Max Rosenbaum, 85, Australia, father of ‘Crown Heights pogrom’ victim, dies, Jan. 3

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,

Remembering Irv Letofsky, Hollywood journalist, who died Dec. 23

From “Tabloid Baby”

Irv, we hardly knew ye.

We found out yesterday that Irv Letofsky died this week at 76.

(In My Heart Editor: Hollywood Reporter says Letofsky died of liver cancer)

Irv was a television critic for The Hollywood Reporter, former editor of the Los Angeles Times Calendar section and an important collector of film lobby and title cards and other memorabilia.

He also has a unique place in tabloid history.

Irv is among those mentioned in the acknowledgments of the book, “Tabloid Baby.” Back in early Nineties, he wrote about the tabloid television show “Hard Copy” for The Hollywood Reporter, and his articles were cited by author Burt Kearns. A decade later, Letofsky and Kearns wound up working together on Frozen Pictures’ documentary series, “All The Presidents’ Movies,” that ran on Bravo and will one of these days wind up on DVD.

Irv had been the connection to Paul Fischer, the former White House projectionist who was at the center of the acclaimed presidents project.

Irv was very well-liked by print journos in LA. Over at our pal Ray Richmond’s Past Deadline site, Barry Garron writes:

“There will never be another like him… He was a genius. He was a mentor. He was capable of the driest wit and the greatest insight. He was never without a mischievous twinkle in his eye or a half-dozen projects on his agenda…”

Reprinted with permission from Tabloid Baby

Barry Garron further describes Irv Letofsky:

This gentle and genial soul was, at one time or another, a reporter (St. Paul Pioneer Press), an assistant city editor (Minneapolis Tribune), a features editor (Sunday Calendar of the Los Angeles Times), an executive producer of a documentary and a short film, an author and a key figure in establishing the Brave New Workshop Comedy Theatre in Minneapolis.

He was an important collector of film lobby and title cards and other film memorabilia. He donated part of his collection to his alma mater, the University of North Dakota, and to the Hoover Institution of War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University. He lent part to the Richard Nixon Library.

Letofsky is survived by his wife, actress Brian Ann, and four children.

Sylvan Fox, 79, U.S., journalist, dies, Dec. 22

Sylvan Fox, 79, a journalist whose beats ranged from Vietnam, to the Kennedy assassination, to a memorable plane crash, and who won a Pulitzer Prize as a newspaper rewrite man, died Saturday, Dec. 22, 2007, of complications from pneumonia.

Fox won his Pulitzer Prize for being part of a team covering an airplane crash on Long Island, New York, in which all 95 passengers were killed. Fox was in the office of the now-defunct World-Telegram & Sun newspaper fielding all the field reporters’ calls and then turning out a complete story 30 minutes after the crash. He kept rewriting the article and turned in a 3,000-word piece within 90 minutes of the event.

Adiel Shmuel, 12, Israel, car accident, Dec. 12

Adiel Shmuel, 12, of Beersheva in Israel’s northern Negev desert, died Dec. 12, 2007, of injuries from a horrific car accident that hurt six from his family and eight overall.Shmuel’s death was the 403rd of the year from car accidents in Israel.

Rosemarie Koczy, Germany, U.S., 68, artist, Holocaust survivor, Dec. 12

Rosemarie Koczy, 68, who survived a childhood in German concentration camps and later spent years creating searing art infused with images of Holocaust victims, died from breast cancer Dec. 12, 2007.

Her works have been gaining increasing stature, despite her status as an art world “outsider,” that is, someone who was not believed to be formally trained in art and who did not travel in art world circles. Her art, including tapestries and pen-and-ink drawings, has been shown in the U.S., Japan and Europe.

Robert Dov HaEzrachi (Wieckowski), Poland, Israel, diving accident, Dec. 13

Robert Dov HaEzrachi (Wieckowski), 44, a Polish-born Israeli and scuba diving guide and instructor, died in a diving accident at Dahab, Sinai, Egypt, Dec. 13, 2007.

HaEzrachi’s death was first announced on the website of Pardes Institute, a Jewish studies center in Jerusalem, where he had been a student from 2003-2005.

Hank Kaplan, 88, U.S., boxing writer, historian, Dec. 14

Hank Kaplan, 88, who went from Brooklyn to Florida with a love for boxing that stretched out for decades while he compiled the world’s greatest boxing archives, died at his suburban Miami home Dec. 14, 2007.

“Hank Kaplan loved the sport of boxing, its history and, most importantly, the boxers,” said International Boxing Hall of Fame Executive Director Edward Brophy. “The Hall of Fame joins the boxing community in mourning the loss of our friend.”

Mel Cheren, 75, U.S., disco impresario, AIDS activist, Dec. 7, 2007

Mel Cheren, 75, a music producer once named the “Godfather of Disco,” an AIDS activist, and owner of a gay-friendly inn in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood, died Friday, Dec. 7, 2007.

Cheren was a double minority: gay and Jewish, an Army veteran, a music industry veteran of 50 years, and an indefatigable promoter and self-promoter. Cheren was actively involved with the Gay Men’s Health Crisis and started 24 Hours For Life in 1987, a non-profit organization of music and media professionals who raised money for AIDS awareness.

Pauline Weinstein Ledeen, 97, U.S., prison volunteer, ‘Bubbe Teresa,’ Nov. 27, 2007

Pauline Weinstein Ledeen, 97, who visited Jewish inmates for decades, celebrated Pesach with them and volunteered for decades with prisoners and the mentally ill, died Nov. 27, 2007.

Ledeen was known as “Bubbe Teresa,” according to a Los Angeles Times obituary.

Karen Elizabeth Margalit, 29, U.S., Israel, Sept. 26, 2007

Karen Elizabeth Margalit, 29, a California-born olah to Israel in 1996 who died September 26, 2007, from an apparent drug overdose and was unidentified for two months, has been identified and reburied under her name.

Margalit became addicted to tranquilizers and painkillers after suffering a slipped disc. She was treated at drug rehabilitation and psychiatric centers. She lived on the streets of Tel Aviv. When she died in September in a Tel Aviv parking lot, police were unable to identify her, and she was buried anonymously at Kibbutz Revadim on Nov. 12. No one attended her funeral.