365 WINS IN 365 DAYS: President Trump’s Return Marks New Era of Success, Prosperity

Source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2026/01/365-wins-in-365-days-president-trumps-return-marks-new-era-of-success-prosperity/

January 20, 2026

One year ago today, President Donald J. Trump returned to office with a resounding mandate to restore prosperity, secure the border, rebuild American strength, and put the American people first. In just 365 days, President Trump has delivered truly transformative results with the most accomplished first year of any presidential term in modern history.

From negative net migration for the first time in 50 years to the largest homicide drop on record, trillions in reshored investments, peace deals ending multiple wars, record energy production, and massive bureaucracy cuts, President Trump has put America First with urgency — and he’s just getting started.

Here are 365 wins from President Trump’s first 365 days back in office:

SECURING AMERICA’S BORDERS AND PUTTING AMERICANS FIRST

1. Achieved negative net migration in 2025, reversing a 50-year trend and restoring U.S. control over immigration flows for the first time in a generation.
2. Removed more than 2.6 million illegal aliens from the United States through deportations and voluntary self-departures.
3. Carried out over 650,000 arrests, detentions, and deportations of illegal aliens — including the worst of the worst criminal illegal alien killers, rapists, gang members, and repeat offenders.
4. Deported more than 400,000 illegal aliens charged with or convicted of crimes.
5. Induced two million self-deportations by ending Biden-era release incentives and restoring credible consequences.
6. Reduced illegal border crossings to their lowest level since the 1970s, completely eradicating the Biden-era invasion.
7. Cut fentanyl trafficking at the southern border by 56%.
8. Permanently ended dangerous “catch-and-release” policies nationwide by detaining illegal aliens rather than releasing them into the interior — resulting in a 99.9% decrease in illegals being released into the country during the Biden era.
9. Maintained zero illegal alien releases into the country’s homeland for eight consecutive months, restoring deterrence at the border.
10. Declared a national border emergency on Day One, unlocking the authorities and resources needed to restore order — no new legislation required.
11. Deployed National Guard and active-duty military forces to the southern border to support enforcement and repel the invasion.
12. Immediately resumed construction of the border wall — with dozens of miles of new construction underway or already completed, including new border barrier projects underway in El Paso and the Rio Grande Valley — to safeguard the homeland against future invasion.
13. Reinstated the successful Remain in Mexico policy, ensuring would-be illegal border crossers are not able to wait in the U.S. with little consequence as they await the resolution of their cases.
14. Repurposed the failed Biden-era CBP One app from a mass-entry tool into a self-deportation facilitation mechanism.
15. Achieved a 99% year-over-year collapse of Darién Gap migration traffic, stemming the tide of illegal alien traffic directly at the source.
16. Revoked over 100,000 visas tied to fraud, criminal activity, or national security concerns.
17. Revoked visas tied to pro-Hamas agitators on college campuses, restoring safety, free speech, and American values to universities across the nation.
18. Paused visa processing for 75 high-risk countries pending enhanced security vetting.
19. Blocked more than 10,000 individuals with narcoterrorism or cartel ties from entering the country
20. Conducted 206 million benefits-eligibility checks to ensure taxpayer-funded programs serve Americans and lawful residents only.
21. Terminated federal benefits for at least 1.4 million illegal aliens improperly receiving public assistance.
22. Cut the number of new foreign students in the U.S. by 17%.
23. Removed 275,000 illegal aliens from Social Security rolls, protecting program integrity.
24. Expanded ICE enforcement capacity through aggressive hiring and redeployment, doubling the workforce and garnering over 220,000 new ICE officer applications — the largest recruitment pool in the agency’s history.
25. Expanded federal detention capacity nationwide — including opening the largest migrant detention facility in U.S. history — to ensure detained means detained, not released back into our communities.
26. Enforced English-language proficiency requirements for commercial truck drivers to protect roadway safety, taking more than 9,500 non-compliant foreign truck drivers out of service.
27. Restored the Department of Homeland Security’s Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE) Office to provide direct support to victims of illegal alien crime.
28. Rescued 62,000 missing migrant children from trafficking, forced labor, and exploitation networks tied to illegal migration — most of whom were lost during the Biden Administration.
29. Drove the number of unaccompanied illegal immigrant children crossing into the country to a record low.
30. Invoked the Alien Enemies Act to deport brutal Tren de Aragua gang members.
31. Revoked Temporary Protected Status for over 500,000 migrants — a decision upheld by the Supreme Court.
32. Immediately suspended refugee resettlement and dramatically lowered the number of refugees allowed into the country — ensuring the U.S. does not become a safe haven to those who hate us.
33. Terminated temporary protected status for a variety of dangerous third-world countries, including Somalia, Venezuela, and Haiti.
34. Signed seven Safe Third Country agreements to facilitate and expedite deportations, defending the authority before the Supreme Court and winning.
35. Secured El Salvador’s agreement to accept deportees of any nationality, including violent criminals.
36. Added 85,000 new identities to the National Counterterrorism Center’s terrorist database.
37. Launched the ICE “Worst of the Worst” database, publicly identifying criminal illegal aliens.
38. Began the process of auditing Somali immigration cases for systemic fraud and potential denaturalization amid Minnesota’s Somali Fraud Scandal.
39. Terminated federal leftist NGO funding streams that facilitated or encouraged illegal migration.
40. Established five national defense areas along the southern border to mitigate illicit drug and human smuggling activity and to minimize the environmental damage and erosion caused by cross-border foot traffic, litter, and vehicle traffic.
41. Restricted the entry of nationals from 39 terror-prone countries.
42. Targeted so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions giving safe harbor to criminal illegal aliens by cutting grant funding and other discretionary programming.
43. Imposed a $100,000 payment to accompany or supplement H-1B petitions.
44. Filed multiple lawsuits against states and cities obstructing federal immigration law.
45. Conducted sustained interior enforcement operations in so-called “sanctuary” cities, removing thousands of criminal illegal aliens from our streets.
46. Forced Canada and Mexico to take meaningful steps to address fentanyl trafficked into the U.S.
47. Implemented an additional 10% tariff on imports from China in order to stem the flow of illegal aliens and fentanyl trafficked into our country.
48. Imposed crippling sanctions on some of the world’s most deadly cartels.
49. Signed the Laken Riley Act into law, a law that requires illegal aliens arrested or charged with theft or violence to be detained — honoring the memory of Laken Riley, a Georgia college student brutally murdered by an illegal immigrant released into the country.
50. Directed the Department of Justice to pursue the death penalty in capital crimes committed by illegal immigrants.
51. Immediately signed an executive order ending birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants.
52. Deported illegal immigrant killers, rapists, and drug dealers en masse — including scores of convicted killers, child molesters, child pornographers, gang members, terrorists, drug dealers, and other imminent threats to public safety.

MAKING OUR COMMUNITIES SAFE AGAIN

53. Delivered the largest one-year decline in homicides in U.S. history by launching targeted federal crime crackdowns and ending Biden-era non-enforcement.
54. Reversed the nationwide violent crime surge, driving nationwide drops in rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults by 6%, 19%, and 10%, respectively.
55. Cut overdose deaths by 21% over last year, with overdose deaths declining each month since President Trump took office.
56. Designated fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction to rapidly dismantle trafficking networks.
57. Oversaw a 25% decrease in the number of on-duty law enforcement officer deaths.
58. Launched the D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force, conducting 7,500+ arrests, seizing 735 illegal firearms, removing 80+ homeless encampments fueling crime and disorder, and reducing murders by over 60% following the federal intervention.
59. Launched the Memphis Safe Task Force to combat violent crime, reducing murders to their lowest level in 20 years and driving a 40% drop in shootings.
60. Conducted targeted enforcement operations in Chicago, resulting in the city’s fewest murders since 1965 and shootings falling by more than a third.
61. Conducted targeted enforcement operations in New Orleans, which saw its homicide rate drop to its lowest level in 50 years.
62. Dismantled Tren de Aragua, MS-13, and other transnational gang-related criminal networks by designating cartels as terrorist organizations.
63. Oversaw plummeting traffic fatalities across the country, in part as a result of President Trump’s mass deportations and removal of non-English speaking commercial truck drivers.
64. Oversaw significant reductions in illegal alien visits to emergency rooms, freeing up critical resources to better serve American citizens in need of urgent medical care.
65. Designated Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization and opened investigations into its Radical Left funding sources.
66. Captured a record number of criminals on the FBI’s Most Wanted List — outpacing the number captured under Biden in just one year.
67. Strengthened the ability of state and local law enforcement to pursue criminals and protect innocent Americans.

REBUILDING AN ECONOMY FOR WORKING AMERICANS

68. Drove gas prices to their lowest level in nearly five years, with prices below $3 per gallon in 43 states and below $2 per gallon in 19 states.
69. Created 654,000 private-sector jobs following deregulation, tax relief, and restored investment confidence.
70. Ensured 100% of net job growth went to native-born Americans by enforcing immigration laws.
71. Achieved massive economic growth, with real GDP rising 4.3% in the third quarter of 2025 — smashing economists’ expectations and setting the stage for future growth, with GDP projected to be even higher in the fourth quarter as President Trump’s policies continue to take effect.
72. Oversaw the largest increase in blue-collar wage growth in nearly 60 years.
73. Increased private-sector real earnings by $1,100 annually — earning back some of the $2,900 in purchasing power workers lost under Biden.
74. Tamed inflation, running at just 2.4% since President Trump took office — down 70% from its Biden-era peak.
75. Brought inflation under control by enforcing fiscal restraint, reversing runaway spending growth, and restoring policy credibility, driving core inflation to multi-year lows.
76. Achieved the lowest mortgage rates in three years by stabilizing mortgage-backed securities markets and expanding liquidity — driving monthly housing payments to their most affordable levels in over two years.
77. Oversaw existing home sales rising to the strongest pace in three years as income growth finally outpaces home price gains.
78. Delivered a historic stock-market rebound, with the major stock indices all hitting repeated new record highs.
79. Signed the Working Families Tax Cut, delivering the largest middle-class tax relief package in modern U.S. history and saving 5.9 million jobs.
80. Delivered on his No Tax on Tips campaign promise.
81. Delivered on his No Tax on Overtime campaign promise.
82. Delivered on his No Tax on Social Security campaign promise for our great seniors.
83. Delivered unprecedented tax relief for small businesses and other key industries, building on the successful Tax Cuts and Jobs Act from his first term and opening the door for new levels of prosperity to come.
84. Secured congressional passage of a $9 billion rescissions package, permanently canceling wasteful spending — like the wasteful taxpayer funding of NPR and PBS.
85. Terminated wasteful foreign aid programs inconsistent with America First priorities through a $5 billion pocket rescission.
86. Reduced wholesale egg prices by 89% following the Trump Administration’s intervention, supply stabilization, and regulatory relief.
87. Delivered a 4% nominal private sector weekly wage increase — resoundingly beating inflation.
88. Directed credit card companies to cap interest rates at 10% to provide Americans needed relief.
89. Cut the U.S. trade deficit to its lowest level since 2009 through tariff enforcement and reciprocal trade pressure.
90. Launched the largest deregulation initiative in U.S. history, delivering $5 trillion in savings.
91. Created Trump Accounts to empower the next generation of Americans through tax-advantaged savings accounts for newborns — projected to provide them with as much as $300,000 come their 18th birthday.
92. Garnered overwhelming private sector support for Trump Accounts, with Michael and Susan Dell donating $6.25 billion and major corporations such as SoFi, Charles Schwab, and Charter Communications matching the federal government’s $1,000 contribution for employees.
93. Secured roughly $10 trillion in new domestic investment, onshoring jobs and revitalizing American manufacturing.
94. Delivered $12 billion in much needed direct aid to American farmers through USDA emergency support initiatives — helping farmers and ranchers recover after losses induced during the Biden Administration.
95. Negotiated massive soybean purchase agreements with China and Bangladesh, reopening critical export markets.
96. Approved $50 billion in rural healthcare funding — the largest investment in rural hospitals in history.
97. Reduced rent growth to its slowest pace since 2021.
98. Reduced weekly jobless claims to their lowest in years.
99. Taking action to lower housing costs by authorizing Treasury-backed mortgage bond purchases and calling for a ban on large-scale institutional investors buying up supply.
100. Marked the strongest year for new vehicle sales since 2019, with Ford achieving its best annual sales in six years, General Motors reporting soaring overall sales, and Stellantis seeing Jeep brand sales rise for the first time since 2018.
101. Oversaw price declines for both new and used vehicles.
102. Reversed onerous Biden-era fuel economy standards that would have added nearly $1,000 to the cost of the average new vehicle, delivering billions in savings for consumers.
103. Opened the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument to commercial fishing, undoing a nonsensical Biden-era ban and boosting the economy of American Samoa and other Pacific islands.
104. Took executive action to restore American seafood competitiveness by reducing regulatory burdens, combating unfair foreign trade practices, and enhancing domestic seafood production and exports.

