By Masha Leon
“If, in the future, [Yiddish] will have the same status and [culturally] stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Latin and Greek, we won’t be doing so badly,” Bard College president Leon Botstein said at the January 9 launch of the YIVO-Bard Institute for East European Jewish History and Culture Winter Intercession Program.
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By Masha Leon
“If she had been on the Titanic, it would not have sunk,” said NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, one of the eulogizers at the August 21 funeral of Sally Goodgold, whose death at the age of 82 on August 18 sent shock waves through New York City’s civic and Jewish communities. The funeral was held at Plaza Memorial in Manhattan, and the casket was draped with New York City’s flag — a rare honor, for which Sally’s son, Jay Goodgold, thanked the Commissioner and Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
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By Masha Leon
“We are totally blown away by the turnout,” said Scott Smith, corporate chair of the UJA-Federation of New York’s twenty-first annual Summerfest, at Westbury’s NYCB Theatre on August 10. “Tonight we have [a record] 1,400 people in the house!” The crowd was treated to an astonishing pre-concert diet-defying buffet before being entertained by rock ’n roll artist Meat Loaf. Chaired by Rachel and Frank Zuckerbrot, who head UJA’s New Leadership Campaign, the event raised $1.6 million for UJA-Federation.
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By Masha Leon
At the Israel Cancer Research Fund luncheon, held August 10 at The Yale Club of New York City, ICRF-funded scientist Haim Werner gave a presentation on his research specialty: the connection among hormones, obesity and cancer. At the heart of his address was a discussion of what is now known as Laron-type dwarfism.
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By Masha Leon
Few believe that Jewish poor exist,” New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said in his keynote address at the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty luncheon, held July 26 to honor Builder of the Year Jeffrey Levine.
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By Masha Leon
One week after the Hampton Designer Showhouse Gala Preview Cocktail Party, held July 23 in Bridgehampton, N.Y., to benefit Southampton Hospital, I met with two of the 25 interior designers who had been chosen to decorate a room in the Showhouse: Gideon Mendelson, head of New York City based Mendelson Group, and Keith Baltimore of Baltimore Design Group, which is based in Port Washington, N.Y. Never again will I look at a professionally designed room without reflecting on some of the philosophical imperatives about the use of space and the function of design postulated by these two designers.
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By Masha Leon
“I am not a person who scares easily, but of this scene I was scared,” said Gilles Paquet-Brenner, director of “Sarah’s Key,” during the interview at the Crosby Street Hotel in SoHo a few days before the film’s July 22 opening. He was referring to the film’s re-creation of the panic that ensued during the July 16, 1942 round-up by French Police of Jewish men, women and children who had been herded into Paris’s Velodrome d’Hiver (Vel’ d’Hiv’) sports stadium before being shipped off to their death.
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By Masha Leon
“There are traditional forms of anti-Semitism…. There is Holocaust denial…. There is also growing Holocaust glorification,” keynote speaker Hannah Rosenthal said at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s New York tribute dinner, held June 2 at the Mandarin Oriental hotel. Rosenthal, President Obama’s special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism, addressed “Holocaust revisionism and relativism — where government agencies, museums, academic research and the like are grouping the lessons of the Holocaust with other repressive regimes.”
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By Masha Leon
“In front of the Torah, we pay tribute to those who served our country,” said Rabbi Yosie Levine of the Jewish Center, in Manhattan, which hosted the May 30 Jewish Community Memorial Day Event, “An Appreciation of America’s Service Members.” With a U.S. Marine Corps Color Guard on the bimah, Levine told the guests: “Each Shabbat we pray and say todah [thank you]…. May God bless America.”
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By Masha Leon
“I have a sickness! I love to go to Jewish dinners. You learn a little something you never knew,” said Morris Offit, chairman of Offit Capital Advisors LLC. Hillel honored Offit with the Renaissance Award at its annual gala, held May 26 at The Pierre. “We all have our awakenings,” said Offit, who accepted the award from Leonard Feinstein, co-founder of Bed Bath and Beyond. “Hillel’s primary role is in giving students on campus ammunition to experience the centrality of Israel to the Jewish religion,” Offit said.
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