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January 2, 2004

Famous Jews who died last year

Here are some of the prominent and newsworthy Jews in North America and around the world who died in 2003. Information has been gathered from several sources, including newspapers and Web sites, and uses both maternal and patrilineal descent as criteria.

Daniel Aaron, 77, refugee from Nazi Germany who went on to found the Comcast cable company.

Israel "Izzy" Asper, 71, founder of Canada's largest media empire, CanWest Global Communications.

Herbert Aptheker, 87, Marxist historian and chronicler of black history.

Maurice Ascalon, 90, artist known for his Jewish-themed sculptures.

George Axelrod, 81, playwright (The Seven Year Itch) and screenwriter (The Manchurian Candidate).

Arthur Berger, 91, American composer and music critic.

Alfred Bernstein, 92, New Deal lawyer who led the movement to unionize federal workers in the United States.

Jack Brodsky, 69, Hollywood marketing executive and producer.

Nell Carter, 54, African-American singer and actress who starred on Broadway and TV and was a convert to Judaism.

Simcha Dinitz, 74, former Israeli ambassador to the United States and chairman of the Jewish Agency.

Amram Duchovny, 73, novelist, playwright and father of actor David Duchovny.

Rabbi Steven Dworken, 58, executive vice-president of the Rabbinical Council of America.

Yehuda Elberg, 91, award-winning Yiddish author and fighter in the Polish Resistance during the Second World War.

Jules Engel, 94, animator who choreographed the dance sequences in Disney's Fantasia and created Mr. Magoo.

Howard Fast, 88, novelist whose books often featured elements of his 1950s blacklisting.

Leslie Fiedler, 85, teacher and man of letters whose best-known book was Love and Death in the American Novel.

Doris Fisher, 87, who wrote songs for more than 25 films.

Abraham Fischler, 78, who rebuilt Antwerp's diamond centre after the Second World War.

Abraham P. Gannes, 92, a pioneer in the field of Jewish education in North America.

Herb Gardner, 68, playwright who wrote A Thousand Clowns and I'm Not Rappaport.

Jack Gelber, 71, whose avant-garde play The Connection shook the theatre world in 1959.

Sid Gillman, 91, Hall of Fame football coach and one of the inventors of the so-called West Coast offence.

Tom Glazer, 88, folk singer and writer known for his whimsical children's songs.

Shirley P. Glass, 67, psychologist and an expert on infidelity; mother of NPR radio host Ira Glass.

Bernard A. Goldhirsh, 63, founder of Inc magazine.

Rabbi Yeshayahu Goldschmidt, 86, one of the four remaining survivors of the 1929 Hebron massacre.

Jack Goldstein, 57, pioneering post-modern artist.

Larry Goldberg, 69, New York food maven who devised the "controlled cheating" diet.

Harry Goz, 71, fourth man to play the lead in Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway.

Buddy Hackett (born Leonard Hacker), 78, comedian who starred in nightclubs, television and movies.

Isser Harel, 91, Israeli master spy who directed the capture of Adolf Eichmann.

Ira Herskowitz, 56, geneticist who led efforts to learn how genetic differences affect drugs' effectiveness.

Al Hirschfeld, 99, noted caricaturist who limned public figures, especially show business stars, for more than 75 years.

Eddie Jaffe, 89, legendary Broadway press agent who once got his client Joe Namath $10,000 for shaving his Fu Manchu mustache with a Schick electric razor.

Michael Kamen, 55, composer who won Grammys for melding rock and classical styles for groups such as Pink Floyd and Metallica.

Rabbi Abraham Karp, 83, American Jewish historian who wrote a dozen books, including Golden Door to America: The Jewish Immigrant Experience.

Beverly Karp, 72, producer of the quirky film My Dinner With Andre.

Sir Bernard Katz, 92, who shared the 1970 Nobel Prize in medicine for work explaining how messages are transmitted between nerves and muscles.

Milton R. Konvitz, 95, constitutional scholar and civil rights attorney.

Leonard Koppett, 79, New York Times sports writer.

Fred Kort, 80, businessman philanthropist who was one of only nine people known to have survived the Treblinka death camp.

Lee. S Kreindler, 78, attorney who represented plaintiffs in major disaster cases since the 1950s.

Warren Kremer, 82, cartoonist who drew Richie Rich and other Harvey Comics characters.

