Ronny Loewy (1946-2012)
Ronny was a dear, supportive friend and colleague for more than 30 years. A dedicated, meticulous archivist, historian and documentarian, Ronny made tremendous contributions to our knowledge about Jewish and Holocaust cinema and rich legacy of Jewish cultural production. Ronny’s love of cinema included a deep respect for both the film materials and filmmakers. Ronnie was our primary and definitive source of information about Jewish films made in Europe during the 20th Century. His support and help in furthering the work of our National Center for Jewish Film, his wealth of knowledge and his good advice will be irreplaceable.
In the early 1980s, while at the Deutsches Filmmuseum in Frankfurt, Ronny worked closely with our National Center for Jewish film which was completing the restoration of several Yiddish films. Ronnie was the moving force behind bringing these film to Germany for the first time since before WWII. Ronny, along with Hans Peter Kochenrath, now deceased, was very instrumental in helping NCJF with the preservation of so many of the films in our collection.
Ronny’s research project “Films of the Holocaust” for the Fritz Bauer Institut in Frankfurt remains an invaluable and unparalleled resource. The culmination of a lifetime of historical research, the project includes a searchable database in German and English with information on 1,792 films referable to the Holocaust and Jewish life (including the Yiddish films).
www.fritz-bauer-institut.de/cine-holocaust.htmlRonny was born in Tel Aviv in 1946. He studied Sociology in Frankfurt and Hannover. In 1984 he joined the staff of the German Film Institute in Frankfurt, where he directed the "Films of the Holocaust” program run in cooperation with the Fritz Bauer Institute.
In 1987 Ronny curated the exhibition "Von Babelsberg nach Hollywood. Filmemigration aus Nazideutschland" ("From Babelsberg to Hollywood: Film Emigration out of Nazi Germany"). From 1992 to 2005 he was co-publisher of the magazine Filmexil. He published extensively on cinema, including articles on Film in Exile, Holocaust & Film, Yiddish Cinema, Stanley Kubrick, Max Ophüls, Helmar Lerski, Meyer Levin, and Victor Vicas.
Loewy also made films. He directed THE YIDDISH CINEMA (1983); co-directed ONCE UPON A TIME IN YIDDISHLAND (1992) with Inge Classen; AUSCHWITZ - FIVE DAYS IN NOVEMBER (1995) with Cilly Kugelmann and Hanno Loewy; and WILLI MÜNZENBERG OR THE ART OF PROPAGANDA (1996) with Alexander Bohr.
Each July for more than 20 years, we would meet our friend Ronny at the Jerusalem International Film Festival, where we would debate politics and art, and we would watch movies, lots of movies. We send our condolences to his wife Gisela and his brothers Hanno and Peter.
--- Sharon Pucker Rivo & Lisa Rivo
Maurice Sendak (June 10, 1928 - May 8, 2012)
Beloved children's book artist.
in 2006, NCJF worked with Sendak and his collaborator Tony Kushner when they included restored archival film materials from the NCJF archive in the stage production of their Brundibar opera.
Read NYTimes Obituary "Author of Splendid Nightmares"
Tamara Brooks (May 19, 2012)
Artist, musician, conductor, and the musical partner and wife of singer-actor Theodore Bikel. Brooks, a Juilliard-trained pianist and conductor, had a distinguished career performing around the world. Brooks and Bikel are producing a new film, Theodore Bikel: In the Shoes of Sholem Aleichem, under the aegis of NCJF.
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