Life cycles

IN MEMORIAM

ARNOLD "TUFFY" EPSTEIN

Arnold "Tuffy" Epstein passed away on Dec. 10, 2022 in Omaha. Services were held on Dec. 12, 2022 at Beth El Cemetery and were officiated by Rabbi Abraham.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Harry and Jenny Epstein; brother, Ira Epstein; and son, Michael Andrew Epstein.

He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Helen Epstein; daughter, Marti Epstein; daughter and son-in-law, Danielle (Epstein) Sherman and Drew Sherman; grandsons: Gideon Katz and Michael Sherman; brother, Allen Epstein; and sister, Gloria Hyman (née Epstein).

Arnold “Tuffy” Epstein lived a musical life. During a career that spanned 70 years, the noted Omaha jazz musician performed with ensembles of all types, from combos and other small groups he fronted to big bands, the Omaha Symphony and the Intergeneration Orchestra of Omaha.

He was born on Aug. 17, 1935, in Omaha, Tuffy was a son of Harry and Jennie Epstein, who operated a small grocery in South Omaha.

“When I was 5, my mother thought it would be wonderful if I could play Hawaiian guitar,” he said in a 2018 oral history. But after two years of lessons, he was done. “I just hated it.”

Shortly after, while still a student at Castelar Elementary, he began playing saxophone. He later added clarinet and flute to his musical skillset.

Tuffy was a prolific performer at Omaha Central High School, where he was in the band, orchestra and jazz band. Graduating in 1953, he toured for a summer with a New York band and then enrolled in college, earning a degree from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln in 1958.

What followed was military service with the Air Force Band of the Rockies, a 33-year career teaching instrumental music in Omaha-area public schools, 12 years with the Omaha Symphony, a master’s degree in music from UNL, and hundreds of gigs including Ak-Sar-Ben shows, weddings and other celebrations.

Memorials may be made to the Milton Marcus Instrumental Music Endowment Fund at Beth El Synagogue, the Omaha Musicians Association, the Intergeneration Orchestra of Omaha or Prairie STEM.

REGINALD MALCOLM

Reg A. Malcom of Lincoln, passed away Dec. 7, 2022 at age 64. Services were held on Dec. 15, 2022, at Colonial Chapel Funeral Home, 5200 R Street.

He was preceded in death by his father Donald Malcom.

He is survived by wife, Sue; children, Nicole (Romie) Brown, Michal Naumann, Phillip (Laura) Malcom; eight grandchildren; mother, Wilma Malcom; sisters and brothers-in-law, Rachelle and Jay Housh and Becky and Jeff Oldenettel, and several nieces and nephews.

He was born on Jan. 2, 1958, in New Braunfels, TX to Donald and Wilma Malcom.

Memorials may be made to the organization of your choice.

YVETTE Y. ROFFMAN

Yvette Y. Roffman passed away on Dec. 3, 2022, at age 96 in Florida. Services were held on Dec. 9, 2022, at Golden Hill Cemetery, 42nd and Browne St.

She is preceded in death by her husband, Milton Roffman and children, Jackie and George Roffman.

She is survived by son, Randy Roffman; grandchildren: Scott and Jeff Roffman; and great-grandchildren, Parker and Madelyn.

JEANNE LIPSEY ROSENBLUM

Jeanne Lipsey Rosenblum passed away on Nov. 29, 2022, in California. Services were held on Dec. 5, 2022, at Beth El Cemetery and were officiated by Rabbi Abraham.

She was preceded in death by her first husband, Stanford Lipsey and her second husband, Hub Rosenblum; her parents, David and Marie Blacker; brother, Dr. Martin Blacker; sister-inlaw, Marcia Blacker; brother-in-law Armon Kamesar; and nephew, Rabbi Daniel Kamesar.

She is survived by her daughter, Janet Lipsey; son, Dan Lipsey; son-in-law, John Harkin; daughter-in-law, Chelan Harkin; grandsons: Noah and Jesse Harkin; great-grandchildren: Amari and Nahanni Harkin; sister, Barbara Kamesar; and loving nieces and nephews.