CHAMPIONING AMERICAN WORKERS AND AMERICAN INDUSTRY

105. Launched a plan for fair and reciprocal trade, making clear to the world that the United States will no longer tolerate being ripped off and directing his Administration to confront non-reciprocal trade barriers and negotiate fairer market access for U.S. exports.
106. Secured new and improved trade agreements with major U.S. trading partners covering more than half of global GDP — including the United Kingdom, European Union, Japan, China, Republic of Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Israel, Switzerland, the Philippines, and Cambodia.
107. Sent tariff revenues soaring, collecting $300 billion under expanded enforcement and new policies.
108. Reduced the trade deficit to its lowest since 2009.
109. Brought U.S. exports to their second-highest value on record.
110. Restored a 25% tariff on steel imports and elevated the tariff to 25% on aluminum imports to protect these critical American industries from unfair foreign competition – a move praised by the Steel Manufacturers Association, the Aluminum Association, and businesses across the country.
111. Invoked Section 232 tariffs to protect U.S. critical minerals and semiconductor supply chains.
112. Slowed the growth of the federal deficit through rescissions and discretionary spending restraint.
113. Expanded skilled-trade training programs through Labor grants and executive direction.
114. Approved major U.S. auto manufacturing expansions following reshoring incentives.
115. Approved new heavy-equipment and appliance manufacturing facilities across multiple states.
116. Expanded domestic semiconductor manufacturing capacity through trade enforcement and industrial policy.
117. Finalized a TikTok national security deal to place the platform under U.S. ownership, protecting Americans’ data and cutting Chinese leverage.
118. Directed the Treasury to stop production of the penny — which costs 3.69 cents each to make — eliminating a recurring loss for taxpayers and modernizing U.S. coinage.
119. Ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — the brainchild of Elizabeth Warren, which funneled cash to left-wing advocacy groups — to halt operations, ending a Biden-era regulatory weapon that targeted lawful lenders and raised consumer costs.
120. Paused enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by executive order, reducing extraterritorial overreach that disadvantaged U.S. companies competing abroad.
121. Forced Canada to walk back its digital services tax after President Trump halted trade negotiations, defending American technology companies from discriminatory foreign taxation.
122. Launched USDA’s National Farm Security Action Plan, treating food and agriculture as national security and hardening the supply chain against foreign adversaries.
123. Laid out a visionary plan to establish a Sovereign Wealth Fund to maximize the stewardship of the $5+ trillion in assets held by the United States, strengthening national financial resilience.
124. Delivered the strongest first-year economic performance in modern history, pairing lower inflation and energy costs with tax relief, investment, and America First trade enforcement.
125. Announced new tariffs on movies produced in foreign countries in an effort to boost the American film industry.
126. Signed an executive order to restore a robust domestic manufacturing base for prescription drugs and promote domestic production of critical medicines — leading to billions in new U.S.-based investment from domestic and international drug companies.
127. Launched an Onshoring Portal to connect small businesses with a network of more than one million domestic suppliers and producers.

IGNITING AMERICAN INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

128. Solidified the U.S. position as the world leader in artificial intelligence, attracting $2.7 trillion in tech and AI investment.
129. Secured $90 billion in AI and energy investment in Pennsylvania alone through direct presidential engagement and relentless advocacy for the commonwealth’s resources.
130. Reached a deal for the U.S. government to acquire a 10% stake in chipmaker Intel, with Intel’s stock roughly doubling since.
131. Launched the Presidential Artificial Intelligence (AI) Challenge, inviting K-12 students and educators across America to participate.
132. Expanded spectrum access through FCC action, lowering wireless phone plan costs.
133. Launched the FCC’s “Build American Agenda,” expanding wireless competition and accelerating high-speed infrastructure buildout.
134. Announced the U.S. Space Command will be relocating to Huntsville, Alabama, creating 30,000 jobs and hundreds of billions of dollars in investment.
135. NASA announced the U.S. will return to the moon before President Trump leaves office.
136. Unveiled America’s AI Action Plan to maintain U.S. AI dominance.
137. Signed legislation repealing the overbearing Biden-era “DeFi Crypto Broker Rule,” marking the first time a cryptocurrency bill has ever been signed into law by a president.
138. Established a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve to manage U.S. crypto assets seized via criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings.
139. Signed the GENIUS Act into law, establishing the first-ever U.S. regulatory framework for stablecoins.
140. Ended Operation Choke Point 2.0, the Biden-era crackdown on digital assets.

REASSERTING AMERICAN LEADERSHIP ON THE WORLD STAGE

141. Ended the Israel–Hamas war by imposing a ceasefire framework, securing the release of hostages, and enacting a landmark Gaza Peace Plan to unleash total security and prosperity for all in the region.
142. Brokered an end to the 12-Day War between Israel and Iran.
143. Brokered peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
144. Brokered peace between India and Pakistan.
145. Brokered peace between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.
146. Brokered peace between Cambodia and Thailand.
147. Brokered normalization between Kosovo and Serbia.
148. Brokered peace between Egypt and Ethiopia.
149. Established a U.S.-backed framework to end the Ukraine–Russia war, setting enforceable ceasefire benchmarks and reconstruction incentives.
150. Restored maximum pressure on Iran.
151. Destroyed Iran’s nuclear weapons capability through coordinated military action, sanctions escalation, and intelligence operations.
152. Directed the Secretary of State to declare that U.S. foreign policy will “always put America and American citizens first.”
153. Declared all foreign policy must be conducted under the President’s direction, ensuring career diplomats reflect the foreign policy of the United States at all times.
154. Initiated the process to build a next-generation Golden Dome missile defense system to protect our homeland from 21st Century threats — and secured initial funding for it in the Working Families Tax Cuts Act.
155. Added 29 new reward offers for designated targets under the Narcotics and Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Programs, including the highest reward offer in program history: a $50 million reward offer for the now-captured narcoterrorist dictator Nicolás Maduro.
156. Secured an agreement from NATO member nations to raise their defense spending to 5% of their GDP — a remarkable foreign policy feat long thought impossible.
157. Pressured Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino to withdraw from China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a debt-trap diplomacy scheme the Chinese Communist Party uses to gain influence over developing nations.
158. Authorized lethal U.S. strikes on narcoterrorist vessels supplying fentanyl to the U.S., killing at least 123 narcoterrorists.
159. Achieved a ceasefire with Houthi terrorists in Yemen, restoring freedom of navigation in the Red Sea for U.S.-flagged ships.
160. Redesignated the Iran-backed Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
161. Secured the capture of long-wanted narcoterrorist Nicolás Maduro, paving the way for his prosecution in the U.S.
162. Signed a joint statement of intent with Canada and Finland to increase icebreaker production and counteract Russian influence in the Arctic.
163. Secured an agreement from Venezuela to turn over 30-50 million barrels of sanctioned oil to the U.S.
164. Seized sanctioned Venezuelan oil tankers to cut off funding for the Maduro regime.
165. Sanctioned Venezuela’s shadow oil fleet, crippling the regime’s illicit revenue streams.
166. Enforced sweeping sanctions against the Iranian regime and its allies.
167. Eliminated ISIS Chief of Global Operations Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rifai, the second most powerful leader in the Islamic State.
168. Arrested the ISIS-K terrorist who orchestrated the murders of 13 U.S. service members at Abbey Gate.
169. Eliminated Al-Qaeda affiliate leader Bilal Hasan al-Jasim in northwest Syria.
170. Secured the release of 85 detained Americans abroad.
171. Secured the release of political prisoners in Nicaragua and Venezuela through direct diplomatic pressure.
172. Designated the Egyptian and Jordanian branches of the Muslim Brotherhood as Foreign Terrorist Organizations for supporting Hamas.
173. Designated more than ten major Latin American cartels as terrorist organizations, expanding U.S. counterterror authorities.
174. Ordered U.S. strikes against ISIS leadership in Nigeria to protect Christian communities.
175. Rebuilt Indo‑Pacific alliances by restoring U.S. deterrence and concluding new security and trade agreements.
176. Welcomed the first flight of Afrikaner refugees from South Africa after the rise of racial discrimination in their home country.
177. Expanded the Abraham Accords to include Kazakhstan.
178. Launched an unprecedented reorganization at the Department of State to reverse decades of bloat and bureaucracy that rendered it unable to perform its essential diplomatic mission.
179. Secured the safe return of NASA astronauts who were stranded in space for nine months by the Biden Administration.
180. Directed the creation of a Maritime Action Plan to Make American Shipbuilding Great Again and ensure American maritime dominance.
181. Stopped the waste, fraud, and abuse within USAID — ensuring taxpayers are no longer on the hook for funding the pet projects of entrenched bureaucrats, such as sex changes in Guatemala.
182. Banned funding to UNRWA — a United Nations agency that employed hundreds of Hamas and jihad operatives.
183. Imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court, which has illegitimately asserted jurisdiction over internal U.S. matters.
184. Reinstated the Mexico City Policy to ensure no taxpayer dollars support foreign organizations that perform, or actively promote, abortion in other nations.
185. Ordered embassies worldwide to only fly the American flag — not activist flags.
186. Rejoined the Geneva Consensus Declaration, which promotes and strengthens opportunities for women and girls around the world, and protects the family as the fundamental unit of society.

FORGING A STRONGER, MODERNIZED MILITARY FORCE

187. Met or exceeded military recruitment goals across all branches by restoring pride, pay, and mission clarity as the Armed Forces returns to its warfighting standards of excellence.
188. Made the largest military investment in decades, modernizing our forces with cutting-edge technology, rebuilding depleted stockpiles, and ensuring our troops are the best-equipped in history.
189. Modernized U.S. military capabilities through accelerated weapons development and procurement reform.
190. Integrated artificial intelligence into U.S. defense planning and battlefield operations.
191. Improved overall military readiness by reversing Biden‑era diversity mandates and readiness declines.
192. Delivered a $1,776 Warrior Dividend to nearly 1.5 million service members.
193. Reduced the VA benefits backlog by 60% through management reform and accountability — after it increased by 24% under Biden.
194. Processed a record three million veterans’ disability claims at the VA over the past year.
195. Opened 25 new VA healthcare clinics to expand access for veterans.
196. Permanently housed 51,936 homeless veterans across the country through VA services in FY25 — the highest total in seven years.
197. Reinstated troops and restored benefits eligibility for service members discharged under Biden-era COVID vaccine mandates.
198. Barred transgender individuals from enlisting in the U.S. military.
199. Overhauled the U.S. military’s physical and grooming guidelines to ensure the force is meeting the highest possible standard.
200. Stopped taxpayer funds from being used for sex-change surgeries among military personnel.
201. Directed the Department of War to end its nonsensical “diversity, equity, and inclusion” measures that inhibited service members from meeting their mission.
202. Reformed VA home loan protections to prevent veteran foreclosures.
203. Reduced veteran homelessness through targeted federal‑state coordination.
204. Strengthened military family support programs and benefits.
205. Signed an executive order exempting agencies with national security missions from federal collective bargaining requirements in order to bolster border, national, and energy security.
206. Expanded the U.S. defense industrial base to reduce reliance on foreign suppliers.
207. Strengthened U.S. cyber defenses against foreign attacks.
208. Ordered the immediate dismissal of the Board of Visitors for the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Coast Guard following years of woke ideologies infiltrating U.S. service academies.
209. Restored Fort Liberty, North Carolina, to “Fort Bragg,” in honor of a World War II hero.
210. Renamed Fort Moore, Georgia, as “Fort Benning” in honor of a World War I hero.
211. Expanded U.S. space security initiatives to protect American satellites.
212. Cut off global terror financing networks through Treasury sanctions.
213. Blacklisted dozens of Chinese companies in a bid to reduce the Chinese Communist Party’s intellectual property theft.
214. Strengthened intelligence sharing with U.S. allies.
215. Unveiled the F-47, the world’s first sixth-generation fighter jet.
216. Announced Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Michigan will soon be home to the new F-15EW Eagle II fighter jets.
217. Conducted dozens of leader-level meetings with foreign nations, surpassing the totals of Biden and Obama at this point in their presidencies.
218. Declared May 8 as “Victory Day for World War II” and November 11 as “Victory Day for World War I” in recognition of America’s role in winning the two wars.

