FEBRUARY 23 • 2023 | 69
and Milt Bonich; son and
daughter-in-law, Michael and
Margie Schuldinger; grand-
children and their spouses,
Erin and Tim Martin, Adam
and Carina Bonich, Elyssa
and Reece Pierson, Daniel
and Rebecca Schuldinger,
and Mitchell Schuldinger;
great-grandchildren, Avery
Martin, Owen Martin, Reed
Pierson, Justice Pierson,
Jaiden Forrester, Aubrey
Pierson, Valentin Buliga and
Alexander Buliga. He is also
survived by Anatoli (Natasha)
Buliga.
Shep was predeceased by
his beloved wife of 70 years,
Delores Schuldinger; and
his parents, Sadie and Aaron
Schuldinger.
Interment was at Adat
Shalom Memorial Park.
Contributions may be made
to Zekelman Holocaust
Center, 28123 Orchard Lake
Road, Farmington Hills,
MI 48334, holocaustcenter.
org. Arrangements by Ira
Kaufman Chapel.
EVE SHULAK,
88, of West
Bloomfield, died
Feb. 10, 2023.
She was
born in Detroit
and lived her life in the
Detroit metropolitan area.
She married Ken Shulak,
(deceased Oct. 2020) at age
20 and raised four children in
Detroit and Southfield.
She was a longtime
employee of Southfield Public
Schools. Eve was very devot-
ed to family and loved noth-
ing more than bringing fam-
ily together for holidays and
celebrations. In addition to
her love of family, she was a
skilled craftsperson and over
the years engaged in the arts
of stamping, jewelry making
and knitting.
Mrs. Shulak is survived
by her four children, Cindy
Shulak-Rome (Dan Rome),
Jeffrey Shulak (Amy), Barry
Shulak and Alan Shulak;
grandchildren, Elana Rome
Cutler (David), Ben Rome,
Sam Shulak (Chelsey) and
Will Shulak; great-grandson,
Gabriel Cutler.
Interment took place at
Adat Shalom Memorial
Park Cemetery in Livonia.
Contributions may be made
to Hand in Hand Schools,
Michigan Humane or a
charity of one’s choice.
Arrangements by Dorfman
Chapel.
RANDY
WATSKY, 68, of
Commerce, died
Feb. 10, 2023.
He is survived
by his beloved
wife, Pamela Watsky; chil-
dren, Mitchell Watsky and
Lauren Watsky; devoted sis-
ter, Bari Heifetz; mother-in-
law, Dolores Bloch; adoring
brothers-in-law, Phil (Kathy)
Block and Sandy Golden;
many loving nieces, nephews,
great-nieces and great-neph-
ews, other family members
and friends.
Mr. Watsky was the
beloved son of the late Harold
and Elaine Watsky; son-in-
law of the late Maurice Bloch.
Contributions may be
made to the Glioblastoma
Foundation or to Heart to
Heart Hospice. Interment
took place at Adat Shalom
Memorial Park Cemetery in
Livonia. Arrangements by
Dorfman Chapel.
S
ongwriter Burt
Bacharach, who
with his longtime
lyricist Hal David turned out
a string of hits in the 1960s
and ’70s — including “
Alfie”
and “Raindrops Keep Fallin’
On My Head” — died Feb.
8, 2023, at his home in Los
Angeles. He was 94.
Bacharach and David, both
Jewish New Yorkers, also wrote
a host of songs that made
Dionne Warwick a megastar,
such as “Walk On By,
” “Do You
Know the Way to San Jose” and
“I Say a Little Prayer.
”
The duo came to fame while
working in the Brill Building
— a Midtown Manhattan
mecca for music publishing
that housed a slew of Jewish
songwriters, including the
teams of Carole King and
Gerry Goffin, and Barry Mann
and Cynthia Weil. But unlike
their peers, who wrote for
the burgeoning teen market,
their songs were marked by a
certain elegance and romance
that drew more on the Great
American Songbook and
Broadway than rock ’n’ roll.
Fittingly, the pair collabo-
rated with Broadway producer
David Merrick on the 1968
musical Promises, Promises,
which yielded two hits, includ-
ing the title tune and “I’ll
Never Fall in Love Again.” That
show too had a strong Jewish
pedigree: The book by the leg-
endary playwright Neil Simon
was based on the 1960 film
The Apartment, written by Billy
Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond.
Bacharach grew up in Forest
Hills, Queens; his father was a
journalist and his mother an
amateur musician. He recalled
in his 2013 autobiography,
Anyone Who Had a Heart,
written with Robert Greenfield,
that “no one in my family
ever went to synagogue or
paid much attention to being
Jewish.”
And yet Jonathan Freedman,
author of Klezmer America:
Jewishness, Ethnicity,
Modernity, told the New York
Jewish Week in 2013 that what
made Bacharach’s music Jewish
was his “wild play with time
signatures; he is to time signa-
tures what [George] Gershwin
is to chord changes.” He called
Bacharach “really audacious
and experimental,” an example
of what he sees Jewish artists
doing as they “enter popular
forms and make them their
own.”
Bacharach was also the first
composer to be featured in the
experimental jazz musician
John Zorn’s late-1990s “Great
Jewish Music” series; in the
CD’s jacket notes, Zorn thanks
him for not changing his name
and points out that Bacharach
is “one of the great geniuses of
American popular music —
and he’s a Jew.”
Look for a special remembrance of
Bacharach by his good friend Linda
Solomon in next week’s JN.
Famed Songwriter
Burt Bacharach, 94
JTA
BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES
Composer Burt Bacharach (left) and
lyricist Hal David hold Oscars they
won for “Raindrops Keep Falling on
My Head” from Butch Cassidy and
the Sundance Kid, at the Academy
Awards, April 7, 1970.