Obit

Moti Kirschenbaum, 76

Broadcaster Moti Kirschenbaum died September 25. He was 76.

Kirschenbaum was a member of the executive board of the Israeli Broadcasting Authority where he also served as CEO from 1993 to 1999. Together with fellow broadcaster Yaron London, he hosted London and Kirschenbaum for more than two decades. He was also the founding editor of the Mabat evening news program.

Prior to starting his career in broadcasting, Kirschenbaum studied film and television in the University of California.

Considered as one of the pillars of the Israeli broadcasting community, colleagues and national officials mourned Kirschenbaum’s passing. In his eulogy, London said: “I lost a dear friend, a present a lucky person gets only one in life.” Israel President Reuven Rivlin referred to Kirschenbaum as the “the father of broadcasting” while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recalled : “He was a penetrating but fair interviewer, with great intellectual curiosity.” (“Iconic Israeli journalist Moti Kirschenbaum dies at 76“, Haaretz, Sept. 25, 2015)

Recognition for his work includes a 2009 lifetime achievement award for contributions to the Israeli media which he shared with London and fellow journalist Sever Plotzker. In 1976, Kirschenbaum also won the Israel Prize for contributions to art, television and film as well as radio.

He is survived by his four children.

Doris O’Donnell, 94

Journalist Doris O’Donnell died September 27. She was 94.

O’Donnell’s long career in journalism started in the Cleveland News in 1944. Before joining the Plain Dealer in 1960, O’Donnell married Cleveland News City Editor Howard Beaufait. She also wrote for the Lake County News-Herald and the Tribune–Review. She also presented the public television program Doris O’Donnell’s Cleveland. She retired in 1996 after 64 years in the industry.

Aside from her general news assignments, O’Donnell also covered President Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 and the US-Soviet Union cold war. She was inducted into the Press Club of Cleveland Hall of Fame in 1984.

Business reporter Jack Markowitz said in a report “She had a great feel for local news. She was one of those solid local reporters – crime, courts, politics, that sort of thing.” In a profile written on O’Donnell in 2011, writer Debbie Hanson said: “Her stories were never exposes nor were they mean-spirited. She was on a mission to report the news and she did it with class and grace.”

Her auto-biography “Front-page girl” was published in 2006.

Cecilia Vaisman, 54

Award-winning journalist Cecilia Vaisman died September 27 after battling breast cancer. She was 54.

Vaisman was an associate professor at Northwestern University’s Medwill School of Journalism teaching audio documentary. She joined the National Public Radio in Washington as a producer in 1986 before co-founding Homeland Productions in 1990. (“Cecilia Vaisman, award-winning Chicago journalist, dies at 54“, Chicago Tribune, Sept. 27, 2015)

Vaisman covered international issues with a focus on the Latin America and the Caribbean. She is a recipient of two Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards for her reports on the disadvantaged.

She is survived by her husband and two children.