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Neil Drossman, ad writer famous for his wit and wordplay, dies at 83

(JTA) — Neil Drossman, who began his career in copywriting at the tail end of the “Mad Men” era and went on to create some of the most admired tag lines and campaigns in the history of the advertising business, died Nov. 25 at age 83. The cause was cancer, family members said.

The Brooklyn-born Drossman was known for witty catchphrases that stuck with consumers, advertising products such as Meow Mix cat food, Einstein Moomjy Carpets, Airwick air freshener and Chemical Bank.

When Purina introduced Meow Mix in 1974, Drossman wrote the tag line, “The Cat Food Cats Ask For By Name.” For Emery Air Freight, an air cargo carrier, he wrote an ad featuring a photo of globe-trotting Secretary of State Henry Kissinger with the headline, “Emery flies to more places than he does.”

One of Drossman’s most memorable campaigns was for Teacher’s scotch, which featured ghost-written testimonials by various celebrity drinkers, including the Jewish entertainers Groucho Marx, Zero Mostel and Mel Brooks.

The Mel Brooks ad featured the creator of the “2,000 Year Old Man” dressed as a caveman holding a glass of scotch while sitting on a pile of boulders. “2,000 years ago when you had a scotch on the rocks, you really had a scotch on the rocks,” the headline reads.

The family still has a autograph from Brooks addressed to Drossman, reading, “You do me better than I do me.”

“Seeing his work transformed my views of what advertising could be,” the advertising executive Lee Garfinkel wrote in a tribute last month in the trade journal Ad Age. “Each headline was smart, funny, insightful, unexpected and thought-provoking. I didn’t know that advertising could be so clever and feel so fresh.”

Drossman, born on Feb. 26, 1940, grew up in Brooklyn and was a devoted Brooklyn Dodgers fan until the team decamped to Los Angeles in 1958. His father Edward started a jewelry business on Manhattan’s Canal Street. When the elder Drossman died of a heart attack in his early 60s, his widow, Anne Drossman, took over the business, which survives to this day, co-owned and operated by Neil’s wife, Ellen Drossman, and Neil’s sister, Phyllis Bulhack.

The basketball-loving Drossman attended Alfred University in upstate New York and after college got a job working at CBS News. He got his first job in the advertising business in the 1970s and worked on and off for 50 years with the legendary ad man and restaurateur Jerry Della Femina, who ran a series of agencies.

“When it came down to day-in-day-out Joe Lunchpail writing, with the kind of amazing talent that got everyone’s attention, whether he was first pounding a typewriter or later composing on a computer,” Della Famina wrote in a tribute on Facebook, “Neil Drossman was the best copywriter there ever was.”

Grossman also served as chairman and co-creative director at Needleman Drossman & Partners and was co-founder of Ryan Drossman/MARC USA.

The witty Drossman could also turn serious or sentimental when the occasion demanded it, as he did when Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey needed an image makeover. Drossman came up with the slogan, “When you feel good, we feel good.”

Other copywriters admired his ad for Goodwill Industries, which showed a man in a wheelchair fixing a TV set. The headline reads, “What you see here is a TV set repairing a man.”

He also created the slogan and logo that appears on the doors of NYPD patrol cars, reading “Courtesy, Professionalism and Respect.”

Drossman retired on Jan. 31, 2023. A New York Knicks fan, Drosssman was a regular player in a year-round weekly pickup basketball game in Greenwich Village before he was sidelined by hip surgery. The Knicks player and future coach Phil Jackson would sometimes take part in those games, and he nicknamed Drossman “the Glove” for his skills at defense.

His survivors include his wife, Ellen Drossman; his son Edward, his daughter Jill, and three grandchildren.


The post Neil Drossman, ad writer famous for his wit and wordplay, dies at 83 appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

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Mike Huckabee, Israeli Government Push Back Against Claims of ‘Famine’ in Gaza

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee looks on during the day he visits the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

The Israeli government and the US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, are pushing back against international criticism after a UN-backed authority declared a famine is taking place in Gaza.

