Masha Leon
By Masha Leon
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News Songwriter Denise Rich: ‘Inside of Me Is a Black Woman’
“Inside of me is a black woman,” declared songwriter Denise Rich, who hosted the April 2 Foundation for Ethnic Understanding’s annual spring benefit at her lavish Fifth Avenue penthouse. “It’s why I write the songs I do,” Rich told the 150 guests. “The world needs more than ever… to do something about relationships between all…
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News As Time Goes By: Ruth Gruber Reflects
“If the [New York] Herald Tribune were around today, I’d be in Iraq,” the 91-year-old Ruth Gruber told me at the March 24 reception for WILD PAC at Patti Kenner’s Park Avenue apartment. Founded in 2001, WILD PAC is a nonpartisan organization that supports congressional leaders who advocate protection of America’s public wilderness lands. Excerpting…
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News Wishing for Cultural Ties To Keep U.S., French Allied
French champagne and canapés greeted arrivals at the March 19 “Sounds French: A Festival of New Music from France” reception at the Fifth Avenue headquarters of the French Embassy’s Cultural Services. The evening celebrated the month-long series of performances of works by French composers at New York City concert halls. “In view of the unfortunate…
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Israel News Aid for Youths Comes in a Variety of Sizes and Shapes
At the March 11 “Bunny Hop” fundraiser for the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s pediatrics department, I asked Billy Bush, new host of NBC’s “Let’s Make a Deal” and event co-chair, exactly how he was related to President Bush, his cousin. Smiling broadly, he replied, “I’m just a guy named Bush. Isn’t it amazing!” After mingling…
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Israel News Esther Drescher? ‘The Nanny’ Tried New Role for Purim
Strains of “Hooray for Hollywood” greeted guests filing into the Waldorf-Astoria’s Grand Ballroom for the Jewish Museum’s March 5 Masked Purim Ball, in part a celebration of the museum’s concurrent exhibition, “Entertaining America: Jews, Movies and Broadcasting.” Among the 600 black-tie and masked revelers who helped raise a record $1.4 million were Morris and Nancy…
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Israel News ‘The Righteous’: An Anthology of Heroes
Following a two-year correspondence, I finally met historian Sir Martin Gilbert at the February 19 launch of his latest opus, “The Righteous: The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust” (Henry Holt & Co.), at the Anti-Defamation League’s headquarters. In October 2001 I received a letter from London from Gilbert — author of 40 books, acclaimed biographer…
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News Big Brass on Board for Intrepid ‘Salute’
The “winds of war” were on hold aboard the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum for the February 14 Intrepid Museum Foundation’s Salute to Freedom Award dinner honoring Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Greetings by the foundation’s chief operating officer, Bill White, got the festive evening under way. The crowd comprised political and military brass including New York…
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News It’s Down Home Southern Comfort at Federation Gala
Cowboy hats, jeans on bottom and chic on top — “Southern Comfortable” — was the dress code at the February 11 UJA-Federation of New York Entertainment, Media & Communications Division bash at the Regent Wall Street Hotel. Joel Katz, the first attorney inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame and “a definitive leader in…
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