Editor’s Note: This story has a sad echo to an item we posted in January about an Albany, NY, lawyer, Richard Friedman, who drowned while saving his sons from a swimming accident off the coast of Puerto Rico. Read Friedman’s story here.

Robert N. Klein, a successful real estate attorney in Port S. Lucie, Florida, drowned Monday while seeking to bring his sons in from a severe rip tide off the Florida coast. He was 49.

According to a report in the Port St. Lucie newspaper:

Klein, at the beach with his family, swam out to help rescue his two sons, Peyton, 11, and Ethan, 14, who were struggling in the rip currents while riding their Boogie boards. The boys were fine, but rescue workers brought Klein to shore and tried to revive him. Klein was pronounced dead at Martin Memorial Medical Center.

Klein, who represented national retailer QVC, was reported to have been instrumental in bringing the company to Port St. Lucie.

The newspaper said Klein was a founding member of Temple Beit HaYam in Stuart in 1993 and was on the board of directors there for about eight years.

“He was devoted to his wife and children first and foremost,” said Klein’s rabbi, Jonathan Kendall, who rushed to Klein’s side at the hospital Monday. “This type of tragedy leaves scars for a lifetime. We certainly mourn the years that were denied him. He was… his children’s hero. They really looked up to him.”

Kendall said Klein worked overtime to be a positive role model and an example of the kind of character that sets you apart in today’s society.

“These children would not be here if not for his efforts to save them,” he said.

FUNERAL ARRANGEMENTS

Bobby Klein’s funeral will be held at noon Thursday at the Temple Beit HaYam, 951 S.E. Monterey Common Blvd., Stuart. Internment will follow at Forest Hills Memorial Park, 2001 S.W. Murphy Road, Palm City.

Israeli writer, essayist and cultural arbiter Adam Baruch, 63, died after a long battle with diabetes.

He was considered one of Israel’s most influential print journalists and worked at most of the country’s top media outlets.

According to his obituary on Ynetnews he was born Baruch Rosenblum to a religious family in Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim neighborhood in 1945, spent his childhood in Ramat Gan and his later adolescence at the Noam Yeshiva High School in Pardes Hannah. He later went on to study law at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University:

He adopted the nom de plume “Adam Baruch” during his military service, seeking to circumvent army regulations forbidding servicemen from publishing articles in civilian media.

Baruch’s unique rhetoric was epitomized in his personal column for Ma’ariv’s weekend edition; language that combined archaic Jewish legal decrees with modern Israeli issues. Baruch was also considered one of leading authorities in the field of art.

He served as curator for exhibits in Israel and abroad, and even put together a solo exhibit in 2003 at the Tel Aviv Museum which dealt with images created by the TV medium.

His books dealt with Jewish law as a way of bridging the religious Jewish culture with the secular Israeli experience.

Dorin Frankfurt, a leading fashion designer and one of Baruch’s closest friends said of him on Saturday: “Adam invented much of what we call true Israeli culture. It stemmed from his background, his roots. His hand was in everything: Art, writing… he had a profound understanding of whatever it is he was dealing with…He turned us into a cultural microcosm. Speaking of him in past tense is unbearable.”

In 2002, Baruch was given the AVI CHAI Fellowship award for his achievements in the field of culture. In explaining its selection, the award committee said Baruch “is an exceptional cultural mediator in the Israeli scene. In his extensive writing over the years he has been working on building an authentic, original bridge between the traditional Jewish language and the current Israeli dialect.”

Cornell Capa, a pioneering photojournalist who shot arresting pictures for Life Magazine that included the Six Day War in israel, and the brother of legendary photographer Robert Capa, died May 23, 2008, at his Manhattan home. He was 90.

According to the New York Times obituary:

Born Cornel (with a single l; he later added a second) Friedmann on April 10, 1918, in Budapest, he was the youngest son of Dezso and Julia Berkovits Friedmann, who were assimilated, nonpracticing Jews. His parents owned a prosperous dressmaking salon, where his father was the head tailor. In 1931 his brother Robert, at 17, was forced to leave the country because of leftist student activities. In 1935 his eldest brother, Laszlo, died of rheumatic fever.

Cornell initially planned to be a doctor, joining Robert in Paris in 1936 to start medical studies. But first he had to learn French. Robert, who had become a photojournalist in Berlin before settling in Paris, had befriended two other young photographers, Cartier-Bresson and Seymour. To support himself, Cornell developed film for the three and made their prints in a makeshift darkroom in his hotel bathroom. Soon he abandoned plans to be a doctor. He also adopted his brother’s new last name, a homage, in variation, to the film director Frank Capra.