MAKING GOVERNMENT WORK FOR THE PEOPLE

219. Saved an estimated $215 billion — equivalent to $1,335 per U.S. taxpayer — through the Trump Administration’s government efficiency efforts.
220. Signed 228 executive orders, rapidly implementing core campaign promises without delay or drift — the most in a single term in decades.
221. Eliminated discriminatory “diversity, equity, and inclusion” offices, employees, and practices across the bureaucracy alongside a return to merit-based hiring.
222. Eliminated race- and sex-based hiring preferences across the executive branch.
223. Directed agencies to dismantle Biden-era federal censorship operations, restoring free speech protections.
224. Ended federal funding for chemical and surgical gender procedures for minors through executive action and regulatory enforcement, driving the end to these harmful procedures for minors at health systems across the country.
225. Ended the unfair, demeaning practice of forcing women to compete against men in sports — which resulted in the NCAA changing its rules and local and state athletics organizations following suit.
226. Made it the official policy of the U.S. government that there are only two sexes.
227. Pardoned pro-life Americans wrongly targeted by the Biden Administration.
228. Launched full-scale investigations into deep state abuses — bringing the era of weaponized government to an end and restoring fairness and trust in American institutions.
229. Rolled out new merit-based federal hiring plans, ensuring the government’s hiring decisions are based on merit only — including at the Federal Aviation Administration, where the Biden Administration specifically recruited individuals with intellectual disabilities and psychiatric issues.
230. Dramatically downsized the scope of the federal bureaucracy, ensuring government is serving the taxpayers who fund it by cutting the waste, fraud, and abuse that has permeated it for so long.
231. Terminated tens of thousands of contracts across all federal agencies, saving taxpayers billions of dollars in waste, fraud, and abuse.
232. Revoked the burdensome electric vehicle mandate and fortified this action by signing a congressional resolution into law.
233. Slashed job-killing regulations to unleash innovation, lower costs, and put American workers first.
234. Killed federal regulations at an astonishing 129-to-one rate — far topping the rate at which red tape was cut during President Trump’s first term.
235. Implemented nationwide election integrity measures through executive action, banning foreign nationals from election interference, strengthening voter citizenship verification, prosecuting non-citizen voting, requiring voter-verifiable paper ballot records, and ensuring state-by-state compliance with federal law.
236. Signed an executive order mandating that Federal public buildings, such as courthouses and government office buildings, embrace classical architecture to honor tradition, foster civic pride, and inspire the citizenry.
237. Officially began the process of closing the Department of Education and returning education to the states after more than four decades and over $3 trillion spent on education, with virtually nothing to show for it.
238. Signed an executive order dismantling censorship.
239. Signed an executive order protecting religious freedoms.
240. Signed an executive order safeguarding Second Amendment rights.
241. Released records related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy with no redactions.
242. Released troves of previously classified records related to the assassinations of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as the disappearance of Amelia Earhart.
243. Stripped notorious crackhead and grifter Hunter Biden of his taxpayer-funded Secret Service detail.
244. Directed the administration to take all necessary steps to defend Americans’ constitutional rights from overreach.
245. Signed an executive order to end the use of paper straws.
246. Ended federal funding for dangerous gain-of-function research in foreign countries.
247. Directed all federal agencies to protect religious expression in the workplace.
248. Answered 65% more calls to the Social Security Administration compared to the prior year.
249. Reduced the average speed of answer for customer calls to the Social Security Administration to single digits.
250. Enhanced Social Security for our great seniors while keeping President Trump’s promise not to touch benefits.
251. Revoked waivers that allowed certain colleges to divert federal funds intended for low-income students and students with disabilities to illegal immigrants.
252. Canceled taxpayer-backed mortgages for illegal immigrants.
253. Shut down the wasteful Biden-era “Climate Corps” work program.
254. Ended the wasteful Federal Executive Institute, which had become a training ground for bureaucrats.
255. Held higher education institutions accountable for their discriminatory “diversity, equity, and inclusion” policies and for allowing anti-Semitism to flourish on their campuses, driving settlements with Northwestern University Cornell University, the University of Virginia, Brown University, Columbia University, and the University of Pennsylvania.
256. Signed an executive order barring COVID-19 vaccine mandates in schools that receive federal funding.
257. Reinstated the name “Mount McKinley” to North America’s highest peak.
258. Reversed the massive over-expansion of the IRS that took place during the Biden Administration.
259. Proclaimed “Gulf of America Day” after the Department of the Interior officially changed the name on its mapping database.
260. Designated English as the official language of the U.S.
261. Developed “retire.opm.gov,” a reimagined website that automates federal retirements after decades of retirement records being stored in an underground mine.
262. Oversaw a dramatic decline in federal employment, reducing the waste and bloat that has plagued the federal bureaucracy for too long.
263. Forced bureaucrats back into the office, with the percentage of federal employees working in-office increasing 30% in the second quarter of 2025.
264. Revoked more than 100 security clearances of deep state actors responsible for weaponizing and politicizing intelligence, including Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Alvin Bragg, Jake Sullivan, Hillary Clinton, Letitia James, Liz Cheney, John Bolton, Adam Kinzinger, Anthony Blinken, James Clapper, and Fiona Hill.
265. Signed an executive order modernizing American workforce programs to prepare citizens for the high-paying skilled trade jobs of the future.
266. Reinstated critical reports canceled by the Biden Administration, including the July Cattle Report and the County Estimates for Crops and Livestock — giving farmers the data needed to make important decisions for their operations.
267. Fired members of The Trump-Kennedy Center’s Board of Trustees amid their obsession with perpetuating radical, left-wing ideology at taxpayer expense.
268. Improved average disaster loan approval time to just 17 days, accelerating recovery for disaster-impacted communities.
269. Unveiled a plan to completely overhaul the nation’s air traffic control system, building on the unprecedented actions already taken to secure America’s skies and improve air travel.
270. Conducted dozens of investigations into higher learning institutions under Title VI for alleged impermissible use of race-exclusionary preferences, race-based scholarships, and/or race-based segregation.
271. Established the White House Faith Office to protect Americans’ religious liberty.
272. Remained the most transparent, accessible Administration in modern history, with President Trump speaking for over 13,400 minutes and talking to the press at 74% of his events.
273. Dramatically increased the scope of credentialed reporters in the White House press briefing room to ensure Americans of all backgrounds are in touch with their government.
274. Reinstated press privileges for roughly 440 journalists who the Biden Administration sought to silence.
275. Ordered the immediate declassification of all FBI files related to the sham Crossfire Hurricane investigation.
276. Forced a host of companies, including Disney and Goldman Sachs, to end harmful, woke, and discriminatory DEI practices.
277. Eliminated the unpopular vehicle stop-start requirement that drove up costs.
278. Authorized the production of affordable and efficient “tiny cars,” reversing burdensome regulations that prevented their manufacturing.
279. Directed the Office of the Federal Register to speed up publishing time and decrease costs, enabling agencies to more quickly and effectively restore freedom through President Trump’s deregulatory agenda.
280. Resumed collections for student borrowers in default following a five-year pause and reminded institutions of their obligations to support student loan borrowers
281. Rescinded waivers that allowed California and over a dozen other states to set their own emission standards and electric vehicle sales mandates.
282. Ordered federal agencies to hire no more than one employee for every four employees who leave.
283. Signed executive orders to protect America’s bank account against waste, fraud, and abuse and modernize payments.
284. Pressured Citibank into ending their restrictive, politically motivated “de-banking” policies.
285. Signed an executive order to remove anti-American propaganda from federal museums and national parks.
286. Signed an executive order to ensure no one is transformed into a criminal for violating a regulation they have no reason to know exists.
287. Enhanced enforcement for making sure states appropriately and lawfully preserve SNAP benefits for only eligible Americans.
288. Released a comprehensive review of so-called “gender-affirming care,” finding no strong medical or scientific evidence exists to support the treatment’s irreversible effects.
289. Terminated all beagle experiments on the National Institutes of Health campus.
290. Halted the Biden-era ban on fossil fuels in federal buildings, ensuring they are utilizing the most efficient power available to lower taxpayer costs and curb regulatory overreach.
291. Directed states to maximize parental options for choosing the best, safest schools for their children.
292. Ordered the automatic recission of outdated regulations on American energy production and innovation.
293. Signed an executive order overhauling the nation’s higher education accreditation system to ensure colleges and universities deliver high-quality, high-value education free from unlawful discrimination and ideological bias.
294. Signed a landmark executive order eliminating the use of so-called “disparate-impact liability,” which undermines civil rights by mandating discrimination to achieve predetermined, race-oriented outcomes.
295. Strengthened probationary periods in the federal service — ensuring a merit-based federal workforce that serves the American people.
296. Constructed giant new American flags on the White House grounds as a symbol of American strength.
297. Achieved the fastest pace of Senate cabinet-level confirmations than any Administration in recent memory, with the majority of President Trump’s cabinet earning confirmation in the first month.

MAKING AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN

298. Implemented Most Favored Nation drug pricing, securing deals with 16 of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies to guarantee Americans pay the same low prices other developed nations receive.
299. Revamped the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition, and restored the iconic Presidential Fitness test for America’s youth.
300. Signed the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act into law, restoring whole and 2% milk in schools to improve childhood nutrition.
301. Phased out eight artificial food dyes and approved four natural replacements.
302. Made incredible strides in the effort to Make America Healthy Again, with roughly 40% of the American food industry — including major corporations like Walmart, Hershey and Nestlé — agreeing to eliminate artificial dyes from their products.
303. Launched the Great Healthcare Plan, a comprehensive reform framework to lower drug prices, premiums, and out-of-pocket costs.
304. Announced Operation Stork Speed to expand options for safe, reliable, and nutritious infant formula for American families.
305. Signed an executive order reclassifying marijuana to Schedule III, accelerating medical research and patient access.
306. Signed an executive order modernizing the foster care system, expanding support for youth transitioning out of care.
307. Revised the childhood vaccine recommendations from 72 shots for 17 diseases to 11 “consensus vaccines,” with others available at the request of parents following conversations with their doctors.
308. Took executive action to expand access to in vitro fertilization (IVF).
309. Doubled childhood cancer data initiative funding.
310. Approved 67 new drugs, surpassing both the five-year and 20-year averages.
311. Launched a $50 million autism data science initiative to unlock causes and improve outcomes.
312. Announced a $61.9 million investment to strengthen nutrition in Head Start programs, expanding access to fresh, healthy food for more than 100,000 families.
313. Established the Make America Healthy Again Commission tasked with investigating and addressing the root causes of America’s escalating health crisis — with an initial focus on childhood chronic diseases.
314. Signed a multitude of waivers giving states the authority to remove junk food from their SNAP benefits programs.
315. Removed the COVID-19 vaccines from the list of shots recommended for healthy children and pregnant women.
316. Began publishing taxpayer-funded studies online for free to empower Americans’ own research and promote maximum transparency.
317. Ended a loophole that allowed ingredient manufacturers to utilize chemicals with unknown safety data in food.
318. Launched new studies to more closely examine autism.
319. Withdrew the U.S. from the World Health Organization.
320. Released groundbreaking new dietary guidelines that prioritize whole, nutrient-dense foods — “real food” — over processed junk.
321. Removed black-box warnings on menopause hormone therapies to empower access to women’s health.
322. Directed full enforcement of the Hyde Amendment, which bars taxpayer dollars from being used to fund or promote elective abortion.

