Stefan Kanfer


Stefan Kanfer was an American journalist, critic, editor, and author.

Background

Stefan Kanfer was born on May 17, 1933, in New York City and raised there and in Hastings-on-Hudson. His family were Jews from Romania, and he spoke Yiddish. His father was a schoolteacher during the Great Depression during Kanfer's early childhood. He attended New York University.

Career

In the early 1950s, Kanfer served in an army intelligence during the Korean War.
Experience included: "bohemian" in Paris, advertising, military interrogator, writer of cartoon captions, and TV gag-writer.
In the early 1960s, he became a film critic, book critic, and senior editor at Time magazine for more than 20 years when Henry Grunwald ran the magazine. Colleagues there included Lance Morrow. He left Time staff in 1987 and contributed articles for another five years.
After Time, he became drama critic for The New Leader, and then contributing editor or writer on arts, culture, and politics for the City Journal, The Wall Street Journal, and other publications.

Personal and death

Kanfer was married to Dorothy May Markey Kanfer, daughter of John Markey and Dorothy Markey.
His circle of friends included: Henry Grunwald, fellow Romanian Jew Elie Wiesel, Lance Morrow, Roger Rosenblatt, John Leo, Paul Gray, Ron Sheppard, Jess Korman, Chris Porterfield, Michael Walsh, B. J. Phillips, and Gerald Clarke.
With Wiesel, he served on the presidential Wiesel Commission on the Romanian holocaust.
He served as mentor and supporter of younger writers, played the ukulele and musical saw, and held concerts and film presentations in his home.
Kanfer died on June 19, 2018, age 85, in Sleepy Hollow, New York.

Awards

Kanfer published 16 books and numerous articles, numerous songs, plays, essays, and reviews.

Books