“To the uninformed who claim Israel is starving Gaza, get the facts & read the thread below,” Huckabee said on X on Friday. “Tons of food has gone into Gaza but Hamas savages stole it, ate lots of it to become corpulent, sold it on [the] black market but they didn’t give it to the hostages.”

His comments came hours after the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the global body that monitors hunger crises, reported that famine thresholds had been met in Gaza City and surrounding areas, with more than half a million people already experiencing catastrophic levels of hunger. The IPC warned that the number could rise to 641,000 by the end of September if conditions do not improve.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a post on X, dismissed the IPC’s conclusions as “an outright lie,” insisting Israel “does not have a policy of starvation” but rather “a policy of preventing starvation.” Israeli officials note that thousands of aid trucks have entered Gaza and blame the ruling Hamas terror group for diverting supplies.

Huckabee’s remarks echoed that position, framing the Islamist group as the central cause of hunger. Israeli leaders and their allies accuse Hamas of stealing food, hoarding aid, and reselling goods on the black market at inflated prices instead of distributing them to civilians or releasing Israeli hostages.

The United States and Israel set up the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) earlier this year to coordinate aid deliveries outside of UN channels, after accusing Hamas of exploiting international assistance. The group says it delivers more than a million meals a day, but humanitarian organizations counter that the aid falls far short of what is needed.

Distribution sites have often descended into chaos, with starving crowds surging around convoys. Human rights groups have described the alleged famine as a “man-made catastrophe” and accused Israel of weaponizing hunger.

Israel recently increased the flow of humanitarian supplies into Gaza, after imposing a temporary embargo in an effort to keep them out of the hands of Hamas. While facilitating the entry of thousands of aid trucks into Gaza, Israeli officials have condemned the UN and other international aid agencies for their alleged failure to distribute supplies, noting much of the humanitarian assistance has been stalled at border crossings or stolen. According to UN data, the vast majority of humanitarian aid entering Gaza is intercepted before reaching its intended civilian recipients.

Last week, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) released a report saying that Hamas has been inflating the death toll of Palestinians due to malnutrition and that most of those verified to have died had preexisting medical conditions.

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Italian Hospital Staff Discard Israeli-Made Medicine as Concerns Mount Globally of Antisemitism in Health Care

In Italy, Dr. Rita Segantini and nurse Giulia Checcacci throw products of the Israeli company Teva Pharmaceutical in the garbage in protest against Israel. Photo: Screenshot

Two medical workers in Italy filmed themselves discarding Israeli-made medicine in protest against the Jewish state at their workplace, fueling global concerns of antisemitism in health-care facilities as a doctor in the United Kingdom who praised Adolf Hitler was allowed back to work this month.

A doctor and a nurse who work at a community hospital in Pratovecchio Stia, near Arezzo in Tuscany, recently posted on social media a video of themselves dramatically throwing away products from Teva Pharmaceuticals, an Israeli company.

Dr. Daniel Radzik, a senior member of the Italian Jewish Medical Association, told Ynetnews that his organization is “very concerned about the event.”

“It’s evident that this act was not accidental, but carried out with the intention of encouraging the boycott of medicines produced in Israel,” he added.

Dr. Rita Segantini and nurse Giulia Checcacci apologized for the video following backlash, saying, “We apologize to anyone offended by the video. It was a symbolic gesture for peace. We did not actually throw away any medicine.”

In Italy, Dr. Rita Segantini and nurse Giulia Checcacci throw products of the Israeli company Teva Pharmaceutical in the garbage in protest of Israel. Photo: Screenshot

However, the Italian Jewish Medical Association was skeptical of the apology.

“They tried to explain in a very naive way. Because they say that their act was only symbolic, made for peace and that the medicine was only integrator and they don’t want really to throw them to the rubbish,” Radzik said.

The doctor and nurse claimed the items were not medications purchased by the hospital, but rather items such as wet wipes that are given out for free, and that they removed them from the trash after filming. Additionally, they claimed the video was filmed after working hours.