UNLEASHING AMERICAN ENERGY DOMINANCE — AND COMMON SENSE

323. Immediately declared a National Energy Emergency to unlock America’s full energy potential and bring down costs for American families.
324. Set a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) export record, becoming the first country ever to export more than 100 million metric tons of LNG in a single year.
325. Reversed Biden-era drilling restrictions, approving nearly 6,000 applications for permits to drill for oil and gas on federal and Native American land — a 55% increase from the same time period in 2024-2025.
326. Re-opened hundreds of millions of acres to oil, gas, and coal production.
327. Announced the opening of 13.1 million more acres of federal land for coal leasing, tripling benchmarks set by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and delivering on President Trump’s directive to restore American Energy Dominance.
328. Achieved record domestic oil and natural gas production following expanded leasing and permitting.
329. Approved advanced nuclear energy projects through Department of Energy licensing and financing support, with multiple nuclear reactors set to come online by July 4, 2026.
330. Reinvigorated America’s Beautiful Clean Coal industry, investing hundreds of millions to boost coal production while rolling back decades of overregulation.
331. Terminated hundreds of Biden-era Green New Scam projects, including the $7.5 billion federal EV charger program, which, as of May 2024, had built just 8 EV charging stations.
332. Established the National Energy Dominance Council at the White House to advise on achieving energy dominance.
333. Directed the Administration to expeditiously implement the most effective mechanisms, barriers, and other measures to prevent the migration and expansion of invasive carp in the Great Lakes Basin and the surrounding region.
334. Took action to revoke the 2009 Barack Hussein Obama-era Endangerment Finding, which accounted for trillions of dollars in regulatory costs.
335. Eliminated the costly Biden-era Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, saving Americans $109 billion over the next five years.
336. Empowered consumer choice for everyday items such as vehicles, straws, shower heads, toilets, washing machines, lightbulbs, stoves and dishwashers, saving U.S. consumers tens of billions.
337. Eliminated useless water pressure standards that make household appliances less effective and more expensive.
338. Withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement, as well as dozens of globalist climate organizations.
339. Identified 28.3 trillion cubic feet of gas and 1.6 billion barrels of previously undiscovered oil in the Permian Basin.
340. Successfully pushed major technology corporations to cover the full electricity costs of their data centers.
341. Returned tens of billions of dollars of Green New Scam spending to American taxpayers.
342. Expedited a variety of crucial infrastructure projects by slashing red tape, including the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant in San Diego and the I-40 highway in North Carolina.
343. Eliminated the Diesel Exhaust Fluid requirement, saving family farmers $727 million annually.
344. Halted the construction of costly and environmentally harmful offshore wind turbines.
345. Brought in over $350 million through oil and gas lease sales — more revenue than in all four years of the Biden Administration combined.
346. Launched a pathway for agencies to accomplish permitting reform at record speed, pushing back on environmental regulations that have been weaponized to stall growth.
347. Signed historic energy export deals, including a $100 billion deal with South Korea and a $200 billion deal with Japanese energy company JERA.
348. Fast-tracked uranium mining – a move that strengthened national security by reducing dependence on foreign suppliers.
349. Reduced the energy and critical minerals permitting processes from multiple years to, at most, 28 days.
350. Disbursed hundreds of millions in energy revenues to oil-and-gas-producing states.
351. Secured an agreement with Mexico for an immediate transfer of water from international reservoirs to Texas farmers and ranchers.
352. Cut red tape that accounted for 60% of the building and purchasing costs of new Department of Energy laboratories.
353. Granted the beautiful clean coal industry relief from stringent Biden-era rules on coal-fired power plants.
354. Signed an executive order to reinvigorate the beautiful clean coal industry after decades of neglect by politicians.
355. Signed an executive order to strengthen the reliability and security of the electric grid.
356. Implemented permanent pay increases for wildland firefighters.
357. Reopened 1.56 million acres of the Alaska Coastal Plain to oil and gas leasing — reversing the Biden Administration’s 2024 plan that restricted development to the statutory minimum.
358. Distribute high-assay low-enriched uranium to U.S. nuclear developers as part of President Trump’s commitment to unleashing all sources of affordable, reliable, and safe American energy.
359. Signed a repeal of the Biden-era natural gas tax into law.
360. Overrode bureaucratic red tape that limited water availability in California following the failure of the state’s water system during the devastating wildfires.
361. Held a record-breaking geothermal lease sale in October — the largest ever by dollar amount — totaling nearly $9.5 million in revenue.
362. Scrapped Biden-era rules and regulations on greenhouse gases.
363. Generated $24 million in total receipts from leasing 141 parcels totaling 451,893 acres at competitive geothermal lease sales in California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, and Utah.
364. Signed an executive order expanding U.S. production of critical minerals to reduce reliance on China.
365. Announced new hunting opportunities across 87,000 acres within the National Wildlife Refuge System and National Fish Hatchery System to more than triple the number of opportunities and quintuple the number of stations opened or expanded compared to the Biden Administration.

Barry Reisman Ends Six-Decade Reign as King of Jewish Music Radio By Andrew Guckes

Source: https://www.jewishexponent.com/barry-reisman-ends-six-decade-reign-as-king-of-jewish-music-radio/ and https://dmag.jewishexponent.com/June-5-2025/index.html

May 30, 2025

For 60 years, Barry Reisman has been on the air.

He has been at a handful of stations in that time, but his program has always been the same: a lively show with all sorts of Jewish music and guests.

Now, he has finally called it quits.

“It was time,” he said.

His final show at WWDB-AM 860 was on April 27, and it marked the end of one of the longest-tenured radio shows of any kind in the country. Beginning in 1965, Reisman hosted the titular Barry Reisman Show, playing klezmer, Israeli music and more and talking to A-list Jews like Yitzhak Rabin, William Shatner and Milton Berle.

The show has been a staple for not just Philadelphia Jews, but Jews worldwide. Reisman said that he didn’t even realize this until he announced his retirement and got emails from listeners from across the globe.

In the short time that Reisman has been off the air, he has managed to fill his time with more radio. That means listening to programs that he had been missing while he was doing his own, as well as working to help the station he called home.

“I love radio. That’s my life,” he said. “I’m not done entirely. I’ve given up the earphones and microphone, but I’m still involved with putting new accounts and new programs on air, and so on.”

For Reisman, a career in radio was always the plan. He said that he knew he wanted to be on the air from a young age and decided to make it happen.

“I went to a small radio station and presented them with an idea of doing a Jewish music program. They said they would give it a try for a half hour a week for 13 weeks, and they said, ‘We’ll see what happens,’” he recalled. “To make a long story short, it turned into six days a week, an hour every day.”

The show was a hit from the beginning. According to the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia, the show’s style more closely resembled the fast-paced modern music shows, while the content remained thoroughly Jewish. While the music was often in Yiddish or Hebrew, Reisman spoke in English.

The proof of its success is found all through the history of the show. For one, even when the station changed ownership or formatting, there was always another station willing to take it on.

“I never actually missed a week on air,” Reisman said.

The show began in 1965 at WWDB, or WTEL back then, before moving to WQAL-FM not long after that. In 1969, it shifted to WIBF-FM, where it stayed for 23 years.

In 1992, the station was sold and Reisman moved to WSSJ-AM. In 1999, Reisman went to WNWR-AM 1540. It remained there until the station changed formats in 2011. At that point, the show came home to WWDB, where it stayed until Reisman’s retirement last month. Another testament to the show’s unique value is that the stations he was departing from always let him inform audiences of its next home. Reisman said that is a rarity in radio.

Through all of that, listeners kept tuning in and guests kept stopping by to chat. Reisman said that one guest in particular was his favorite: Jewish funnyman Jackie Mason.

“He must have been on the air with me 50 times,” Reisman said. “I never knew what he was going to say and we never rehearsed any interviews.”

There was another guest that some listeners at the time were surprised to hear on the program: Cher. While she isn’t Jewish, Cher was and is a proponent of voting. At the peak of her fame, Cher’s people called in to the station without much notice.

“I got a call about 15 minutes before air time, and this was close to an election,” Reisman said. “They wanted to know if I’d be interested in interviewing Cher. We did about a 15-minute conversation, and it was nice. She didn’t support anybody [during the conversation]; she just said to go out and vote, and that’s it. Then we talked about her records and career. It was a surprise.”

With Reisman’s program coming to an end, a hole has been created in the world of Jewish media. Cantor Scott Borsky has taken over the time slot with a program that is focused more on generally spiritual music that applies across religious lines — although that still includes plenty of Jewish music, too. He said that he is working hard to follow in the footsteps of a legend.

“I have been doing my best to fill the wonderfully huge shoes of Barry, and that is no easy task. As you know, he is an icon in the Delaware Valley, not only for the music he plays but also the Judaism he supports, the Israel he supports, and making Jewish music part of people’s lives — l’dor v’dor — from generation to generation,” Borsky said.

For Jews around the world and for more than half a century, tuning in to Barry Reisman’s show meant familiarity and comfort. The Barry Reisman show outlived most of its peer programs, not to mention a handful of antisemitic political parties, juntas and dictators. In a world where being Jewish often means you have a target on your back, Reisman always stood tall and spoke loud. He said he hopes that younger generations can preserve the importance of Jewish music.

“Jewish music is the language of their parents and grandparents,” he said.

For Borsky, Reisman’s contributions go deeper than simply providing a place for Jews to listen to their music.

“He has been the driving force in keeping Jewish music, Israeli music and Yiddish music alive in the hearts of adults, teens and children,” he said. “He has been in our lives for generations.”

aguckes@midatlanticmedia.com

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Local DJ closing in on 50 years of spinning Jewish platters By Chuck Darrow

Source: https://www.inquirer.com/philly/entertainment/music/20140924_Local_DJ_closing_in_on_50_years_of_spinning_Jewish_platters.html

Sept. 24, 2014

Barry Reisman, the program host at WWDB-AM 860 in Bala Cynwyd, PA. ( ALEJANDRO A. ALVAREZ / Staff photographer )

Barry Reisman has been up and down the dial occupying a unique niche in local broadcasting since 1965.

HE ISN'T a turbocharged, larger-than-life character, like Jerry Blavat. Nor is he a benign presence still embracing the peace-and-love ethos of the 1960s, like Pierre Robert. Or an agent provocateur, nonchalantly hurling verbal Molotov cocktails, on the order of Angelo Cataldi or Howard Eskin.

Nonetheless, there's no question that Barry Reisman is as much a local radio institution as any of the above-named broadcasters.

Since 1965, Reisman has occupied a unique niche on the local airwaves as the Delaware Valley's go-to source for Jewish music, playing records by an eclectic roster of performers, from Yiddish theater icon Molly Picon and mid-20th-century cantor/recording star Jan Peerce to the Klezmatics, a leading act of the contemporary klezmer scene, and Mordechai Ben David, a major Hasidic pop star.

Not that Reisman is having any of it.

"I just go in and do my show and love doing it. I don't think of myself in that way," he protested when asked about the "institution" appellation.

Maybe he doesn't, but many listeners would likely disagree with Reisman, whose eponymous program on WWDB (860-AM) airs weekdays from 9 to 10 a.m. and Sunday from 10 to 11:30 a.m.

One such fan is Harris Bookfor, 56, a native of the Northeast's Castor Gardens section, now living in Alexandria, Va.

"Barry is a Jewish Philly icon," wrote Bookfor - who tunes in to "The Barry Reisman Show" via the Internet - in a Facebook message. "When I have bagels, lox and Sunday morning brunch, I have to be listening to Barry Reisman. The food tastes better when Barry is playing music.

"We listened to him as a family in the '60s. My grandmother listened with us. I remember my family dancing to his music and laughing at the comedy he shared with us. A few weeks ago, my granddaughter and daughter listened to Barry with us during Sunday brunch. He's touched five generations in our family."

A radio bug in his ear

It's not that Reisman, 71, ever saw himself spending his life as local radio's Jewish-music guy.

"I did not intend to do it for a long time. I wanted to be in radio, but I wasn't sure of what phase of radio I would be in," he said over a recent lunch at Ponzio's, the Cherry Hill landmark that is just a bagel's throw from the home the father of two grown daughters shares with Roselyn, his wife of 40 years.

"But the radio bug definitely bit me, and this was something I could do. I had some Jewish albums and begged, borrowed and stole others, and I gave it a shot."

Reisman was in his early 20s when he got his first Jewish-music gig, a weekly half-hour shift on WTEL-AM, on the same frequency he broadcasts over today. But his love of the medium predates that.

"I always had an interest in radio broadcasting," he recalled.

"When I was a kid, I used to have a habit of speaking so fast that people couldn't understand me. I started listening to the radio to see how they talked, and I got hooked on Frank Ford, [Joe] Grady and [Ed] Hurst . . . all the guys on Wibbage [WIBG-AM]," he added, referring to some of the iconic local personalities who inspired him.

As a teenager, the Olney High School grad bought a kit and assembled a unit that allowed him to "broadcast" over a block or two from his West Oak Lane house. That sealed the deal. "The lady down the block said, 'I heard you on the radio.' That was it."

Sure to Shore

While attending St. Joseph's College (now University), Reisman, whose family had a pretzel-manufacturing business that was a Delaware Valley mainstay for decades, wrote to several local radio personalities, asking if he could come to their studios and watch them work.

Eddie Newman, heard on WTEL, not only welcomed the youngster to his studio but, after he purchased Atlantic City's WRNJ-FM in 1962, offered Reisman a regular shift.

"I didn't even catch a breath before I said, 'Yeah,' " Reisman said.

That led to summer-vacation stints at two other Shore outlets for the education major who, for a few postgrad years, taught in Camden. But radio remained his first love, and in February 1965 he started a half-hour, Sunday morning Jewish-music program on WTEL.

The program's popularity was such that, within months, he left for WQAL-FM (now Mix 106.1), which gave him an hour on Sundays. That eventually became a four-hour shift.

"I expected to do it for six months," he admitted. "But the program started to expand and become commercially successful. It caught me by surprise."

In 1971, WQAL was sold. Reisman moved to WIBF-FM (now Praise 103.9), where he remained for more than 20 years before signing on at WWDB.

Master of his medium

In addition to playing records, Reisman has interviewed all manner of Jewish movers and shakers, from entertainers like Jackie Mason and William Shatner to such news makers as Rabbi Meir Kahane, the ultramilitant founder of the Jewish Defense League.

