch and Marc Chagall, among other artists, from the Kunstmuseum in Basel, Switzerland. Following the return of “Berlin Street Scene,” Ronald Lauder, an heir to the Estée Lauder cosmetics fortune, purchased the painting for $38 million.

Edith Grossman, whose acclaimed translations of Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes raised the profile of the often-overlooked role of the translator, died on Sept. 4 at her home in Manhattan. She was 87.

Dr. Grossman dedicated herself to translating Latin American and Spanish authors. Her technique helped make her one of the most sought-after translators of the genre. She gave English language readers access to the works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Isabel Allende, Carlos Fuentes, Laura Esquivel and others. Her many honors and awards included the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation; the Arts and Letters Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; and the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Civil Merit awarded by King Felipe VI of Spain.

One day, while she was immersed in translating Don Quixote, the phone rang. It was Mr. Gardia Marquez, sounding like a jealous husband. “I hear you’re two-timing me with Cervantes,” he said.