In 1937 Mr. Capa followed his mother to New York City, where she had joined her four sisters. When Robert came for a visit and established connections with Pix Inc., a photography agency, he helped get Cornell a job there as a printer. Soon after, Cornell Capa went to work in the Life magazine darkroom.

Sydney Pollack, director of Tootsie, Out of Africa and other mainstream Hollywood fare, died Monday, May 26, 2008, of cancer.

Pollack was born in Indiana to Russian Jewish parents who met at Purdue University and stayed there, and absorbed Middle Western values and virtues along with a questioning, self-critical Jewish attitude.

His films, awards and affiliations included:

  Oscar for Best Director 1986 for Out of Africa
    Emmy 1966 for Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
    Member of the Board of Convera (2005-)
    Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
    John Kerry for President
    Midwest Values PAC
    Motion Picture and Television Fund Board of Directors
    Progressive Majority 

    Selected filmography as director
    Sabrina (15-Dec-1995)
    The Firm (30-Jun-1993)
    Havana (12-Dec-1990)
    Out of Africa (10-Dec-1985)
    Tootsie (17-Dec-1982)
    Absence of Malice (19-Nov-1981)
    The Electric Horseman (21-Dec-1979)
    Bobby Deerfield (17-Sep-1977)
    Three Days of the Condor (24-Sep-1975)
    The Yakuza (19-Mar-1975)
    The Way We Were (17-Oct-1973)
    Jeremiah Johnson (10-Sep-1972)
    They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (10-Dec-1969) 

New York Times obit
 

Israeli elephant researcher Yeheskel Shoshani was among those killed in a possible terror attack on a minibus in downtown Addis Ababa on Tuesday, Israeli media reported.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said it is unclear whether the explosion was terror-related and if Shoshani was aboard the minibus when it exploded.

Three people were killed and nine others were injured in the explosion, which occurred as the minibus was traveling on the road that runs between the Hilton Hotel and the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry, an Israeli website reported.

In a recent interview, Shoshani told of finding the corpse of a large elephant that had been shot by hunters. ” It was a large male, and the poachers wanted its ivory, so they sawed off its head,” he told Haaretz. “When I saw that, I thought about the last moments in the life of this elephant. Elephants have language – they talk to one another with sounds that we can’t hear. I asked myself what sound he made a moment before he died.” 

We have had to take a break from updating this site in recent months, for a variety of reasons. But there are so many people who have written in to say the material on this site moved them in an important way, that we will do our utmost to begin updating again soon.

Thanks for all your kind words.

Balev (Alan A.)

Moshe Levy (L), as IDF Chief of Staff, 1980s, with Shimon Peres

General Moshe Levy, 72, the 12th Israeli Army Chief of Staff, died Jan. 9, 2008, after a brain aneurysm.

Levy had his first stroke a few years ago. Afterward, he had to use a wheelchair. He dropped many of his public activities, but continued in his position with the company that built Route 6, Israel’s newest and first privately managed superhighway, and the country’s only toll road.

Levy, known as “Moishe v’hetzi” (Moishe and a half”) because of his height, was the first chief of staff who began his career with the Israeli Army, and not with a different organization.

He was born in Tel Aviv, the son of a family that moved to Israel from Iraq. He went to the Bialik School and City High School 1. He went into a combat unit in 1954.first with the Golani Brigade and then in the paratroopers.

Levi fought in the Sinai Campaign of 1956 and was a standout officer in the War of Attrition with Egypt beginning in 1970. He also was a Civil Defense officer and deputy Chief of Staff.

Levy receiving his Chief of Staff from Menachem Begin (R) and Moshe Arens

He became Army Chief of Staff in 1983 and served his full four-year term. During his time as Chief of Staff he directed the Israeli Army’s actions in Lebanon and also directed the establishment of Nahal and Givati Brigades.

Levi was well liked, if the comments about him on the Hebrew news website Ynet are any indication. Within hours of the news of his death being reported more than 200 comments were recorded on Ynet.

He was described as modest, smart, relaxed. Many said there is no one like him around today.

Commenters said:

“He was the first Chief of Staff who really understood what it meant to be Chief of Staff.”

“Where will we find other men like this one.”

“A generation of giants has passed.”

“I wish there could be more like you.”

“He was a man of deeds, not words.”

“It’s not a surprise he didn’t go into politics.”

“He didn’t chase after headlines.”

He was buried Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2008, at Kibbutz Beit Alpha, with eight generals carrying his body, top government officials and hundreds who knew and worked with him in attendance.

In My Heart Editor’s Note: We invite former comrades in arms, in business and in life to write to us with stories, tributes and reminiscences of Moshe Levy.

Max Rosenbaum, 85, whose life was changed irrevocably after his son’s 1991 death in race riots in Brooklyn, N.Y.’s Crown Heights neighborhood, died Friday, Jan. 3, 2007, of a heart attack in Melbourne, Australia.

