Music educator Paul Shelden, 79, founded instrument company

By Ben Harris

(JTA) – As a young clarinetist, Paul Shelden performed under the direction of famed conductors Leonard Bernstein and James Levine. Later he would lend his talents to the work of Bob Hope, Tony Bennett, and the jazz-rock band Blood, Sweat and Tears. And as an academic, he spent more than three decades on the faculty of the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College, where he published widely about pedagogy and performance.

But in 2004, Shelden’s career took an unusual turn when he founded Diplomatte Musical Instruments, becoming, by his own reckoning, the only person running an instrument manufacturing company with a doctorate in music performance. Inspired by a trip to China with his wife in 2000, Shelden started Diplomatte in an effort to produce professional-quality instruments at affordable prices.

Shelden died April 17 of COVID-19 at his home in Long Island. He was 79.

Born in Brooklyn in 1941, Shelden studied at The Juilliard School and later earned his doctorate from the University of Maryland. He taught at Brooklyn College for 34 years prior to his retirement. Inspired by Bernstein’s legacy of bringing classical music to young people, Shelden worked with the New York Department of Education for decades to bring hundreds of thousands of public school students to classical concerts, his son said. “His accomplishments were mind-blowing, and he could have given us still more,” said Seth Shelden. “But nothing was as important to him as me, and my sister, and my mother.”

Shelden is survived by his wife of 51 years, Pamela Shelden; two children, two grandchildren, and a twin brother.

Altamiro Zimerfogel, 80, president of Brazilian Jewish social club

By Marcus M. Gilban

(JTA) – Altamiro Zimerfogel, a longtime Jewish community activist, died on April 28 of the coronavirus. He was 80.

Born in Rio to Polish Jewish immigrants who fled the Nazis in the 1930s, Zimerfogel had presided over the Brazilian Israelite Club for nearly a decade. Commonly known as CIB, the club, located in the heart of the Copacabana neighborhood, is a social and cultural center and a meeting point for thousands of Jewish families in southern Rio. Prior to leading CIB, Zimerfogel had served two terms as the head of another Jewish center, Mount Sinai, and was an honorary member of several other Jewish groups. Several Brazilian Jewish leaders mourned his death.

“Miro was a friend at all times. He would always make CIB available for our community events. His wife Ina and he were tireless activists of the federation’s pharmacy, which was headquartered at the club,” said Evelyn Milsztejn, a former vice president of the Jewish federation and former president of Rio’s largest synagogue, the 1,000-family ARI temple.

The Brazilian Army’s training body for reserve officers, of which Zimerfogel was a class of 1961 alumnus, called him “an idealist, a patriot, a man dedicated to multiple and noble causes.” The Rio municipality honored him in 2018, calling him “a dynamic and competent administrator. He is part of Israelite Club’s history and has also contributed to the whole Copacabana community.”

Zimerfogel is survived by his wife, three children and two grandchildren.

Purple Heart winner Ernest Einzig, 97, left behind 100+ descendants

By Ben Harris

(JTA) – With his mustache, trademark suspenders and thick Hungarian accent, Ernest Einzig – or Zeide Ernie as he was known – seemed to come from another time. 

Einzig was born in 1923 in Budapest, where he apprenticed as a tailor before fleeing rising antisemitism for America. He was good with his hands, fixing his grandchildren’s clothing into his tenth decade. In his later years, he took up woodworking and learned to make stained glass, building himself a workshop at his home in Queens.

Einzig died of COVID-19 on April 5 in New York. He was 97 and left behind a sprawling family – roughly 30 grandchildren, over 100 great-grandchildren, and even several great-great-grandchildren.