Memorials may be made to By the Bay Health or Vivalon.

Disney+ doc traces Idina Menzel’s rise

STEPHEN SILVER

JTA Before becoming one of the most iconic vocal performers of her time, appearing in Broadway shows such as Rent and Wicked and voicing Queen Elsa in Frozen, Idina Menzel got her start singing as a teenager on the wedding and bar and bat mitzvah circuit near where she grew up on Long Island and other parts of the New York area. “It was everything to me, formatively,” Menzel told JTA in an interview, of her early singing experiences. “I believe... that that had a lot to do with my education in music and genres, but also as a performer. I was so young when I did it... I would lie about my age, I would be 15 or 16 years old and I’d dress all mature and go in in high heels. I would usually be the only woman in a group of six guys.” In the new documentary Idina Menzel: Which Way to the Stage, which had its world premiere in mid-November at the DOC NYC film festival and lands on Disney+ on Friday, Menzel discusses those experiences, even returning to the main venue where she used to perform at weddings and bar mitzvahs (the Inn at Fox Hollow in Woodbury, New York). The film also shows Menzel in Pittsburgh in the immediate aftermath of the Tree of Life massacre and shows her sharing her thoughts on it as a Jewish person. The film, directed by Anne McCabe, follows Menzel’s 2018 arena tour, along with Josh Groban, which culminated in Menzel fulfilling her lifelong dream of headlining Madison Square Garden. It combines concerts with intimate behindthe-scenes moments, as well as archival footage from Menzel’s early life and throughout her career. “When I heard that the tour was going to culminate at Madison Square Garden, I realized that it was a dream come true — it was a place that I’d always wanted to play, growing up on Long Island, and living in New York City, at NYU and beyond that,” Menzel said. “The fact that I was going to be playing there was a big deal, and I wanted to film it, no matter what I did with the footage, I know I just wanted to document it for myself, so I could take that in and really just

appreciate the moment.” The tour that the film follows arrived in Pittsburgh about two weeks after the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue massacre, and Menzel is shown singing the Rent number No Day But Today to a crowd at Pittsburgh’s PPG Paints Arena. (Menzel more recently wrote and performed a song called A Tree of Life, which was featured in the closing credits of a recent HBO documentary about the tragedy and its aftermath.) In that part of the film, Menzel wears a shirt with a Jewish star that says Stronger Than Hate. “That show was all about tolerance,” Menzel says of Rent in the film, while on stage in Pittsburgh. “It was about love, it was about community... I’m sitting here in this beautiful city, a Jewish girl from Long Island. I thought about how we light candles in the Jewish religion, choosing light over darkness, choosing love over bigotry.” “That particular concert is now tragically defined but what had happened in Pittsburgh, and I felt like I couldn’t Menzel during a 2018 tour. Credit: Eric Maldin/Walkman Produc- ignore that, and I felt like that tions Inc. song was the right song for the moment, and that if there was any way I could use my music to help heal then I wanted to do it,” she told JTA. The documentary also looks back at Menzel’s entire career, from breaking through in the original production of “Rent” in the mid-1990s, to an ill-fated run at a pop career, to her second big musical smash, Wicked, which landed on Broadway in 2003. Viewers also get the story of the Frozen phenomenon and its Menzel-performed torch song Let it Go, as well as other notable episodes — such as the time John Travolta mispronounced her name at the Oscars in 2014. (Menzel finds the whole thing hilarious.) The COVID-19 pandemic was not the only obstacle in getting the documentary, which was mostly filmed four years ago, to the finish line. Menzel said in a post-screening Q&A at DOC NYC that because the documentary ended up on Disney+ and she is the voice of Queen Elsa, some curse words had to be taken out, as did a scene where she clutches a bottle of wine.

This story was edited for length; read the full article at www.omahajewishpress.com.

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