Obituaries

Obituaries from page 69

Yechezkel Besser,
Led Polish Revival
New York/JTA — Rabbi
Yechezkel Besser, the
"spiritual father" of the
Polish Jewish revival, has
died.
Besser, who died
Rabbi Besser
Feb. 9, 2010, is widely
credited with focusing
Jewish attention and resources on the
remnant of Polish Jewry to have survived
the Holocaust.
"Chaskel Besser was the guy that started
the Jewish revival in Poland," said Michael
Schudrich, the chief rabbi of Poland. "And
that's not an exaggeration."
Besser was born in Katowice, Poland, in
1923 and emigrated to the United States
after World War II. At the time of his
death, he was the rabbi of Congregation
Bnei Yisroel Chaim in Manhattan.
During a visit to Vienna in the 1980s,
Besser met the philanthropist and cosmet-
ics magnate Ronald Lauder, who was then
the U.S. ambassador to Austria. Besser
helped nurture Lauder's interest in Poland,

according to Schudrich, who was hired by
Besser in 1990.
"He was considered to be the spiritual
father of everything that was rekindled
and re-emerged here in Poland," Schudrich
said.
A funeral was held Feb. 9 in New York.
Besser was due to be buried in Israel
the next evening at about the same time
a memorial service was to be held in
his memory at the Nozyk Synagogue in
Warsaw.

Bernard Lander,
Touro Founder
New York/JTA — Rabbi
Dr. Bernard Lander, the
founder and president of
Touro College, has died.
Lander died Monday
night
at his home in
Bernard
Queens.
He was 94.
Lander
He started Touro in
1971 after spending two decades as a
sociology professor at Yeshiva University,
where he also served as dean of the
university's Bernard Revel graduate school

and the City College of New York.
Lander's Orthodox four-year institution,
which has grown to more than 23,000
students on campuses in the United States
and Israel, has become an alternative to
Yeshiva University.
"Dr. Lander's passing is a profound
loss," Alan Kadish, the senior provost and
chief operating officer of Touro, wrote in a
statement from the school. "His vision and
leadership has been phenomenal. His care
and concern for the Jewish people and all
of humanity knew no bounds.
A social scientist and educator, Lander
was named one of three associate direc-
tors in 1944 of the Mayor's Committee on
Unity, which eventually became New York
City's Commission on Human Rights.

Doug Fieger, 57,
'Knack' Musician
Washington/JTA — Doug Fieger, the lead
singer for the Knack who wrote the rock
song "My Sharona" for his Jewish girl-
friend, has died. Fieger died Sunday of
cancer; he had been diagnosed with brain
tumors in 2006. He was 57. The Knack,

a Jewish, Los Angeles-
based group fronted by
Fieger, earned plaudits
and comparisons to the
Beatles for their debut
1979 album, Get the
Knack. Its straightfor-
ward, hook-driven songs
Doug Fieger
were seen as a breath
of fresh air in the age
of endless disco numbers and nihilistic
punk.
Their signature song, Fieger said, was
written for Sharona Alperin, who at 17 was
10 years his junior.
Co-written by Knack guitarist Berton
Averre, the song's bass-driven beat and
shouted, libidinous chorus proved irresist-
ible to club-goers.
The band had several other hits but
could never replicate the success of the
first album.
In a statement released Sunday to the
media, Alperin said, "Doug changed my
life forever. He left on Valentine's Day, a
day of heart and love — and that was
Doug, all heart and love."

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