Yesterday, last night, before I went to sleep I got the bad news. G-d took Charley Levine to the big PR agency in Olam Haba, the Next World. It's hard to believe that Charley's body is dead. PR leader Charley Levine dies at 62Charley was a Betari, lover of Israel, devoted husband and father, Zionist, promoter of Israel and friend.
It's always hard to accept that a friend has died, especially someone younger and so professionally successful and inspiring.
When I finally decided to complete my university degree at the then Jerusalem branch of Empire State College, SUNY, I was told that I could get credits for "life experience," the professional skills I had picked up while living my life during the close to twenty years I hadn't been formally studying. Since I had become the de facto public relations representative of Shiloh, I needed someone with formal training and status to vet my knowledge so that SUNY would recognize it and give me college credit. I called Charley, who then had his CLC Charley Levine Communications, and Charley gave me of his time, support and wrote such a wonderful evaluation of my professional skills, knowledge and experience that they gave me a nice amount of academic credits. At that point in the 1980's, Charley was the premier American style public relations specialist. And he and his wonderful wife Shelly were our good friends.
Charley was loyal to his friends, so when Steve Leibowitz began American Football in Israel, Charley sponsored one of the first teams. If I remember correctly, it began with touch football. Charley was also the first Public Relations head for Nefesh B'Nefesh and recognized my blogging as journalism, which got me a place on two NBN flights. Those were amazing experiences for me.
I'm still in shock that Charley has passed away. I had been looking forward to the se'udat hodayah, the festive meal to celebrate his recovery. When we visited him in the hospital it seemed so certain that he would be fine. But I guess that G-d had other plans for the talented, dedicated and loyal Zionist Charley Levine, Z"L.
Here's Charley:
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