Einzig arrived in the U.S. as a teenager and went to work in a factory owned by his brother fabricating metal parts for exit signs and emergency lighting. A steel-enclosed emergency lighting fixture common in New York City buildings was created by Einzig and is still produced today. But within a few years, he was back in Europe as an American artilleryman fighting in World War II, winning a Purple Heart after injuring his finger in a cannon. After his service, Einzig returned to the U.S. and resumed his job at the factory where he continued to work for decades. After his retirement, Einzig went to work at Yeshiva Har Torah in Queens, and worked there for another 30 years.

“He was the grandfather of the school and impacted thousands of children,” said his grandson, Isaac Zablocki.“I sometimes have interns who attended Har Torah, and everyone knows Zeide Ernie.”

Avraham Yeshayahu Heber, 55, helped hundreds find kidney donors

By Cnaan Liphshiz

(JTA) – Avraham Yeshayahu Heber, an Israeli rabbi whose charity facilitated hundreds of kidney transplants, died of the coronavirus on April 23 in Jerusalem. He was 55.

Heber was the founder of Matnat Chaim (Hebrew for “gift of life”), an organization started in 2009 that matches kidney donors with transplant patients. The organization is believed to be responsible for facilitating 800 kidney transplants. Born in Tel Aviv, Heber was working as a yeshiva principal when he was inspired to start Matnat Chaim while receiving dialysis treatments in 2007, according to the organization’s website. In the hospital, he met an 18-year-old man named Pinchas who died while waiting for a kidney donor, prompting Heber to set up a nonprofit that would help expedite transplants. In 2014, Heber was honored by Israel’s president, Reuven Rivlin for his efforts.

Heber, who received a kidney transplant himself a decade ago, was hospitalized on April 13 with symptoms consistent with COVID-19. He died three days later. 

He is survived by his wife, Rachel, and their two children, Channel 13 reported.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was among the dozens of politicians who eulogized Heber, saying he was “deeply sorrowed” by his death.

Stanley Chera, 78, coronavirus patient who made pandemic real for Trump

(JTA) – Stanley Chera, the friend of Donald Trump whose coronavirus infection was an inflection point in making the virus tangible for the president, has died. News reports said that Chera died April 11. He was 78.

“My deepest sympathies go out to Frieda Chera and the family of the late, great, Stanley Chera, one of Manhattan’s most brilliant real estate minds,” Trump said on Twitter. “Stanley was charitable, kind, and a wonderful friend. He will be truly missed!”

In a White House briefing last month, Trump described how he had come to appreciate the dangers of the virus. “When you send a friend to the hospital, and you call up to find out how is he doing – it happened to me, where he goes to the hospital, he says goodbye,” Trump said. “He’s sort of a tough guy. A little older, a little heavier than he’d like to be, frankly. And you call up the next day: ‘How’s he doing?’ And he’s in a coma? This is not the flu.”

Vanity Fair revealed that the person Trump was describing was Chera, a longtime leader in New York’s tight-knit Syrian Jewish community. Reports said Trump at one point had advised Chera and his wife Frieda to leave their New York City home for Deal, New Jersey, to avoid the virus. Deal has a large Syrian Jewish community. Chera nonetheless contracted the virus. His wife also contracted the virus and has recovered.

A longtime friend of the president and a fellow New York real estate mogul, Chera was an early and generous backer of Trump’s presidential campaign, contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Chera got into real estate when he bought the building housing the retail outlet his father had founded in Brooklyn in the 1940s. He acquired more buildings, becoming a major presence in New York real estate. He was an investor in the troubled acquisition in 2008 of 666 Fifth Avenue by Trump’s soon-to-be son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

“When you buy a building on Fifth Avenue, the first or second phone call you’re probably going to get is from Stanley,” The Real Deal quoted Kushner as saying at a 2014 event for the American Friends of Rabin Medical Center, at which Chera was the main honoree. Chera appeared to be a mainstay of fund-raisers for the medical center, appearing at a 2018 fund-raiser as well.

Chera was a co-founder of the Sephardic Community Center in Brooklyn.

In addition to his Jewish philanthropy, CNN reported, Chera funded soup kitchens and assistance for children with special needs.