Yankel Rosenbaum, 29, was killed in riots that started after a driver in the entourage of the Lubavitcher rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, accidentally hit and killed a 7-year-old black child, Gavin Cato, in Crown Heights on Aug. 19, 1991. Irate blacks formed a mob that went through the neighborhood. It descended on Rosenbaum, yelling, “Get the Jew!” Rosenbaum was stabbed four times and died a day later.

The race-related violence continued for several days as black youths rampaged through the racially and ethnically mixed neighborhood, home to many Hassidim, and the home of Chabad-Lubavitch. They burned police cars, looted stores and threw bottles.

Tireless crusader

Yankel Rosenbaum was a budding scholar and Chabad-Lubavitch student when he was chased down and killed. In the coming months and years, the Australia-based family frequently came to New York to press for investigations and prosecutions of individuals and institutions it felt were lax in their responsibilities toward its Hassidic citizens.

Norman Rosenbaum, surviving son of Max Rosenbaum, was quoted this week by Associated Press as saying his his father became a tireless crusader for civil rights, who was determined “that no other person would ever be subjected to the same type of violence” because of their race or ethnicity.

“From the moment he heard of the circumstances of my brother’s murder, he made a commitment not for revenge, but to obtain justice for my brother,” he told AP.

‘I don’t forgive’

Families members have said they would have preferred to stay in the background, but they were urged by American friends to continue making public appearances to assure authorities pursued both the legal cases against Rosenbaum’s killer, Lemrick Nelson, city officials who did little to prevent the riots and even city hospital officials, whose poor care led to Yankel’s death.

“People don’t understand the feeling inside, that there hasn’t been justice anywhere,” Fay Rosenbaum said. In an interview with the New York Daily News in 2005 on a trip to New York to testify at a civil trial against Kings County Hospital, she said: “I don’t forgive and I don’t forget. Nobody’s ever been made accountable. This is a scandal.”

The city of New York eventually agreed to pay the family $1.25 million to settle a civil suit and to acknowledge that poor care at the city hospital contributed to Yankel Rosenbaum’s death. The Rosenbaum family had turned down a previous $1 million settlement offer that didn’t admit mistakes.

Giuliani’s rise

Not only did the riot change the Rosenbaums’ lives, it changed New York City. Scathing reports of the city’s failure to manage the crisis contributing to then-Mayor David Dinkins’ loss in his re-election campaign and the rise of Rudy Giuliani to the mayoralty in 1993. Giuliani is now a Republican candidate for U.S. president.

Max (L), Fay, Norman Rosenbaum, Carmel Cato meet in 2003

In 2003, 12 years after the riots, the father of Gavin Cato, the boy whose accidental death was the catalyst for the Crown Heights riots, met Max and Fay Rosenbaum and told them, “I am very sorry about Yankel Rosenbaum’s death.”

Both families had looked forward to the meeting. Cato first met Rosenbaum’s other son in 2001, and the families continued working so that the fathers of the two who were killed could meet.

“They wanted to show the world that even in times of pain it is possible to create unity,” a Chabad affiliated website reported at the time.

Ahikam Amichai (L), David Rubin

Ahikam Amichai, 20, and David Rubin, 21, off-duty Israeli Army commandos on a recreational hike near their homes in the Hebron hills, were murdered by Palestinians, Dec. 28, 2007.

The two lifelong friends and neighbors were each members of elite and storied Israeli commando units. Amihai was a member of the Air Force’s Shaldag unit, and Rubin was a member of Shayetet 13, the Israeli Navy Seals (video). Read the rest of their dramatic stories after the jump.

In My Heart invites friends and families of the fallen soldiers, as well as anyone touched by their lives, to send us your reminiscences, tributes, and thoughts. 

The two were on their way to explore a cave near Nahal Telem, northwest of Hebron when they were approached by a jeep driven by Palestinians, who shot them at point-blank range. The two managed to fight off their attackers, killing one of them, long enough for a female companion to get to a hiding place and call emergency services. Amichai and Rubin died of their wounds shortly after rescuers arrived.

Several days after the incident, Israel’s Security service revealed one of the gunmen was a member of the official PA security forces and the other was a Palestinian Authority worker. Ali Dandis, 24, and Amar Taha, 26, both residents of Hebron surrendered on the day of the attack to Palestinian security forces in Hebron and handed over the soldiers’ weapons, the Jerusalem Post reported. Israeli Ido Zoldan was shot and killed near his home in Shavei Shomron last month by Palestinians who were PA security force members.

