Naomi Replansky, a self-taught American poet, whose work portrayed a world of labor, oppression and struggle, died on Jan. 7 at her home in Manhattan. She was 104.

She wrote of subjects seemingly unfit for poetry, in plainspoken language and songlike cadences. “Poetry for me,” she told the Jewish feminist journal Bridges in 2002, “is a way of mastering the world.”

Adolfo Kaminsky’s talent for forging realistic documents helped children, their parents and others escape deportation to concentration camps during WWII. His expertise enabled him to erase Jewish-sounding

names like Abraham or Isaac from ID and food ration cards, and substitute gentile-sounding names. He died Jan. 9 at his home in Paris. He was 97.

He continued to forge documents for three decades after the war, aiding insurgents in British-mandate Palestine, French Algeria, South Africa and Latin America. He finally gave up the forger’s life in the early 1970s, and went on to earn a living as a photographer, shooting evocative scenes like rain-slicked cobblestones and nighttime lovers on a bench far removed from the tumult of war.

Bernard Kalb, a veteran correspondent for CBS, NBC and The New York Times, died on Jan. 8 at his home in North Bethesda, MD. He was 100.

He reported for The Times from 1946 to 1962, for CBS during the next 18 years, and as NBC’s

State Department correspondent from 1980 to 1985. Then, for nearly two years, he served in the Reagan administration’s State Department.

Mr. Kalb accompanied President Richard M. Nixon on the trip to China that proved to be a major step in the normalization of relations between the two nations. He also made virtually every overseas trip with Henry A. Kissinger, Cyrus R. Vance, Edmund S. Muskie, Alexander M. Haig Jr., and George P. Shultz during their tenures as secretary of state.

For six years starting in 1992, Mr. Kalb was the moderator of the weekly CNN program “Reliable Sources,” which analyzed the news media’s objectivity and interviewed print and broadcast journalists. He continued lecturing on journalism and foreign affairs into his 90s, including as an occasional panelist on “The Kalb Report,” a televised series of live talks hosted by his brother, Marvin Kalb, at the Washington National Press Club.

Norm Fruchter, a civil rights activist, documentarian and novelist who devoted his career to seeing that all students receive a sound basic education regardless of their race, ethnicity, class or income, died on Jan. 4 in Brooklyn. He was 85.

Mr. Fruchter, as lifelong educator, helped secure approval to start Independence High School in Newark in 1970.. The school, intended for struggling students, became a prototype for alternative secondary schools across the country.

Victor W. Navasky, a journalist who for 276 years as either editor or publisher commanded the long-running left-leaning magazine The Nation, and who also wrote the book, Naming Names, a breakthrough chronicle of the Hollywood blacklisting era, died Jan. 23 in Manhattan. He was 90.

The Nation, an influential voice for civil rights, free expression, progressive labor legislation, and anti-war opinion, also provided a forum for feminist voices.

Mr. Navasky also published two widely praised works of history — a study of the Justice Department under Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and his account of those who testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee and chose to inform on colleagues.

The Shofar joins the membership in mourning two deaths in the Congregation family: Rabbi Elliot T. Spar, father of shul member Ari Spar, died on Nov. 30. Long-time shul member Irma Strimban died on December 15. May their memories be a blessing.

Pablo Eisenberg was only 7 years old in 1939 when he boarded an American-bound liner with his parents and younger sister in Bordeaux as the Nazis were poised to invade France. But as young as he was, their nail-biting escape nevertheless instilled in him a lifelong commitment to powerless people left behind.

In 1973, he wrote an article published in Grantsmanship Center News, a philanthropic journal, in which he called on major foundations, individual donors, corporate charities and philanthropies in general to be more socially responsible, transparent, accountable and equitable in determining who received their largesse. He had a passion for improving the lives of everyday people.

Mr. Eisenberg died on Oct. 18 in a nursing home in Rockville, MD. He was 90.

While many charities remained insular, others responded to Mr. Eisenberg’s goading by directing more donations to community organizations and diversifying their boards.