Arnold Fine, ‘I Remember When!’ Columnist, z”l

Arnold Fine, who enjoyed a half-century conversation through the pages of the Jewish Press about growing up in old New York, was niftar on Friday, passing away in his sleep at his home in Manhattan. He was 90.

Fine’s “I Remember When!” weekly column developed into an institution of its own, as he drew upon his experiences growing up in the Bronx. Before his retirement, he was a senior editor at the newspaper.

“He was really, really a fine man,” Rabbi Yaakov Klass, an editor at the Jewish Press, told Hamodia on Monday.

Fine was first hired by Rabbi Sholom Klass, z”l, the founder of the Jewish Press, for another publication he had. He started his “I Remember When” column in the mid-1960s.

The column, the Press wrote in a tribute to Fine, “brought to life the sights, sounds, and smells of New York City in the 1930s and ‘40s.”

The paper will continue to publish the column, said associate publisher Naomi Klass Mauer.

“The subjects Arnie wrote about are timeless and new generations have always taken to the column’s warmth and nostalgia,” she said. “His writings will live on even though he is no longer with us.”

Fine was born in the Bronx in 1924, and joined the Navy at the end of World War II. He found himself drafted by the Army a few weeks later.

After the war, he roamed New York City as a press photographer shooting for local newspapers. Looking to get ahead in the newspaper business, he went to college thanks to the GI Bill.

He was predeceased by his wife, Edith, and is survived by his children, Jay, Brian and Martin; six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

This article appeared in print on page 4 of the September 9th, 2014 edition of Hamodia.