It's that versatility, along with his longevity, that impresses Reisman's close friend, philanthropist Kal Rudman, who, like Reisman, is a member of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia Hall of Fame.

"In terms of being a radio broadcaster, Barry Reisman is amazing. He is a master," said Rudman. "But it's not how heavy he is, it's how long he has been heavy."

Although he is at an age where many people are enjoying retirement, Reisman has no such plans. But even after 50 years in broadcasting, he understands that radio is a capricious field at best.

"You're only as good as your last show," he reasoned. "I've been fortunate that there's always been a station that wanted [the show]. I have no plans to stop, but I can't tell you about tomorrow."

Barry Reisman collection of commercial Jewish sound recordings

https://findingaids.library.upenn.edu/records/UPENN_RBML_PUSP.PRINTCOLL.90

Obituary - Friedman

Sally Friedman

formerly of Willingboro and Moorestown, NJ

Sally Friedman, 86, formerly of Willingboro and Moorestown, NJ, died on January 3, 2025. She was the treasured wife of Victor Friedman; beloved mother of Jill (Jeff), Amy (David), and Nancy (Michael); fiercely proud grandmother of Hannah and Zay Smolar, Emily and Carly Appelbaum, and Sam, Jonah, and Danny Zinn; and adored sister of Ruth Rovner.

Born in 1938 to Hymen and Lillian Schwartz, Sally grew up in Wynnefield, revering her older sister Ruthie and following in her footsteps as an English major at the University of Pennsylvania. She married Victor Friedman at 21 and started her career as a seventh grade English teacher, but quickly “retired” to raise her trio of irreverent daughters, Jill, Amy, and Nancy. 

That retirement was short-lived. As the girls grew, Sally found her voice as a writer. Her first published piece was about Amy’s unplanned home birth, which appeared in Baby Talk Magazine and for which she was paid in bartered baby diapers. For half a century, she wrote a dearly loved syndicated personal column called “Lifesounds” in The Burlington County Times and Calkins publications. She was also a frequent contributor to publications ranging from The Philadelphia Inquirer to New Jersey Monthly to The New York Times. Her self-described greatest professional achievement was preserving the stories of Holocaust survivors through Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation. 

Mostly, Sally wrote about what she knew best: family and emotions. She chronicled the highs and lows of raising teenagers, nurturing a marriage that spanned 64 years, and growing into herself as the world changed. Sally touched the hearts of thousands and remained a passionate and energetic writer until her retirement. Adoring fans often wrote to Sally to say that reading her columns made them feel like they were having coffee with her. People often reported that they had frayed copies of her stories taped on their refrigerators and sent them weekly to their families. 

While Sally and Vic enjoyed theater, concerts, lectures and anything else that might satisfy Sally’s insatiable curiosity about the world and its people, their greatest pleasure was spending time at home with each other and the family. They delighted in their daughters, relished their accomplishments, and loved to laugh for hours on lazy family days. Sally loved her gaggle of seven especially close grandchildren and savored the joyful chaos of Passover seders, Thanksgiving, and family togetherness. She was astounded by the experiences her grandchildren had – traveling the world, going to college far from home, and dating online. Sally lived long enough to vote for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for president – and did so proudly. 

Even in the throes of dementia, Sally maintained her love of coffee cake, John Denver music, and above all, Vic. On difficult or disorienting days, she was profoundly grateful to be able to hold his hand. 

The family thanks caregivers Tiko, Mari, Lisa, Heather, Unetta, Sharylanda, Annette, Sharon, and others, who worked so hard to bring comfort in the last years of Sally’s life. 

There will be a private burial with a meaningful ceremony to celebrate Sallys life in the spring.

The Havdalah and Shiva schedule is as follows:

Saturday, January 4 from 6:30-9:00pm - Havdalah Service (6:30pm), Stories, and Songs in Sally’s Memory at the home of Jill and Jeff

Sunday, January 5 from 6:30-9:00pm - Shiva (Minyan at 6:30pm) at the home of Jill and Jeff 

Monday, January 6 from 6:00-9:00pm - Shiva (Minyan at 6:30pm) at the home of Nancy and Michael

Tuesday, January 7 from 6:00-9:00pm - Shiva (Minyan at 6:30pm) at the home of Nancy and Michael

To read an article from the Burlington County Times about Sally Friedman please click the following.   https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/story/news/2022/06/08/columnist-sally-friedman-reflects-end-retire-50-year-career/9824460002/

Source: https://obits.levinefuneral.com/sally-friedman

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Columnist Sally Friedman offers one final peek at life as 50-year career comes to a close By Aedy Miller

Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/story/news/2022/06/08/columnist-sally-friedman-reflects-end-retire-50-year-career/9824460002/

June 8, 2022

Witty, genuine, professional, a local legend, a reason to buy the paper — family, colleagues and readers alike gush with reverence for columnist Sally Friedman.

However, the beloved writer was nothing but humble when reminiscing about the highs, lows and end of her 50-year career.

“I am so grateful that I can listen to people’s stories,” said Friedman during an interview at her Philadelphia apartment. “It’s a gift, it’s wonderful; it’s very dramatic sometimes and sometimes it’s very annoying.”

Friedman, 83, has written for the Courier-Post, Bucks County Courier Times, The Intelligencer, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the New York Times and at one point had more stories in the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series than any other writer in the world, according to her daughter Jill.

Yet, she is also simply the dear friend and neighbor who happened to write a cherished column every week for the Burlington County Times. From historical society news and teen scholarship nights to interviews with Holocaust survivors, Friedman wrote about a bit of everything.

“There are so many (stories). I’ve been writing for all these years,” she said. “I cry a lot. I think a lot. I just feel so grateful that this is my life, and I feel awed that people will tell me their stories.”

She is best known, though, for offering intimate looks into funny, fraught and familiar moments in her family’s life. Often thought-provoking and sometimes tear-jerking, these columns have resonated with thousands of readers every weekend for decades.

Burlington County Times columnist Sally Friedman has shared her life in words during a 50-year career. May 20, 2022.
Adam Monacelli

Spinning stories of family life into a career

While Friedman was “always in love with writing,” she didn’t sell her first story until the age of 25: a personal account of giving birth to her second daughter Amy at home with her husband serving as an impromptu obstetrician. The piece appeared in Baby Talk magazine and garnered her a payment of either $12 or $12 worth of diapers. She chose the latter.

But her storied career wouldn’t begin for another couple years; she had three quick-witted, “smart and really sassy” daughters to take care of, after all.

The need to put pen to paper finally struck again after dropping her youngest daughter, Nancy, off at kindergarten. Friedman sobbed, went home and poured her emotions onto yellow legal paper. The story, “The Last First Day,” would become her inaugural column, appearing in the Burlington County Times in 1971.

Her daughter Jill Friedman, a Rutgers Law School dean, joined Sally Friedman while she spoke to the Burlington County Times. Jill Friedman said she never knew what would turn into a column — and that she wasn’t always comfortable with that.

Burlington County Times columnist Sally Friedman, pictured with her husband Victor and daughter Jill, has written about friends and family, South Jersey's people and happenings and countless other topics during her 50-year career. May 20, 2022.
Adam Monacelli

“We had many, many discussions on what would be appropriate to include in a public newspaper,” said Jill Friedman.

“You think?!” quipped Sally Friedman.

Friedman, ever a journalist, turned to Jill and asked a hard-hitting question: what story about her made her the most uncomfortable?

“Sixth grade first date,” Jill Friedman said without hesitation.

“OK, I plead guilty!” said Sally Friedman.

“To the Moorestown Strawberry Festival,” her daughter elaborated.

“I told who your date was?”

“And you told about my date!”

She then asked about the story that made her daughter the happiest.

“The best story you ever wrote specifically about me was about packing me up and taking me to college,” she said. “I still cry. You talked about your own emotion, my emotion, dad’s emotion. That was a beautiful, beautiful story.”

Besides her daughters, Friedman drew immense inspiration and even more support from her husband Victor Friedman, 89. He had a public persona as a Burlington County Superior Court judge, but she introduced readers to the domestic life of “Vic.”

He’s been like her right arm, she said; a “sensible and calm” confidant to her “slightly hysterical” nature.

“I am chaotic, I am disorderly and (as a judge) Vic talks about people’s lives and serious, serious, serious things,” she said. “I am so grateful that he’s my husband — and I don’t want to sound like a goody two-shoes — but I am not easy to live with.”

Choking back tears, she then turned to her husband, who was listening to the interview, and said, “you have been wonderful, I love you.”

“Do you hate me Vic? For being so annoying?” she asked.

“I’m very proud of everything you do,” he said.

Burlington County Times columnist Sally Friedman gets a kiss from her husband Victor in their Philadelphia apartment. Friedman has shared her life in words during a 50-year career. May 20, 2022.
Adam Monacelli

As writing became a way of life for Friedman, workshopping stories became a family affair. After clacking away at her typewriter for hours, she would read aloud what she’d written to her daughters and husband.

“We would all make suggestions,” said Jill Friedman. “That’s how we have written everything we’ve ever written: school papers, professional papers, we always read each other’s work.”

After finalizing familial edits, Sally Friedman would hand deliver her columns to the Burlington County Times around 10 p.m. Not wanting to make the late-night drive alone, she’d often bribe her daughters to join her; sometimes with the chance to drive before they were old enough.

An 'obligation' to make people feel important

As a journalist, “you learn how amazing people are,” said Friedman. “I know it sounds so corny, but people will tell you anything, and they will be so grateful.”

There are so many people who’ve never been told they’re important, she said. Because of this, she said she’s felt an obligation to let them know how important they are.

“I feel so honored that I can talk to people in my own community every week,” she said. “I just love listening to other people’s stories, and I feel like there is nothing more exciting, interesting and also hard.”

Her hardest but most important work, she said, was interviewing Holocaust survivors for what’s now the University of Southern California Shoah Foundation. Established by Steven Spielberg in 1994, the institute seeks to document the stories of survivors and witnesses to the Holocaust, called the Shoah in Hebrew, as well as other genocides.

“In the process of that experience, I sat opposite men and women with stories so horrific that it was difficult not to gasp,” wrote Friedman, who is Jewish, for the Jewish Community Voice in 2016.

“I have never forgotten any of them because once you do this work, it is impossible to ever leave it behind. It was also, for me, the greatest privilege I’ve ever known as a writer.”

'A reason to buy the paper'

From former colleagues to devout readers, respect and admiration for Friedman is almost as prolific as her writing.

“You’d be pressed hard to find anybody saying anything bad about Sally Friedman,” said Shane Fitzgerald, who worked with Friedman when he was executive editor of the Burlington County Times and Bucks County Courier Times in the mid-2010s.

“She writes like she is. She’s a nice person — well, in fact, she’s a tremendously nice person, and I really enjoyed the times I got to spend with her and sometimes with her husband,” he said.

Readers on both sides of the Delaware River told him: “she was a reason to buy the paper.”

Former Burlington County Times columnist Sally Friedman is pictured with her husband, Victor, in their Philadelphia apartment in this file photo. Friedman died Jan. 3.
Courier Post File

When asked how this made her feel, Friedman said she was “totally overwhelmed.”

“I don’t know who they’re talking about,” she said. “I am so flawed; I don’t do things right; I’m very quiet. But people are so generous.”

Her writing transcended boundaries, borders, gender and age, because of the everyday connections she made with readers, said Fitzgerald.

“She’s given her best her best for decades,” he said. “I hope she knows how beloved she is by her editors, her readers, her coworkers. We all think ‘what a good person she is.’”

Stanley Ellis, former publisher of the Burlington County Times from 1991-2008, said she has an “amazing ability to make people feel at ease.” Talking to her was like talking to a friend, he said.

“She gave you the impression that she genuinely cared, and I think it’s because she did care,” he said. “When you assigned her a story, she felt it was her job to do everything she could to tell that person’s story in as meaningful of a way as possible.”

She was also loved by editors for her incredible ability to “put out good copy quickly,” said Ellis.

Like Fitzgerald, Ellis also received feedback from readers about how much they loved Friedman.

“I probably got more comments from readers about how much they looked forward to that Sunday column from Sally as much as anything we had in the paper,” he said. “It was a tradition for a lot of people on Sundays.”

Even when she took a week off and the paper reprinted one of her older columns, readers weren’t upset. If anything, they were nostalgic and fondly recalled 15-to-20-year-old columns, he said.

Burlington County Times columnist Sally Friedman has written about friends and family, South Jersey's people and happenings and countless other topics during her 50-year career. May 20, 2022.
Adam Monacelli

Audrey Harvin, executive editor of the Burlington County Times, has worked with Friedman for more than 20 years but understood why readers loved her column shortly after meeting her.

