Two more notable Jewish deaths in 2007: Grace Paley, Tillie Olsen

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.

Victor Rabinowitz, 96, U.S., leftist lawyer, Nov. 16

Victor Rabinowitz, 96, a New York lawyer whose clients included the country of Cuba and who titled his autobiography, “Unrepentant Leftist,” died Nov. 16, 2007, at his Manhattan home.

Rabinowitz and his law partner Leonard B. Boudin, who died on Nov. 24, 1989, defended clients such as Julian Bond, Daniel Ellsberg, Paul Robeson, the Rev. Philip Berrigan, Rockwell Kent and Alger Hiss, when they ran afoul of U.S. authorities, according to news accounts.

In a 1996 review of Rabinowitz’s memoir, writer John Mage said Rabinowitz and Boudin’s cases “taken together would be a pretty thorough and continuing history of political struggle and repression in the United States over the past fifty years. It is a record unmatched by any other law firm in the country; there isn’t even a close second.”