World's Oldest Man, 111,
A Shoah Survivor, Dies
(JTA) — The worlds oldest man, a
New Yorker who attempted to flee
the Nazi rise to power in Poland in
1939, died at the age of 111.
Alexander Imich held the title of
world's oldest man for just two months
before his death on June 8, 2014. There
are 66 women who are older.
Imich was born in Czestochowa, in
southern Poland, to a wealthy secu-
lar Jewish family, according to the
New York Times. He said he was not
allowed to join the Polish Navy due
to anti-Semitism.
He and his wife were sent from
Bialystok, Poland, where they fled
after the Nazis rose to power, to a
Soviet labor camp. Returning to
Poland after the war, they discovered
that many family members had died
in the Holocaust. The couple immi-
grated to Waterbury, Conn., in 1951.
Imich told the New York Times
in April that holding the record for
world's oldest man is "not like it's
the Nobel Prize" and that "I never
thought I'd be that old:' He said he
never drank alcohol. He and his wife,
who died in 1986, had no children.
Imich willed his body to Mount
Sinai Medical Center for study.

Lewis Katz, Philly Inquirer
Co-Owner, Dies In Crash
(JTA) — Lewis Katz, co-owner of the
Philadelphia Inquirer daily newspa-
per and a philanthropist, died in a
plane crash in Massachusetts.
Katz, 72, died May 31, 2014, at an
airfield near Boston. The Gulfstream
IV plane he was riding in with six
other people crashed after takeoff
from Hanscom Field.
Philadelphia Inquirer editor Bill
Marimow confirmed Katz's death to
the media the next day. The week
before, Katz and H.F. Gerry Lenfest
bought out the newspaper's other
partners for $88 million.
Katz grew up in Camden, N.J.,
where he had concentrated his chari-
table giving, including to two Boys
and Girls Clubs, the Jewish Federation
of Southern New Jersey, Congregation
Beth El, Temple University and to the
Jewish Community Center in Cherry
Hill, which is named in memory of his
parents.
Katz, who attended Temple
University, is a former owner of the
New Jersey Nets professional basket-
ball team and the National Hockey
League's New Jersey Devils.
The cause of the crash is under
investigation.

Obituaries on page 74

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Obituaries

June 12 • 2014

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