Following Berlin fell, Mr. Wolf headed to Nuremberg, the place he served as a translator in the course of the war crimes trials. In 1946, at 19, he boarded a ship to New York, the place he began his organization and married Beth Horelick, a gifted pianist.
Mr. Wolf was a voracious reader, a keen listener and a witty conversationalist who surrounded himself with artists, musicians, dancers and poets. Over all, he embraced the position of neighbor, and he opened his 16th-floor apartment on Central Park West, with its panoramic views of the park, to pals, lots of of them fellow tenants he had met in the laundry area or lobby.
Sarah Grunstein, a concert pianist, moved there 4 many years in the past. When she opened her front door, she discovered a notecard from Mr. Wolf that read through, “I hear you are a concert pianist and like cats. Welcome to the setting up. I also like music, the piano, and cats.”
A different neighbor and good friend, Joey Smith, a choreographer and instructor, remembers Mr. Wolf as puckish and oblivious of his age. He drove his Mercedes into his 90s, and received a unique kick out of parking it wherever he liked, thanks to a handicapped allow nonetheless registered to his wife, who had died in 2015 at 85.
The day just before Mr. Wolf died, Ms. Grunstein carried out an audience-of-a single recital for him that he watched on a propped-up iPad. She planned to provide a different effectiveness the subsequent day, this time looping in numerous of their mutual pals, on Zoom.
Mr. Wolf died about an hour just before she was scheduled to commence.
The demonstrate went on. Ms. Grunstein started by reciting the Mourner’s Kaddish, tuneless and grave, really not like the guy currently being honored.
She rapidly moved on to a single of his favored Bach functions, the lilting opening Aria of the Goldberg Variations.