I heard yesterday that Howard had died after a cardiac arrest. He was a long time Op-Ed writer for the NYT, and wrote a weekly wine column for them. He was also a very nice man.
My best memory of him was when we were walking back after a tasting, and I asked if there was any of his Op-Ed columns that stood out for him. He thought for a moment and talked about one marking a major anniversary of Kristallnact 1938, when Nazis torched synagogues, murdered several hundred Jews and arrested 30,000 who ended up in the camps. It was a horrific and pivotal moment in the Holocaust.
That morning Howard sat on the subway, and watched an old Hasid read the column, carefully tear it out of the newspaper and wrap it in his wallet. No words, no tears but a look of true pain on his face. I don’t want to put it in the context of yesterday’s events, except to say, it was a fitting way to remember the gentle Howard Goldberg.