Obituaries are published at the discretion of the CCJN and are free of charge. Obituaries are a product of the editorial department and are a story of a person’s life. Editorial policy may determine the length and content of an obituary. Death notices are submitted by family members and may, for example, fully list all survivors. Death notices are never edited, but are assessed a processing fee according to length. Photos for obituaries may also carry a processing fee of $18.00, which can be waived at the discretion of the CCJN. Payments for photos can be submitted to CCJN, 3810 Nashville Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70125 or paid securely through PayPal.
(JTA) — Benjamin Ferencz, the last surviving member of the prosecuting team at the Nuremberg trials that convicted Nazi ringleaders for crimes against humanity, died Friday in Florida. He was 103.
Ferencz was 27 and a graduate of Harvard Law School when he was named as the chief prosecutor at the Einsatzgruppen Trial, in which 20 members of the SS’s mobile death squads were convicted of war...
(JTA) — Abraham Zarem was 28 when he joined the Manhattan Project, the vast U.S. government effort to develop the atom bomb.
Engineers like him gathered in secret laboratories in New Mexico, California, New York City and elsewhere to provide the practical know-how the theorists lacked.
“‘They were geniuses, but didn’t know how to build a f—king thing,’” Zarem recalled, according to his longtime rabbi at Sinai Temple...
SHIRL ROSENBERG AXINN WATSKY, known as “Shirl the girl,” died early Sunday morning, March 12, 2023.
A native New Orleanian, she was raised in New Orleans, and attended LSU and the University of Alabama, where she received her bachelor’s degree. She enjoyed working for the federal court house where she helped naturalize citizens for many years. She was a social butterfly, always enjoying a gathering, and she was an avid...
(JTA) — Richard Belzer wasn’t just a hard-boiled Jew who rose from a troubled childhood to the top of his field — he played one on TV.
Belzer, who died Sunday at 78, was a familiar face because of his longstanding roles on “Homicide: Life on the Streets,” “Law and Order: SVU” and other TV shows. In each of those series, he played a presumptively Jewish detective...
THOMAS B. LEMANN, a lifelong New Orleanian, died on Sunday, February 12, 2023, at the age of 97. He graduated from Metairie Park Country Day School in 1943. During World War II he served as a codebreaker in the Pacific Theater for the Signal Corps of the U.S. Army. After his honorable discharge from the army, he traveled to Boston to attend Harvard College. He...
DAVID ORECK, the founder and highly visible spokesman for the Oreck Corporation, the famous vacuum cleaner company, died on Wednesday, Feb. 15, at his home in Mississippi. He was 99.
Born in Duluth, Minnesota, Oreck seemed determined from his earliest days to take on the world. He was a small, red-headed boy who constantly got into fights with bigger kids. It was this scrappiness that was ultimately the very trait...
JEAN “SWEETIE” HIRSCH FRANK passed away peacefully at home at the age of 99. Cherished wife, mother, grandmother, aunt, cousin, and friend to everyone she encountered in her full century of life, she was a beautiful, vivacious, caring person with an impeccable memory and a smile that filled the room.
A native New Orleanian, she graduated from Newcomb College and later married her childhood sweetheart and the love of her...
(JTA) — Songwriter Burt Bacharach, who with his longtime lyricist Hal David turned out a string of hits in the 1960s and ’70s — including “Alfie” and “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head” — died on Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 94.
Bacharach and David, both Jewish New Yorkers, also wrote a host of songs that made Dionne Warwick a megastar, such as...
(NEW YORK) – Rabbi Mark S. Golub, the founder, president and host of Jewish Broadcasting Service (JBS), a national Jewish TV network broadcasting over cable and live streaming services died on January 31 with family surrounding him. He was 77.
Beginning as Shalom TV, Golub’s dream of a national Jewish news and entertainment service went national in 2006. It featured Jewish films, many in Hebrew with English subtitles, children’s shows...
(JTA) — Ira “Bob” Born, the son of a Russian Jewish immigrant who founded the company that makes Peeps candies, has died. He was 98.
Born was the former president of Just Born Quality Confections, the 100-year-old family-owned candy company in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, that makes Mike and Ikes, jelly beans and Goldenberg Peanut Chews, but is probably best known for the marshmallow treats that are staples in...