Meanwhile, a doctor in the UK was allowed to return to work this month after praising Hitler during an antisemitic rant and making racist comments about a colleague.

“All this antisemitism … if Hitler was around today, I would support him as he got rid of horrible f—kers like him,” Dr. Mili Shah said in reference to a colleague in 2021, according to British media.

In response, Shah was reportedly suspended for four months. However, a review by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in July concluded Shah, who is no longer employed by NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group, is fit to return to work.

These recent incidents come as concerns mount globally over antisemitism in health-care spaces, with Jews feeling unsafe due to medical professionals expressing antisemitism or even outright death threats against Israelis.

In the UK, for example, the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH Trust) issued an apology this past week following a patient’s complaints about the placement of anti-Israel posters at a facility. These posters — which read “Zionism is Poison,” called for a “Free Palestine,” and accused Israel of wantonly starving and killing Palestinians — led a patient to reach out to the group UK Lawyers for Israel, expressing fear of receiving subpar treatment if the hospital staff discovered she was Jewish. The chief executive of UCLH Trust released a statement apologizing for the posters.

Meanwhile, in a separate incident, midwife Fatimah Mohamied, who resigned from her position after UKLFI highlighted her anti-Israel social media posts, has now filed a claim against Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, alleging a violation of her rights. Mohamied’s posts included her defending and celebrating the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion and massacre across southern Israel.

Other Western countries have seen health-care providers’ antipathy toward Israel manifest as violent threats.

In the Netherlands, police opened an investigation into Batisma Chayat Sa’id, a nurse who allegedly stated she would administer lethal injections to Israeli patients.

Although Sa’id denied making the comments, claiming someone was “pretending to be me,” an account under her name also posted threatening messages aimed at Jewish people last year, including “Your time will come — don’t spare anyone,” and another in which she described the burial of Israelis in Gaza as “a dream come true.”

The nurse’s alleged threat mirrors a similar incident in Australia, in which video showed two nurses — Ahmad Rashad Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh — posing as doctors and making inflammatory statements. The widely circulated footage showed Abu Lebdeh declaring she would refuse to treat Israeli patients and instead kill them, while Nadir made a throat-slitting gesture and claimed he had already killed many.

“Now they actually brag online about killing Israeli patients,” Shira Nussdorf, a US-born Jewish woman who moved from Israel to Australia six years ago, told The Algemeiner earlier this year when the video first emerged. “I don’t know how safe I would feel giving birth at that hospital.”

Following the incident, New South Wales authorities in Australia suspended their nursing registrations and banned them from working as nurses nationwide. They were also charged with federal offenses, including threatening violence against a group and using a carriage service to threaten, menace, and harass. If convicted, they face up to 22 years in prison.

The issue of antisemitism in medical facilities also extends to North America.

A December 2024 study by the Data & Analytics Department of StandWithUs, a Jewish civil rights group, found that 40 percent of 645 Jewish American health-care professionals surveyed reported experiencing antisemitism in the workplace. A similar study of Canadian Jewish health workers conducted last year reached 80 percent.

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Gore Websites, Antisemitic Propaganda Radicalized School Shooters, New ADL Report Finds

A demonstration in Schwerin, Germany, with a banner reading “Against Nazis.” Photo: Bernd Wüstneck via Reuters Connect

The Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) Center on Extremism has released a new report detailing how two young persons’ drifting into viewing macabre content online degenerated into an obsession with white supremacist propaganda and, ultimately, the perpetration of a school shooting.

“Kids and teens today have lived their entire lives with easy internet access, putting them even more at risk of encountering violent extremism online,” ADL chief executive officer Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement on Thursday. “ADL has been alerting about the dangers of these online communities and activity for years. Extremist ideas combined with gore websites can inspire others to love for evermore violent content.”

He added, “It’s a vicious cycle, especially for young people. We hope this research guides all stakeholders in taking action to prevent future attacks.”

