MAY 4 • 2023 | 61

law, Sheila Sulkes, Carol Sulkes 
and Michael Krauss; son and 
daughter-in-law, Mark Sulkes 
and Lihua Zhang; grandchil-
dren, Zoe Sulkes, Matthew and 
Sarah Krauss, Jonathan and 
Carley Krauss, and Daniel and 
Kenna Krauss; great-grand-
children, Adam, Laura, Emily 
and Chloe Krauss; sister-in-
law, Ann Kaplan; many loving 
nieces and nephews, including 
Linda Kaplan and the late Sandy 
Sulkes. 
Mrs. Sulkes was the beloved 
wife of the late Emanuel M. 
Sulkes; the loving sister of the 
late William and the late Mildred 
Kaplan, and the late Julius 
Kaplan. 
Interment was at Clover Hill 
Park Cemetery. Contributions 
may be made to a charity of one’s 
choice. Arrangements by Ira 
Kaufman Chapel.

SIDNEY 
SWIDLER, 95, died 
March 15, 2023.
He was born in 
Detroit on Dec. 
16, 1927, to Morris 
Swidler and Helen Greenspan 
Swidler. 
He served two years in the 
U.S. Army in New Mexico 
during the Korean War. Sidney 
received a degree from Wayne 
State University and a profes-
sional degree in architecture 
from North Carolina State 
University. He was a collector of 
studio ceramics and has given 
1,000 pieces to museums in 
Michigan and California.
Mr. Swidler was the brother 
of the late Allan (the late Dulcy) 
Swidler and the late Frances 
(the late Herbert) Samovitz. His 
nieces and nephews are Mark 
Swidler, Barry (Cynthia) Swidler, 
Lee Swidler, Andrea (Gary) 
Johnson, Marcia Samovitz, 
Karen (Tom) Bartlett, and great-
niece Abby Riley Swidler.

Jerry Springer Dies at 79

ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL JTA
J

erry Springer, the son 
of Jewish refugees who 
set aside a promising 
political career to become 
the ringleader of a circus-like 
syndicated talk show featur-
ing feuding couples, angry 
exes and frequent fisticuffs, 
died April 27, 2023, at his 
home in the Chicago area.
A family spokesperson told 
TMZ that Springer, who was 
79, had been battling a “brief 
illness.”
Over nearly 5,000 epi-
sodes beginning in 1991 and 
lasting until 2018, Springer 
transformed daytime televi-
sion conventions with a pro-
gram designed to encourage 
conflict among its guests. 
Where rivals like Oprah 
Winfrey and Phil Donahue 
were interviewing celebrities 
and tackling more serious 
issues, Springer would bring 
on everyday people and pit 
them against one another in 
shows about incest, adultery 
and polyamory. 
In an interview last year, 
he acknowledged the crit-
ics — including prominent 
British rabbis — who decried 
his version of “tabloid televi-
sion” and said it had fueled 
divisions in society. “I just 
apologize,” he said. “I’m so 
sorry. What have I done? I’ve 
ruined the culture.” 
Springer’s path to televi-
sion notoriety was not pre-
ordained. He was born in a 
London tube station in 1944 
during a German bombing 
raid to parents, Richard 
and Margot Springer, who 
were German-Jewish refu-
gees from the Nazis. They 
escaped from what was 

then Prussia (now pres-
ent-day Poland) and arrived 
in Britain in 1939 just before 
the outbreak of World War 
II. Twenty-seven other mem-
bers of Springer’s family were 
killed in the Holocaust.
The family moved 
to the United States in 
1949, settling in Queens. 
Springer’s first career after 
earning a law degree from 
Northwestern University 
was in politics. He worked 
on the 1968 presidential 
campaign of Robert F. 
Kennedy that ended with 
Kennedy’s assassination, then 
ran a failed campaign for 
U.S. Congress in 1970 before 
being elected to Cincinnati’s 
City Council in 1971.
In 1977, Springer was 
elected mayor of Cincinnati 
and, under a power-sharing 
arrangement between his 
Democratic Party and a 
third party, served a single 
one-year term — by most 
accounts responsibly and 
effectively.
After serving as mayor, he 
anchored the news for the 
NBC affiliate in Cincinnati 
for 10 years before making 
the leap to syndicated TV, 
where he earned a fortune. 

In 2008, Springer 
investigated his relatives’ 
fates on the BBC1 program 
Who Do You Think You 
Are? He broke down in tears 
at the train station where 
his maternal grandmother 
was sent to her death in the 
Chelmno extermination 
camp.
In 2015, Springer visited 
London to support a 
British Holocaust refugee 
project preserving the archive 
of what was originally 
known as the Central 
British Fund for German 
Jewry and later World 
Jewish Relief. The group 
helped tens of thousands 
of European Jews escape 
the Nazis to Britain in the 
1930s and 1940s — including 
thousands of children as part 
of the Kindertransport and 
Springer’s parents.
“We are immensely grateful 
to Jerry Springer for giving 
his time to us and supporting 
our archives,” World Jewish 
Relief vice-chair Linda 
Rosenblatt said at the time. 
According to the 
Hollywood Reporter, 
Springer’s survivors include 
his wife, daughter, son-in-law, 
grandson and sister. 

GETTY IMAGES VIA JTA

Jerry Springer 
appears on his 
eponymous 
syndicated talk 
show, Dec. 17, 
1998. 