“Her wit, sensitivity and understanding about marriage, motherhood, career and family resonates with all walks of life,” said Harvin. “When you read one of her columns, you either laugh out loud or you shed a tear because more than likely, you've experienced what she's shared in a few paragraphs.”

Harvin called Friedman a “consummate professional and lovely person,” and said she’ll dearly miss the endearing family moments Friedman shared.

“Fifty years is a lifetime in journalism,” she said. “So, I thank Sally for sharing those years with her readers and may her retirement be as fulfilling as her career.”

Toward the end of the Burlington County Times’ interview with Friedman, Jill Friedman proved herself a reporter’s daughter.

“Why do you think people love your column so much?” she asked.

“I have no idea,” said Sally Friedman. “I never expected this, and I am so grateful for it.”

Aedy Miller is a multimedia journalist covering education, labor, climate change, mental health and the intersections thereof for the Burlington County Times, Courier-Post and The Daily Journal. Reach them at amiller4@gannett.com.

Columnist Sally Friedman remembered: 'She said she lived in her nerve endings.' By Celeste E. Whittaker

Source: https://www.courierpostonline.com/story/news/local/2025/01/10/memories-of-longtime-burlington-county-times-columnist-sally-friedman-philadelphia-inquirer-nyt/77542117007/

Jan. 10, 2025

(From left) Sally and Vic Friedman with now adult daughter Amy Friedman, who was delivered by her father 57 years ago
Contributed

Sally Friedman, an award-winning columnist for five decades, had five great loves, her daughter said: Her husband, her three daughters and her writing.

Her seven beloved grandchildren and her sons-in-law were certainly included in that deep and abiding family love, too, because at her core she was family-first and foremost. She was also expressive, determined, imaginative, passionate, intuitive and ahead of her time in many ways.

Sally Friedman — who was born in Wynnefield, Pa., and had previously resided in Willingboro and Moorestown — died Jan. 3 at the age of 86 after battling dementia.

She wrote for the Burlington County Times and Calkins newspapers for approximately a half-century before retiring in 2022. Her syndicated personal column, “Lifesounds,” was a must-read for many, and endeared her to readers for decades.

It often included stories about raising her children or nurturing her marriage to her lifelong love, Victor Friedman. They were married for 64 years.

Her work also appeared in other publications such as The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer and New Jersey Monthly.

“I literally think that she’s a genius,” Amy Friedman said of her mother. “The genius is both on the personal level. Her intuition. Her ability to deeply get people. And also her craft. I really think she was a woman ahead of her time and her craft was her fifth love. My dad, the three of us and her baby (writing). She loved her writing as much as anything.

“I think her writing helped her be an incredibly devoted mother because I do think a genius needs to express and that’s what she did. I think without her writing, I don’t know if she would’ve been the complete person that she was. She was like this hybrid between the most devoted mother and the most devoted artist to her craft.”

Audrey Harvin, the executive editor of the Burlington County Times, Courier-Post and Daily Journal, worked with Sally Friedman for many years and considered her a friend.

“I met Sally when I first began my career at the Burlington County Times in 1994,” Harvin said. “I was drawn to her kindness and welcoming smile. Over the years I would connect with her and her husband Victor at events she covered for the newspaper, and we became friends. We would talk about work, kids and many topics in between.

“Not only was she a gifted journalist, she was a wonderful person. We are all fortunate to have the treasure of her columns about her life that she shared with us for decades. I will miss her.”

A life filled with laughter

Her daughters said that her craft flowed quite smoothly. She could put her columns together in 20 minutes. It was “effortless.”

Some of that was a natural gift, and some of it was likely because of her comfort level in expressing herself and her feelings.

“I think that my mom was sort of an early adopter of being very comfortable talking about feelings,” Nancy Friedman said. “I think that’s sort of one of her hallmarks. She wasn’t afraid of the full range of emotions. With all the laughter, she was also really comfortable with sadness and anger and confusion and all the things she also wrote about. She grooved on it.

“I really appreciate that about her, maybe because I’m a psychologist and maybe I’m a psychologist because of that. ... She said she lived in her nerve endings.”

Laughter was another important family theme. Oh, what memories.

Sally Friedman (second from left) is shown with her daughters, Jill (far left), Amy (center right), and Nancy (far right). Granddaughter Hannah Smolar is shown.
Photo Provided By The Friedman Family

“Our family life has just been so full of so much laughter, it’s kind of unbelievable,” Jill Friedman-Rickman said.

“We sat down and had dinner as a family. Our mom was a terrible cook, so it wasn’t about the food. We’d tell stories from our days ... and we would laugh our heads off. That persisted throughout our lives. Our mom had a raucous laugh.”

‘Doing nothing, eating something’

Sally Friedman was fiercely proud of her seven grandchildren and all of their accomplishments, world travels and successes in life.

Quite a few of them reside in New York City. Granddaughter Hannah Smolar lives in Brooklyn, on the same street as her first cousin Sam Zinn.

“She would receive these sort of fan letters in the mail after writing about us,” said Smolar, daughter of Jill Friedman-Rickman.

“A lot of what she wrote about was really relatable to a lot of people. ... She loved to write and loved to help with other peoples’ writing. All of us really got to enjoy time sharing our writing with her and editing it with her. She loved to impart her wisdom in that way. She would pick apart every last word ... in a good way.”

Sally Friedman’s grandson Jonah Zinn, son of Nancy Friedman, is a law student who lives in Soho in New York City and remembers going with his grandmother while she reported on the annual car show in Philadelphia when he was in grade school.

They were able to see the show when the floor room was empty from car show attendees, he said. It was quite a treat.

“She would report on this car show in Philadelphia, which meant that my cousin and I got to go with her a day before anyone else and saw all the cars,” Jonah Zinn said. “That was a fond memory.

“I think, also, she was a very expressive person. She always talked to me that she imagined me in my future as a poet in a coffee shop with a black turtleneck. Her sort of quips like that, which were very romantic and sentimental, were probably my favorite.”

Sam Zinn, Jonah Zinn’s brother, lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn and works in wealth management. He lives approximately a 15-minute walk from Hannah Smolar.

“The first thing that comes to mind is their house in Windrow Clusters (in Moorestown), sitting around the kitchen table that had like a checkerboard kind of plasticky table cover,” Sam Zinn recalled. “She and my grandfather, we called them Ma and Pa. They were a unit.

“They would make me what they called ‘college boy breakfast,' which was like a bagel with farmer’s cheese. Just sitting around that table and her asking me what was going on in my life, my hopes and dreams. ...And what we called in our family ‘doing nothing, eating something’ is what that whole vibe was. Just quality family time with no agenda. A lot of kind of simple, sweet memories. She was a local celebrity down there, but to us she was just ‘Ma’.”

Other grandchildren include: Zay Smolar, Emily and Carly Appelbaum and Danny Zinn.

Family closeness is part of the legacy

Sally Friedman grew up adoring her sister, Ruth Rovner. She even followed in her footsteps as an English major at the University of Pennsylvania, initially becoming a seventh-grade English teacher before finding her writing voice as her daughters grew.

Her first published article was in Baby Talk Magazine and was about daughter Amy Friedman’s unplanned home birth.

Sally Friedman (far right) is shown with her sister, Ruth Rovner (left), and their mother, Lillian Abrams (center). Friedman, a longtime Burlington County Times columnist, died Jan. 3 at the age of 86. Her column was treasured by many.
Photo Provided By The Friedman Family

Her pay was in bartered baby diapers. And the writing flowed.

Sally Friedman’s daughters said that the closeness their mother had with her sister modeled “tremendous closeness” as sisters for them and that their children are also close to their siblings and their cousins.

The grandchildren concurred.

“Her daughters, our mothers and aunts, are very, very close, so they imparted that on us,” Jonah Zinn said.

Hannah Smolar — who works in development at the Brennan Center for Justice — said her grandparents loved being at home with family.

“They had a pool in the backyard. We spent a lot of time outside by the pool all together," she said. "My grandmother loved being in the sun. ... We would spend hours out there as a family, laughing.

“There’s seven of us grandchildren, and we’re all very, very close and always have been. Some of our foundational bonding experiences were there together as a family.”

Sally Friedman appreciated and loved her sons-in-law Jeff Rickman (Jill), David Appelbaum (Amy) and Mike Zinn (Nancy).

“Although Sally had only daughters and came from a household of sisters, she adored her sons-in-law — their love of dogs, food, cooking and the gentleness they bring to our family,” the family said in a statement.

Former colleagues, friends share memories

Sally Friedman is shown with husband, Vic Friedman. Sally Friedman, the longtime Burlington County Times columnist, died Jan. 3 at the age of 86. Her column was treasured by many.
Photo Provided By The Friedman Family

Many former colleagues shared their memories about Sally Friedman on a Burlington County Times Alumni Group Facebook page.

“My first photo assignment at the BCT was with Sally,” former longtime BCT photographer Nancy Rokos wrote. “A true asset. RIP dear lady.”

Harvey Melamed, former Burlington County Times sports and news editor, wrote: “She was the best. RIP, dear Sally.”

Jeffrey Beach, another former Burlington County Times colleague, called her possibly the best human-interest columnist he'd ever read.

“She knew how to introduce you to people in the space of a single column to the point where you felt like you really ‘knew’ that person," Beach said. "RIP to a great one.”

Sally Friedman’s legacy carries on through her columns over the years, her readers, and her adoring family and friends.

The family has set up a gmail account where readers can share their memories: sallyfriedmanmemories@gmail.com.

“She really loved her readers,” Jill Friedman said.

Vic Friedman is shown with his wife, former columnist Sally Friedman. The retired judge died on June 28; his wife passed away in January.
Photo Provided By The Friedman Family

Sally Friedman, beloved writer for the Voice, passes at 86

Source: https://www.jewishvoicesnj.org/articles/sally-friedman-beloved-writer-for-the-voice-passes-at-86/ and https://www.jewishvoicesnj.org/pageview/viewer/2025-01-22#page=26

January 22, 2025

Sally Friedman (z”l) and her three beloved daughters (starting at the far left), Nancy, Jill, and Amy, with Sally (bottom center).

Sally Friedman, a longtime writer for the Jewish Community Voice and other local publications, passed away on January 3 at the age of 86. She was the treasured wife of Victor Friedman; beloved mother of Jill (Jeff), Amy (David), and Nancy (Michael); fiercely proud grandmother of Hannah and Zay Smolar, Emily and Carly Appelbaum, and Sam, Jonah, and Danny Zinn; and adored sister of Ruth Rovner.

“Sally was truly a unique person and a great writer,” said former Voice Board President Dr. Barnard Kaplan. “You might say she was the heart and soul of the paper. When you read her columns, it was as if you were part of her family. Her observations were insightful and often humorous. She wrote about experiences you may have had, were having, or knew you would have in the future. Sally will be missed.”

Born in 1938 to Hymen and Lillian Schwartz, Sally grew up in Wynnefield, PA, revering her older sister Ruthie and following in her footsteps as an English major at the University of Pennsylvania. She married Victor Friedman at 21 and started her career as a seventh grade English teacher, but quickly “retired” to raise her daughters, Jill, Amy, and Nancy.

That retirement was short-lived. As the girls grew, Sally found her voice as a writer. She had her own column in the Voice, “Sally’s World,” which she wrote until she neared retirement in 2021.

“For many years, one of my favorite columns in the Voice was “Sally’s World,” said past Voice President Judie Morrow. “She had the uncanny ability to draw you into her day-to-day life and make you feel like you were sharing common experiences. The humor and lightheartedness came right off the page. Sally always left me with a smile on my face after reading her column.”

For half a century, Sally also wrote a beloved column called “Lifesounds” in The Burlington County Times and Calkins publications. She was also a frequent contributor to publications ranging from The Philadelphia Inquirer to New Jersey Monthly to The New York Times. Her self-described greatest professional achievement was preserving the stories of Holocaust survivors through Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation.

Mostly, Sally wrote about what she knew best: Family and emotions. She chronicled the highs and lows of raising teenagers, nurturing a marriage that spanned 64 years, and growing into herself as the world changed. Sally touched the hearts of thousands and remained a passionate and energetic writer until her retirement. Sally had many adoring fans who often wrote to her to say that reading her columns made them feel like they were having coffee with her.

While Sally and Vic, an attorney and later a judge, enjoyed theater, concerts, lectures and anything else that might satisfy Sally’s insatiable curiosity about the world and its people, their greatest pleasure was spending time at home with each other and the family.