The ADL examined the cases of Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow, 15 — a rare female mass shooter who committed suicide after murdering two people at a Christian private school in Madison, Wisconsin — and Solomon Henderson, 17 — who murdered a female classmate at a public high school in Nashville, Tennessee, before fatally shooting himself. Their journeys towards unconscionable violence, the ADL explained, began in the dark corners of the internet, when each enrolled to become members of a website titled “WatchPeopleDie” (WPD).

“WatchPeopleDie” is one of hundreds of shock websites which traumatize audiences with images and videos of beheadings, sexual violence, and other appalling acts of antisemitism, sexism, and self-degradation. Such websites can also function as recruiting grounds for white supremacists and neo-Nazis.

Rupnow and Henderson proved vulnerable to the content’s assault on the psyche. Within 19 months, each teenager “posted, reposted, endorsed, replied to, or otherwise engaged with extremist content,” the ADL said, including that which referenced “mass killers” and “764,” an online network of miscreants who extol “obscene” depravities.

“The interconnected network of accounts that post extremist content on WPD included Rupnow and Henderson, who both followed and were followed by other explicitly white supremacist accounts,” the ADL explained. “Because both teens would commit their shootings roughly 19 months after joining the site, this shows that online engagement with extremist ideologies and depictions of heinous acts of violence can lead to on the ground attacks. Furthermore, this network acts as an echo chamber that normalizes violence, gore, and white supremacy.”

The ADL said that the teenagers’ stories and the atrocities they committed showcase the dangers of failing to supervise the online activity of the youth, at home and at school, and it is launching a campaign to brief 16,000 superintendents on its findings and mobilize law enforcement, parents, and teachers around a course of action for thwarting online predators.

“Extremism, hate, and violent gore are just a click away for many children, making it urgent for schools and parents to implement safeguard,” said Oren Segal, senior vice president of counter extremism and intelligence at ADL. “These toxic online spaces can cause devastating harm in our communities and are increasingly becoming central to the broader violent extremist landscape.”

The ADL is spearheading multiple efforts to combat antisemitism.

Earlier this month, it launched the Jewish Policy Index (JPI), a “first interactive tool of its kind” for evaluating the efficacy of policies that US states have adopted to combat antisemitism.

According to the ADL, JPI has already identified positive and negative trends. Nine states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, New York, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia — have all passed legislation to address a surge of antisemitic discrimination and violence across the country, earning a JPI designation as “Leading States.” But, the ADL noted, 41 other states failed to merit the distinction.

The distribution of the first JPI ratings forms a bell curve, with most states, 29, clustered in the middle, having been classified as “Progressing States” which have adopted “some key pieces of the policy agenda” the ADL recommends. Twelve received the poorest mark, “Limited Action States,” for showing “little systematic effort to address antisemitism through policy.”

The ADL and its partners say the JPI can facilitate democratic action which “empowers residents” to challenge their states to fight antisemitism with vigor.

“Jewish communities know that if we are to flourish through difficult times, we must mobilize to fight antisemitism,” Eric Fingerhut, chief executive officer of the Jewish Federations of North America, said in a statement commending the initiative. “The most important responsibility of government is keeping its citizens safe. The Jewish Policy Index is an important tool to help inform and advance how state governments respond to antisemitism and protect their Jewish communities.”

The advent of JPI came on the heels of harrowing new FBI statistics which reveal the extent to which violent antisemitism has become a pervasive occurrence in American life.

While hate crimes against other demographic groups declined overall last year, those perpetrated against Jews increased by 5.8 percent in 2024 to 1,938, the largest total recorded in over 30 years of the FBI’s counting them. Jewish American groups noted that this surge, which included 178 assaults, is being experienced by a demographic group which constitutes just 2 percent of the US population.

Additionally, a striking 69 percent of all religion-based hate crimes that were reported to the FBI in 2024 targeted Jews, with 2,041 out of 2,942 total such incidents being antisemitic in nature. Muslims, the second most targeted religious group, were victims in 256 offenses, or about 9 percent of the total.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

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