obituaries
Obituaries from page 73
Humorist Of Pessimism
WASHINGTON (JTA) — David Rakoff, a
humorist who often wrote about American
Jewish culture, has died.
Rakoff, 47, died Aug.
9, 2012, in Manhattan
of cancer, a disease he
has battled since he was
22, according to media
reports.
A frequent contributor
to National Public Radio's
David Rakoff
This American Life,
Rakoff, a Montreal native,
embraced his misfortunes with a cheerful
negativity.
A book of his essays was named Half
Empty.
"Optimism is not for everybody," he told
Tablet magazine in a 2010 podcast. "There
are a lot of people who are simply going
to feel anxious no matter what, it predates
consciousness almost, it's pre-verbal, it's
the way you are and, ultimately, it's as
value neutral as having brown eyes."
He wrote, in a 2006 Tablet blog chroni-
cling his attendance at virtually every
film in a Woody Allen film festival, of his
delight in his discovery of a shared identity
with Alvy Singer, the Allen doppelganger
in Annie Hall.
"Walking out, my friend Rick ... said,
had forgotten how Jewish a film it is,"
Rakoff wrote. "I really hadn't noticed. But
I'm the wrong guy to ask. It's like saying to
a fish, 'Do things around here seem really
wet to you?'
"I wrote a book that got translated into
German a few years back. There was a
fascination among the Germans with what
they perceived as my Jewish sensibility; a
living example of the extirpated culture.
"I've said this before, but I felt like the
walking illustration of that old joke about
the suburbs being the place where they
chop down all the trees and then name the
streets after them:' he said.
"At least a dozen of the reviews referred
to me as a stadtneurotiker, an urban
neurotic, a designation that pleased me,
I won't lie. Especially when I found out
the German title for Annie Hall: Der
Stadtneurotiker."
Munich Remembered
NEW YORK (JTA) — Ankie Spitzer
led a minute of silence to honor the
Munich 11 that was streamed live
around the world.
Spitzer, the
widow of an Israeli
coach who was
among 11 mem-
bers of the Israeli
Olympic team killed
at the 1972 Games,
led the minute of
Ankle Spitzer
silence the eve-
ning of Aug. 12 at
the JCC Maccabi
Gaines opening ceremonies at the JCC
Rockland in suburban New York City.
The JCC Rockland had initiated
a petition drive, which turned into
an international campaign, to hold
a moment of silence at the opening
ceremonies of the London Olympics
in memory of the Israeli athletes and
coaches killed by Palestinians terrorists
at the Munich Olympics.
The International Olympic
Committee turned down the request
despite high-profile supporters such
as President Obama, presumptive
Republican presidential nominee Mitt
Romney and governments around the
world.
"Maybe at the London Games we did
not get the minute; but let me assure
you, we did not have silence either,"
Spitzer said at the Rockland JCC event.
"For 40 years we walked this long and
lonely road by ourselves, but not any-
more.
"Two years ago, I came here to the
JCC Rockland and the JCC decided
to dedicate the Maccabi Games to the
memory of our loved ones. They were
the ones who initiated the petition on
the Internet, and through this petition
the world woke up."
Some 1,225 athletes from 36 del-
egations from the United States,
Canada, Great Britain, Israel, Mexico
and Venezuela will compete in sport-
ing events this week in the Maccabi
Games.
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August 16 • 2012
Obituaries