“I was saddened to learn of Sally’s passing,” stated another former president of the Voice Board and fellow journalist, Jan L. Apple. “I didn’t know her well, but I would often read and enjoy her slice-of-life columns. It was quite obvious that she loved her husband, daughters and grandchildren. That passion spilled out in her writing and her stories truly resonated. In the few in-person interactions we had, she expressed how glad she was that I was a kindred spirit of sorts, another woman committed to the craft of journalism and storytelling,”

Later in life, even in the throes of dementia, Sally maintained her love of coffee cake, John Denver music, and above all, Vic. On difficult or disorienting days, she was profoundly grateful to be able to hold his hand.

“Sally was so much a part of Southern New Jersey and its Jewish community,” said Voice Editor David Portnoe. He added that her articles and her talks to local synagogue and organization groups brought her such a wide and admiring audience. “Her career and her impact on the Southern New Jersey Jewish community will not be forgotten.”

The joy of Passover tempered by the empty places at the table By Sally Friedman

Source: https://www.jewishvoicesnj.org/articles/the-joy-of-passover-tempered-by-the-empty-places-at-the-table/

April 02, 2014

It’s all so familiar—the calls back and forth about who’s bringing what, the SOS for bridge chairs and large platters, and a clarion cry for a tablecloth that will fit a strained dining room table, once its leaves extend it to monumental size.

Ultimately, inevitably, all of those Passover Seder issues will yield to the monumental one: Another Seder without my parents.

Yes, I’m all grown up now— and then some. But when it comes to holidays, the emotions have not necessarily gone to college!

As it happens, the last time I saw my dear but complicated father alive was at our family Seder way, way back in 1969. As I recall, there was a fairly heated political debate at the Passover table that night with dad, the reformer, facing a substantial amount of dissent from others. Those were tumultuous times.

But it has haunted me for years that perhaps he felt embarrassed. Or disappointed. That breaks my heart.

But we were—and are—a stubborn, opinionated group.

The first couple of years of Seders without Mom were somehow easier—and also harder. We had her for so much longer, and our overwhelming sense of gratitude for that eased the sadness.

At the first Seder after her death in 2006, her absence was still so new and raw that it didn’t feel real. There was the weird sense that she’d be back with us next year.

But she wasn’t.

Then came the years when the void in our hearts and our lives became entirely real. No more pretending.

Loss is always monumental in the life of a family, and the absence of one’s parents often tops that list.

So there are reckonings for each of us. Grief is at once universal and totally unique. And we deal with our own with varying degrees of success as this beloved holiday on the Jewish calendar arrives. It always was the favorite of both my parents— and of all of us.

At our Seder, everything has been the same—and entirely different— because of those empty places at the table.

One of the toughest moments comes now with the presentation of the matzo ball soup. That was my mother’s shining moment, her tour de force. Like the finest actor in a Shakespearean play, she would await the equivalent of a standing ovation as the rhapsodic accolades flowed about the perfection of the broth, the texture of the magnificent matzo balls that floated on its surface. My grandmother—her mother—had presented those rather leaden ones year after year, so the contrast was striking. Mom was our Jewish Julia Child, our kitchen empress, and she knew it.

Of course, I can still see the faces of my parents at the Passover table, my mother’s flushed and delighted, my father’s alert and thoughtful.

I can still hear their laughter, remember their open delight, their basking in family. Family was always more than enough for them. It was…everything.

How I miss them!

And this we’ve learned without them: While our matriarch and patriarch are gone, their absence is itself a presence. Somewhere on the table will be their old matzo cover, slightly stained now by wine spots but still serviceable. Ditto for their candlesticks, not fancy or fine, but so precious. Sometimes just the sight of them makes me weep.

So again this Passover, there will still be the happy chaos of too much food, too little space, and all the foibles of family— flawed, imperfect, but so real.

Another storehouse of memories will be built around the Passover table as we go through the ancient rituals. And along with the joy will be those moments of sadness so wide and deep that it’s tough to reduce them to mere words.

My parents are gone. And no matter how predictable and expected that is, I’m still haunted by these words: It’s always, always too soon. . pinegander@aol.com

John Denver tribute takes her home to simpler times

Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/story/lifestyle/2017/08/06/john-denver-tribute-takes-her/17660813007/

Aug. 6, 2017

When John Denver died in a plane crash back in October 1997, my family tried to keep the news from me. Of course they couldn't.

As they had predicted, I mourned his loss as though he were a family member. And no, I wasn't one of those teenage girls who plastered my room with pictures of movie stars, and I didn't even swoon over Elvis.

But John Denver was different.

I loved him. I loved his songs and his passion for nature and how he could transport me from my ordinary life as a suburban wife and mother to soaring elation, from "Rocky Mountain High" to the melancholia of "Leavin' On a Jet Plane."

There was another reason I loved John Denver. Whenever I heard him sing "Take Me Home, Country Roads," I would stop in my tracks because my husband was a farm kid who remembers lying in the fields on his family's farm and just looking at the sky. That image of Vic, via Denver, made this city girl love him more.

Fast-forward a few decades to a balmy summer Sunday when there were seemingly a million reasons not to rush over to the Burlington County Library auditorium and spend a couple of hours inside. But rush we did.

The program for that afternoon was a tribute concert to Denver — and to other folk singers from back in the day.

The world has been too much with me these days — and I wanted Denver and his fellow plain-singing troubadours back in my life.

So my husband and I arrived breathlessly, late as usual, and found the entire auditorium filled to the brim. Just that sight made me smile. So did the age of the audience members. Let's just say there were a lot of gray-hired people no longer younger than springtime filling those seats.

And then there they were: singer Charlie Zahm, a John Denver tribute artist, and his two cohorts, Tad Marks on fiddle and guitarist Steve Hobson, singing and strumming and making us all forget the world beyond that auditorium.

Much of the time we joined in, singing our hearts out with them about everything from love to heartbreak to the earth and its inhabitants. It felt a little bit like the 1960s, a little bit like the way life was when we all sang together about "Puff the Magic Dragon."

I admit that I'm a softie, but I hadn't expected tears that kept coming as I sang along to "Puff," remembering when I would sing that same song to three little girls of mine who loved it. And now, seven grandchildren also know every word to that classic.

There's something about singing in a group, no matter how off-key, no matter how mangled the exact words, that carries me back to long-ago times when the world was so different, and lyrics weren't meaningless or vulgar, and we had high hopes about love and peace and brotherhood.

Yes, I'm a cornball, and I married one. I couldn't help noticing that there were so many others in the audience who also seemed misty.

What I realized about that afternoon wasn't profound or life-changing. But here it is:

That concert, wonderful as it was, was free of charge. I would have paid anything to be there because of the joy it brought.

Also, I was reminded how we sometimes forget how lucky we are to have a Burlington County Library in our lives, one that not only nourishes our minds with endless books, but also constantly enriches our lives with cultural events in all seasons, thanks to the group called Friends of the Library. Friends, indeed.

Before we left, I made it a point to pick up all the brochures that were available about what the library offers. Trust me, it's so much.

And all the way home, we hummed Denver's classics, not perfectly on key, perhaps, but definitely with feeling.

And suddenly, an ordinary summer Sunday felt absolutely extraordinary.

Sally Friedman is a freelance writer. Contact her at pinegander@aol.com

Source: https://sjmagazine.net/life-notes/life-notes-my-sacred-texts

May 2021

On a recent rainy afternoon, I came upon them – those plump pink satin chronicles of the life and growth of 3 daughters. Back in the day, we simply called them baby books.

Buried under the old report cards and primitive drawings with titles like “My Howse” and “My Grampop,” those books stopped me in my tracks. The histories of Jill, Amy and Nancy’s first years on Planet Earth, penned in longhand by an overwhelmed mother, had enclosed within them a pre-computer rendition of my most important “files” ever. Of course, there were the most basic facts – inoculations, height, weight, age at which first solid food was consumed. And between those pink satin covers also were all the hopes and fears and dreams of the universe.

I lost track of time and place and connection to anything but these wrenchingly intimate histories of my own children. I read and re-read those scribbled notations that actually were my first clues to these incredibly complicated, precious daughters of ours.

“Jill spoke her first word today…It was ‘pocketbook.’ Three whole syllables!” To this day, I have wondered why that word was uttered by our firstborn in her 15th month. But I will never, ever forget our mutual astonishment – Jill’s and mine – that she had, indeed, spoken it.

“Amy looks like Aunt Doris around the eyes,” I had observed somewhere in this middle daughter’s first 6 months. “All the rest of her genes are her daddy’s.” That observation was spot on. To this day, Amy’s eyes, deep, deep chocolate-brown, are like her great aunt’s. But in all else, she is her father’s child, so perfect a female rendition of him.

“Little Nancy is so silent – she seems to be watching and listening all the time,” I had dutifully scribbled on Nancy’s first birthday. And it all came flooding back: the nicknames we had for this last, much-loved baby, the concern that she’d always be out-shouted by the rest of us and the amusing notation, added a year later, that “Silent Yokum” had ceased to be silent.

I managed to keep up my jottings in those pink covered books at least through Jill, Amy and Nancy’s single-digit birthdays. In longhand, then typing, I wrote maternal observations about shy stages, difficult stages and the stages when I felt I was depriving one or the other of her rightful attention. But those baby days were the ones that got me.

No wonder my arms had ached so to hold a baby again after those 3 little hostages to fortune were grown and gone. No wonder I had dropped outrageous hints to our married daughters that there was no time like the present for considering parenthood. The jackpot: 7 delicious grandchildren.

Babies are the blissful fulfillment of life’s longing for itself, the best reason to wake up in the morning, the sweetest excuse for being blissfully foolish. But it all passes in a blink, especially when harried parents can barely pause long enough to finish a sentence, let alone jot down a page or 2 about the miraculous development of babies.

I thank the fates who somehow conspired to let me pause in the mayhem, now and then, and reflect on these baby girls who had forever altered my life. Those daughters, all mothers deeply devoted to their children now, have not transferred data into anything remotely like those baby books of the 1960s. Yes, I urged them to. I think I presented each with a reasonable facsimile of the ones that contain their, for lack of a better word, “data.”

Recapturing the respective babyhoods of our adult daughters made me wistful, of course. It was all over much too soon. But I was also so overwhelmingly grateful for those baby books. They are my own version of sacred texts. And they will stand forever as a reminder of the best work of my life.

---

Victor Friedman

Victor Friedman, 92, a retired judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, died on June 28, 2025. He was the cherished husband of the late Sally Friedman; beloved father of Jill (Jeff), Amy (David), and Nancy (Michael); fiercely proud grandfather of Hannah and Zay (Jessie Kravet) Smolar, Emily and Carly Appelbaum, and Sam, Jonah, and Danny Zinn; and brother-in-law of Ruth Rovner.

Born in Brooklyn, NY in 1932 to Russian Jewish immigrants, Vic grew up on a chicken farm in Perrineville, NJ; his nostalgia for the farm made it a favorite day trip destination for decades. His first language was Yiddish; as he learned English, he translated patriotic American songs into his family’s native tongue. Vic and his siblings attended a one room schoolhouse in Perrineville. After school and chores, he and his sister Phyllis would lie in the grass for hours, talking and watching the clouds. Once, when he returned from Washington DC after competing in a high school oratory contest, what felt like the entirety of their small town welcomed his train home. At his judicial installation in 1978, Vic described his now late mother Helen Friedman as his oldest friend and wisest teacher, his now late brother Gerald (Joe) Freedman as a role model, and his dear sister Phyllis Tolkowsky as an angel.

At Rutgers University, Vic savored his years in the ZBT fraternity, and later treasured enduring friendships with his brothers and their wives, who eagerly visited until the end of his life. Vic got by on his mother’s sacrifices, scholarships and jobs, working days and overnights at a grocery store, a bakery, a factory, and wherever else he could find work. His early ambition to become a dentist yielded to his abject failure in biology, and he pivoted to political science. As he achieved greater success as a lawyer and judge, Vic never forgot his roots, and treated everyone, regardless of status, with respect. He was beloved throughout the courthouse, but especially by the uniformed staff.

Despite their own poverty, Vic’s mother always could scratch up a meal for someone who needed one. The family revered President Franklin D. Roosevelt and wept when they learned of his death. In turn, Vic’s life was about fighting for the underdog. In his first crusade, at seven years old, he led other farm kids who earned pennies picking blueberries to advocate for better wages per pail of fruit; their demands were met, averting the strike Vic had threatened. He fought for many other causes, including rising passionately to the defense of a fraternity brother who was accused of stealing from the others. They wanted to expel the thief, but Vic argued that brotherhood demanded mercy and forgiveness. As a lawyer, he represented plaintiffs in civil cases and defendants in criminal matters, including a renowned court-appointed mob case where he brokered a plea deal earning the headline, “Get me a Friedman!”