Sons of rabbis

Ahikam was the son of Rabbi Yehuda Amichai, the head of the Torah and Land Institute (Hebrew) once of Kfar Darom in Gaza’s former Gush Katif area and the grandson of Rabbi Moshe Tzvi Neria. He was one of 10 children. He attended the Mekor Chaim Yeshiva High School of Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, now in Kfar Etzion, with Rubin, and they were neighbors in the community of Kiryat Arba, which is located on a hill outside Hebron.

“Ahikam knew every rock and corner in Israel and was outside more than he was in the house,” his friend Sar-El Baniya said at his funeral. “He slept under the stars and he was a great scout. Ahikam covered the breadth and width of Israel, and he loved the land of Israel.”

Rabbi Aryeh Weiss, a family friend in Kiryat Arba, told In My Heart that Ahikam was “lively and funny. It’s hard to think about him without a smile.”

He told this story about Ahikam:

“When he was in high school Ahikam was walking by the Knesset when he happened upon a car with two flat tires. He asked the driver if he could help, and saw, as the driver opened the trunk, a military uniform. It turned out the car belonged to the Israeli Army chief of Staff, Moshe “Boogy” Yaalon. Ahikam asked the driver if he could borrow uniform, dressed himself up as the chief of staff and posed for pictures.”

Amichai was a active cave explorer, and participated in the find an isolated ecosystem and new species of crustaceans when he explored a cave near Lod opened up by construction in 2006. Weiss said Amichai also helped discover the source of the Gihon spring that runs into the Old City of Jerusalem on a caving expedition.

‘Lions, not just people’

Amichai, who was sick when he was first supposed to go into the army, eventually fought his way into the Shaldag Air Force commando unit in which he had an older brother. He even spent a month in an Army jail for refusing to go into an Army unit involved in negotiations with Palestinians before he made his way into Shaldag, Weiss said.

“He was persistent,” Weiss said. “When there was something he wanted, he was willing to put in the effort to get it.”

Ahikam loved the Land of Israel so much, his father told the Jerusalem Post, “there was nothing we could do to stop him from hiking, even in the most dangerous places. The last thing he said to me before he left was, ‘Don’t worry, dad, this time we’re taking rifles with us.’”

David Rubin was “quiet and intense, very self sufficient, and physically, spiritually and emotionally strong,” Weiss said. “He had good leadership qualities. In high school he was a counselor in youth groups, and was admired and respected by the students.”

The two are now linked in death as in life, and they were described as both being persistent and brave.

“We had stopped believing in legends and heroes, but these two were,” Baniyah said. “They were always stubborn and noble. Everyone envied them. Ahikam and David were lions, not just people.”

An astute reader noticed that two significant Jewish women writers who died in 2007 were not on our list of notable 2007 Jewish deaths. So, we will make up for the oversight.

From Wikipedia:

Grace Paley (December 11, 1922 – August 22, 2007)

Born as Grace Goodside in the Bronx, Paley’s Jewish parents, Isaac and Manya Ridnyik Goodside, had Anglicizied the family name from Gutseit on immigrating from Ukraine. The family spoke Russian and Yiddish along with English. By far the youngest of the three Goodside children (sixteen and fourteen years younger than brother and sister Victor and Jeanne, respectively), Paley was a tomboy as a child, allowing her to investigate the conflicts and struggles of her immigrant neighborhood; these issues would later form the raw material for much of her fiction.

In 1938 and 1939, Paley attended Hunter College, then, briefly New York University, but she never received a degree. In the early 1940s, Paley studied with W.H. Auden at the New School for Social Research. Auden’s social concern and his heavy use of irony is often cited as an important influence on her early work, particularly her poetry.

She won many literary honors, including the Jewish Cultural Achievement Award for Literary Arts in 1994.

In a May 2007 interview with Vermont Woman newspaper – one of her last – Paley said of her dreams for her grandchildren: “It would be a world without militarism and racism and greed – and where women don’t have to fight for their place in the world.”

She died at home in Thetford, Vermont, on August 22, 2007, following a battle with breast cancer, aged 84.

Tillie Olsen (also from Wikipedia):

Tillie Lerner Olsen (January 14, 1912 – January 1, 2007) was an American writer associated with the political turmoil of 1930s and the first generation of American feminists.

Olsen was born to Russian Jewish immigrants in north Omaha, Nebraska, where she attended Lake School through the eighth grade. She dropped out of Omaha Central High School to enter the work force. Over the years Olsen worked in Omaha as a waitress, domestic worker, and meat trimmer. She was also a union organizer and political activist in the Socialist community. In the 1930s she was briefly a member of the American Communist party. She was briefly jailed in 1934 while organizing a packinghouse workers’ union, an experience she wrote about in The Nation and The Partisan Review. She later moved to Berkeley, California.

Olsen died on January 1, 2007, in Oakland, California.