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The 5 Towns Jewish Times
December 28, 2020
(JTA) There’s no way to tally all whom we lost in 2020, a year when we mourned even our ability to carry out time-tested rituals of grief.
Among those who died this year were some of the Jewish world’s most famous and influential pillars in a range of industries, realms of thought and areas of activism from pioneer jurist Ruth Bader Ginsburg to moral thought leader Rabbi Jonathan Sacks to Orthodox rabbi Norman Lamm to influential LGBTQ activist Larry Kramer.
But many of the people whose deaths tell the story of 2020 were not widely known, except among the people who loved them and the communities they enriched.
Those we lost in 2020: Remembering the rabbis, pioneers, innovators and family members December 28, 2020 11:46 am Clockwise from top left: Rabbi Dovid Feinstein, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Kirk Douglas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Catie Lazarus. (Getty Images; photo design by Grace Yagel)
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(JTA) There’s no way to tally all whom we lost in 2020, a year when we mourned even our ability to carry out time-tested rituals of grief.
Among those who died this year were some of the Jewish world’s most famous and influential pillars in a range of industries, realms of thought and areas of activism from the pioneer jurist Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the moral thought leader Rabbi Jonathan Sacks to the Modern Orthodox rabbi Norman Lamm to the influential LGBTQ activist Larry Kramer.
Which celebrity should be the face of the COVID-19 vaccine?
The Verge staff discusses
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In 1956, Elvis Presley got a polio vaccination on the Ed Sullivan Show. The shot was newly available and highly effective but too few teenagers and young adults were getting vaccinated, so the devastating disease was still circulating. Officials turned to Presley to set an example and encourage people to get their shots. Along with other campaigns, the celebrity endorsement helped vaccination rates go up, and eventually, the disease was eliminated from the country.
That bit of history raises a very important question: who will be the Elvis Presley of the COVID-19 vaccine? The vaccine won’t help slow the pandemic if people don’t take it, and many people still say they aren’t sure if they will.
Six prominent Holocaust survivors have died in Europe over the past month
Esther Cohen
(JTA) - The constant stream of breaking news about American politics and the coronavirus pandemic has hidden a sobering fact: Six prominent Holocaust survivors who had dedicated much of their lives to educating others against hatred have died in Europe over the past month.
These are their stories.
Esther Cohen
One of only 160 people from her native Greek city of Ioannina who survived the genocide, Cohen died there on Tuesday at the age of 96. She had escaped the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp and for years told high school students about her survival story in testimonies, TVXS reported.