Vic paused his law school education at Cornell University to serve for two years in the United States Air Force, where he earned the rank of Second Lieutenant. Though his superior officer noted that Vic had “absolutely no military bearing whatsoever,” he served proudly…and greatly enjoyed drinking beer with his compatriots.

After graduating from Cornell Law School, Vic began his legal practice in Trenton and Burlington, NJ. A law school friend introduced him to Sally Schwartz, then a college senior, who quickly became the love of Vic’s life; they married in Philadelphia in July, 1960. The couple settled in Willingboro, NJ, where they made good friends and helped cultivate a Jewish community. In the mid-1960s, Vic started his own law practice, and was soon joined by the late Louis A. Smith. As partners at Friedman and Smith (now Smith, Magram, Michaud, Colonna, P.C.), Vic and Lou built a highly successful practice and a lifelong family friendship. Vic also became heavily involved in civic life, serving as a founding board member of then Burlington County College.

Later, after moving to Moorestown, NJ, Vic served on the bench from 1978 to 2000 in the Superior Court, primarily in the Criminal Division. He never used a gavel, noting that if you need one, you have already lost your judicial authority. He stood to express admiration to jurors at the end of every trial; he believed that second to active military service, jury duty was the most important civic responsibility. One of Vic’s most consequential and impactful matters concerned racial profiling. After consolidating 18 cases in which motorists of color accused the NJ State Police of stopping them pretextually on the Turnpike, Vic granted the plaintiffs broad discovery of internal reports and other evidence they could use to investigate and prove profiling (in similar cases, other judges had not permitted access to these materials). In the face of substantial resistance, Vic held his ground, earning admiration for his integrity and fearlessness.

Vic was a champion napper and an animated, vivacious storyteller with comedic timing and a treasure trove of irreverent jokes. He relished a practical joke, once having a port-a-potty delivered to a friend’s front lawn. His grandchildren teased him about how he gesticulated energetically, even in his sleep. He and Sally read the newspapers voraciously throughout their lives, subscribing to four dailies and many other periodicals. His favorite section was the obituaries.

Vic loved every stage of his life, including his retirement. At his weekly men’s breakfast group, he enjoyed debating the issues of the day and learning new jokes. Vic took art classes and audited over 50 courses at the University of Pennsylvania. Sally encouraged him to visit the gym – though he rarely used a treadmill or any other piece of exercise equipment, he enjoyed resting at the snack bar and schmoozing with friends. Vic and Sally became inseparable, and he was profoundly supportive of her celebrated writing career and proud of her accomplishments. He continued to drive and accompanied her on story assignments well into his 80s.

Happy to live as the only man in a house full of strong-willed women, Vic was an early feminist and raised three of them. He made a game of quizzing his trio of daughters on the almanac and posing moral dilemmas. He grew adept at settling squabbles and healing bruised feelings by assuring Sally and the girls that “everything will be okay, everything will be just fine.” Dinners at the Friedman table were raucous affairs featuring hours of debate and laughter, starting every night at 6:00, when Vic came through the door. Sally and Vic warmly welcomed guests to every Passover seder and loved presiding at a bustling Rosh HaShana or Thanksgiving dinner. As a grandfather, “Pa” was famous for scrambled eggs, leaving lengthy, silly birthday messages, and writing and illustrating a hilarious cartoon family newsletter.

Both Vic and Sally developed dementia at the end of their lives. Though his illness deprived him of many things, Vic maintained his warmth and dignity, his protectiveness of Sally, his comfort in spending time with the family and pride in his grandchildren – and perhaps most of all, his appetite for brisket and chocolate cake. He and Sally held hands day and night until her death in January. Vic died almost exactly six months after she did, in the same week as their 65th wedding anniversary.

The Friedman family extends enormous gratitude to Mari, who took loving care of both Vic and Sally during their illness. They also thank Annette, Flore, Joan, Lisa, Sharon, Sharylanda, Tiko, Unetta, Serenity Hospice, and others who did so much to bring them comfort.

Services were private. The Friedmans plan to celebrate Vic’s and Sally’s lives with friends in coming months.

In his own words, Vic was entrusted with important work, and was grateful to have been permitted the honor of being a temporary steward of a sacred trust…a temporary guardian of justice. Donations in Vic’s memory may be made to the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law by visiting brennancenter.org/VictorFriedman or by mailing a check with “Victor Friedman” in the memo line to:

The Brennan Center for Justice c/o Development 120 Broadway Suite 1750 New York, NY 10271 www.levinefuneral.com

Source: https://obits.levinefuneral.com/victor-friedman

Victor Friedman, a judge in Burlington County for 22 years, has died By Jim Walsh

Source: https://www.courierpostonline.com/story/news/local/south-jersey/2025/07/07/victor-friedman-superior-court-judge-burlington-county-obituary/84464535007/

July 7, 2025

Victor Friedman, a Superior Court judge in Burlington County for 22 years, has died at age 92.

A former attorney in Trenton and Burlington City, Friedman started a practice with a partner in the mid '60s. He served on the bench in Mount Holly from 1978 to 2000.

He was the husband of Sally Friedman, a longtime columnist for the Burlington County Times and other publications. She died on Jan. 3, and her husband passed away on June 28.

Born in Brooklyn, Friedman spent his childhood on a chicken farm in Perrineville, Monmouth County, an obituary said.

The son of immigrant Jews from Russia, his first language was Yiddish. "As he learned English, he translated patriotic American songs into his family’s native tongue," the obituary added.

Friedman was a Rutgers University graduate. He took a two-year break from earning his degree at at Cornell Law School to serve in the U.S. Air Force as a second lieutenant.

He was a former resident of Willingboro and Moorestown.

Services were private.

Jim Walsh is a senior reporter for the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. Email: Jwalsh@cpsj.com.

Retired Judge Victor Friedman recalled for his devotion to family, the law and newlyweds By Jim Walsh

Source: https://www.courierpostonline.com/story/news/local/south-jersey/2025/07/12/victor-friedman-superior-court-judge-burlington-county-weddings/84446785007/

July 12, 2025

As a South Jersey judge for 22 years, Victor Friedman often saw the worst of people.

But the retired Superior Court jurist, who recently died at age 92, never lost his faith in humanity — or in the judicial system, a family member said.

And Victor Friedman, who enjoyed a 64-year marriage, had a decades-long practice that helped bring happiness to others — conducting countless weddings into his 80s.

"He didn't feel burdened by it," Jill Friedman, one of the judge's three daughters, said of the frequent requests for her father's wedding services.

"He was living in this very different world of crime and pain," she added of her father, who primarily oversaw criminal cases in his Mount Holly courtroom. The judge's role at weddings "was much more poetic than you'd think of my dad, but he'd adjust it happily if the couple had any ideas."

A judge from 1978 to 2000, Victor Friedman "heard some really horrible cases," his daughter observed in an interview.

Victor Friedman Provided By Friedman Family

"He did bring it home with him; he thought about it a lot," she said. "I would say he just had tremendous faith in the system. He really thought that the system would do the right thing."

"He affected (our family) in so many ways. I guess the most he was just a very honorable judge"

In the judge's view, jury members played a key role in delivering justice.

Victor Friedman regularly stood to thank the jury after each trial. But his voice quavered at his final court session, according to a Courier-Post news account from August 2000.

"I have had the privilege of working with jurors for 40 years," said the judge, then 69, who began his courtroom career as a Burlington City defense attorney.

"I will stand at this point not because I am tired of sitting but out of great respect for you and other jurors who have gone before."

Attorney David Gladfelter, however, recalled a more pragmatic side to Friedman in a tribute beneath the judge's obituary.

"Years ago, I and my adversary were before the judge for a case conference. He (Victor Friedman) asked his secretary, 'Bring me my baseball bat,'" wrote Gladfelter.

"It was his way of saying that he thought that the case should settle and that we weren't trying hard enough. He was right and we did settle."

Jack Sweeney, a retired Burlington County assignment judge, described Victor Friedman in a tribute as "a kind man, a great judge and ... always open to a good joke or a funny story."

"And now he is with Sally," Sweeney wrote of the former judge's wife, who died in January.

Sally Friedman was a well-known writer who sometimes included her husband in columns for the Burlington County Times and other publications.

"He ... didn't love it. He got used to it," acknowledged Jill Friedman, who followed her father into the legal profession and now is a dean at Rutgers Law School.

She added her parents' marriage "was sort of soft and beautiful. He loved being part of that."

The couple lived for many years in Willingboro and Moorestown. Both developed dementia near the end of their lives and "held hands day and night until her death in January," says the judge's obituary.

Victor Friedman, the child of Jewish immigrants from Russia, spoke Yiddish as his first language and grew up on a chicken farm in Perrineville, Monmouth County, his obituary notes. He held degrees from Rutgers University and Cornell Law School.

He put his legal studies on hold to serve as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Navy and was a founding board member of Burlington County College, the obituary says.

Victor Friedman also held an unusual distinction among the state's male jurists — a mane of hair that cascaded down the back of his neck.

"He got a lot of compliments on his beautiful, flowing, curly white hair," his daughter said. "Frankly, he had great hair."

Jim Walsh is a senior reporter with the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. Email: Jwalsh@cpsj.com.

Friedman: Life after retirement can be rewarding By Sally Friedman

Source: https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/story/news/2021/12/19/sally-friedman-life-after-retirement-can-rewarding/8924617002/

Dec. 19, 2021

I was nervous. Make that terrified.

When my husband announced his intention to retire 19 years ago, after a long and fulfilling career in law, I wondered, “What now?” After all, we were a two-career couple for three decades and it had worked quite well.

To some extent we both felt defined by what we did out there. I was a freelance writer. My husband had his law practice, and then his years as a Superior Court judge. Both careers brought us enormous satisfaction. But one career was about to end.

There were plenty of sleepless nights. I pondered how it would feel for me to wake up to the pleasures, pressures, and perils of life as a working journalist while Vic woke up to—what? That’s where I was stumped.

What would he do? How would he spend the long days that were once filled with meaningful, important work?

If you like your endings at the beginning, I can tell you that this one is a modified happily-ever-after. We have finally almost figured it out. We’ve adjusted, as we knew we must, to a whole new chapter in our lives and our marriage. It hasn’t been easy. But like most challenges, it’s been worth the effort.

When Vic announced to me shortly after his official retirement that he was planning to take a sculpture course, my immediate reaction was that my dear husband had come unglued. Never once, in our long years of marriage, had he expressed an interest in sculpting. Never once had he gone to a sculpture exhibit. Yet here it was. A pronouncement that seemed well thought-out and even researched. He found a class at our local arts center and he enrolled.

Who knew that the man I married when I was barely out of college and thought I knew so well by now, would turn out to have some sculpting talent? Who knew that he would trudge to his studio class in fair weather and foul to stand on his feet and mold clay for hours on end?

It was a lovely, soul-stirring surprise for both of us. And there would be more of them.

My husband began studying course catalogues from local colleges almost as soon as he put away his judicial robes. But I honestly didn’t think he’d do much more than survey those catalogues.

Surprise number two at a stage when he could have been just smelling the roses, Vic was driving in rush hour traffic to the University of Pennsylvania, where he enrolled in undergraduate classes in a special program for seniors. He took history courses the first semester, then went on to anthropology, Judaic studies, folklore, and to my astonishment, women’s studies courses. And this man, who had been glued to a chair most of his life then joined a gym. Yikes!

Retirement can be a time of astonishment. Nobody knows that better than the spouse of a retiree.

Despite the disparity in our routines, we have discovered that there is life after the “R” word. We are not poster children for retirement harmony. We squabble probably more than before, because Vic is now back in what I had come to think of as my domain.

He’s there when I’m tossing the salad (and thinks he has a better way). He’s there when I’m gossiping on the phone and I feel embarrassed. But these are such tiny blips on the big radar screen. After years of a challenging professional life, my husband is decompressing, and it’s wonderful to see.

He smiles more. He worries less. And he’s got a twinkle in his eye that wasn’t there before. Is it a perfect adjustment? No. That would be too easy.

Vic misses his colleagues on the bench. It’s lonely sometimes to eat lunch alone when once he ate with others who shared his passion for law and could spend their entire lunch break dissecting a single legal principle.

Yes, my husband is out of the mainstream and feels it. His professional years are behind him now, not ahead. Most days, my husband’s retirement rests easily on both our shoulders. It’s lovely to have a companion who not only eases the burdens of daily life in an uneasy world, but who is also willing to remove the dishes from the dishwasher and do all of the grocery shopping.

It’s a pleasure to sit down to dinner and listen to the highlights from Vic’s classes. Sometimes he even reads his class notes to me so that we are both learning.

Yes, my husband has retired. We have survived and are certainly enjoying this new stage of life.

Sally Friedman is a freelance writer. Contact her at pinegander@aol.com.