Irv Kupcinet, 91, Chicago newspaper columnist for more than 60 years.

Meyer Kupferman, 77, composer whose works ranged from classical to jazz and included operas, symphonies and film scores.

Samuel J. LeFrak, 85, builder of thousands of middle-income housing units in and around New York.

Rabbi Robert L. Lehman, 76, Second World War refugee who eventually returned to a pulpit in Austria.

Israel E. Levine, 79, former public relations director of the American Jewish Congress.

Sol Leon, 90, Hollywood agent for such stars as Dick Van Dyke, Joan Crawford and Mike Wallace.

Jules Levy, 80, producer of The Rifleman TV series and nearly 40 movies.

Leon Levy, 77, philanthropist who gave more than $140 million to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and other institutions.

Sidney Lippman, 89, composer of Nat King Cole's 1951 hit "Too Young.''

Milton Lipson, 89, former Secret Service agent who guarded presidents Roosevelt and Truman.

Bernard Manischewitz, 89, the last in his family to run the kosher food giant B. Manischewitz Co.

Herbie Mann, 73, jazz flutist who worked in a variety of styles.

Franco Modigliani, 85, economist who fled fascist Italy and went on to win the Nobel Prize.

Tanya Moiseiwitsch, 88, pioneering Broadway theatre designer.

Caroline Newhouse, 93, philanthropist and widow of a founder of the Newhouse media empire.

Sydney Omarr (born Sidney Kimmelman), 76, noted astrologer whose column was syndicated in hundreds of newspapers.

Rabbi Ephraim Oshry, 89, who helped Jews live religiously during the Holocaust in the Kovno ghetto.

Lester Osterman, 88, Broadway producer who won Tonys for Da, The Shadow Box and A Moon for the Misbegotten.

Rabbi Ely Emanuel Pilchik, 89, noted scholar of Judaism.

Howard Polsky, 75, author of Everyday Miracles: The Healing Wisdom of Hasidic Stories.

Bernard Rabin, 86, art restorer who refurbished the frescoes in the Capitol dome in Washington.

Ilan Ramon, 48, Israel's first astronaut, who died in the Columbia space shuttle disaster. As a fighter pilot, he participated in the bombing of an Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981.

Maurice Rapf, 88, a founder of the Writers Guild of America and screenwriter whose credits include Song of the South.

Franz Rosenthal, 88, interpreter of Arabic literature and scholar of Aramaic.

Dr. Peter Safar, 79, emergency medicine pioneer who developed CPR and the modern intensive care unit.

Rafael Scharf, 89, writer who worked to preserve the memory of Polish Jewry.

John Schlesinger, 77, film director whose movies included Far from the Madding Crowd and the Oscar-winning Midnight Cowboy.

Sam Schulman, 93, first owner of Seattle SuperSonics NBA team.

Bernard Schwartz, 85, producer of numerous films, including Coal Miner's Daughter and Psycho II.

David Schwartz, 92, writer who did most of the scripts for the Amos and Andy TV series.

Joel E. Segall, 80, economist and former president of Baruch College.

Florence Stanley, 83, raspy-voiced character actress who played Yenta in Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway for six years and worked on several TV series.

William Steig, 95, famed New Yorker cartoonist magazine and illustrator of countless children's books including Shrek.

David Stern III, 94, creator of Francis the talking mule.

Sandy Tarlow, 59, advertising executive who created the image of Polo Ralph Lauren.

Edward Teller, 95, scientist who helped start the nuclear era with his work on the atomic bomb and played a leading role in inventing the hydrogen bomb.

Laurence A. Tisch, 80, billionaire co-founder of Loews Corp., former owner of CBS and noted supporter of Jewish causes.

Leonard Tose, 88, trucking magnate and former owner of the Philadelphia Eagles.

Eugene Troobnick, 75, one of the founders of Chicago's famed comedy Second City comedy troupe.

Leon Uris, 78, author of Exodus and several other popular novels.

Cyla Mueller Wiesenthal, 95, wife of Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal.

Warren Zevon, 56, singer-songwriter known for his twisted sense of humor ("Werewolves of London" and "Life'll Kill Ya").

Paul Zindel, 66, author of the 1970 Pulitzer-winning play The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds.

This article was first published in the Atlanta Jewish Times and is reprinted with permission.

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