Rabbi Leon Klenicki, 78, an advocate for improving interfaith relations whose efforts were lauded by Pope Benedict XVI, died Jan. 25 of cancer at his Monroe Township, N.J., home, his wife, Myra, said Saturday.
Klenicki wrote or co-wrote numerous books and papers aimed at improving relations between Jews and Catholics, according to the Anti-Defamation League, the organization Klenicki served for more than 30 years.
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1930 to Polish immigrants, Klenicki studied in Argentina and completed his rabbinical studies in the United States. He delivered a paper on behalf of the Jewish community in 1968 at the first Latin American meeting of Jews and Catholics in Colombia during Pope Paul XI’s visit, according to the league.
Klenicki became director of the ADL’s department of interfaith affairs in 1984 and also was the organization’s co-liaison to the Vatican. In 2007, he was made a Papal Knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great by Pope Benedict XVI, making him only the second interfaith official to receive the honor, according to the league.
After his retirement in 2001, Klenicki taught at Cambridge University and at Belgium’s Leuven Catholic University.
Robert L. Stone, 87, a former top executive at the Hertz corporation who hired O.J. Simpson in the 1970s as a pitchman for the car rental giant, died Wednesday of heart failure at his home in Boca Grande, Fla., his wife, Sheila Muldowny Stone, said Saturday.
Stone became chairman and chief executive of Hertz in 1972. It was Stone’s decision to hire Simpson, his wife said. Stone left Hertz in 1978 to become the chief operating officer for Columbia Pictures.
