Tax Attorney Charlie Kopp Dies at 85
Noted tax attorney Charlie Kopp, who held several prominent positions locally, died Feb. 6, according to law firm Cozen O’Connor. He was 85.
Kopp joined Cozen of counsel in 2009 after many years at Wolf Block.
A longtime Republican fundraiser, Kopp was a member of the board of trustees of Thomas Jefferson University and a board member of the Rothman Orthopaedic Institute. He was appointed chairman of the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority in 2011; 25 years earlier, he was appointed commissioner to the Delaware River Port Authority.
Kopp served on the advisory board to the Resolution Trust Corp., was appointed in 1980 to Gov. Dick Thornburgh’s Special State Tax Commission and was appointed co-chair of the Philadelphia Tax Committee in 1982.
Israel Defense Assistance, Anti-BDS Bill Passes Senate
By a 77-23 vote, the Senate approved a bill codifying $38 million in Israeli defense assistance, while also giving states legal cover to battle the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, JTA reported.
Several prominent Democratic senators — including both declared and likely candidates — voted against the bill. They said that while they opposed BDS, they were worried that state laws against it conflicted with freedom of speech.
Dissenters included declared presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kamala Harris of California, as well as likely candidates Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Sherrod Brown of Ohio.
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who just announced her candidacy, voted for the bill. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was the lone Republican voting against the bill.
ESPN: Foul Ball to the Head Killed Jewish Woman in 2018 at Dodger Stadium
ESPN reported Feb. 5 that a foul ball to the head killed a California Jewish woman on Aug. 29, four days after she was struck.
Linda Goldbloom, 79, died of “acute intracranial hemorrhage due to history of blunt force trauma,” according to a coroner’s report. The incident had not been previously reported.
Goldbloom was struck in the ninth inning of a game and taken to a hospital, where she had emergency brain surgery. After being unconscious on a respirator for three days, her family allowed her to be taken off, as per her prior wishes.
Goldbloom and her husband of 59 years, Erwin, had been partial season ticket holders for a decade.
Anti-Semitism Envoy Named
President Donald Trump on Feb. 5 named Los Angeles prosecutor Elan Carr as the State Department’s envoy for anti-Semitism, JTA reported.
The post had been empty for two years.
Carr, 50, is an Army veteran with service in Iraq. He also was the national president of Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi.
“We eagerly look forward to working with Carr, as his office combats rising anti-Semitism, generated from the far right, the far left, and Islamist extremists, and abetted by the ubiquitous nature of social media,” American Jewish Committee CEO David Harris said in a statement.
One of Carr’s first orders of business was attending a conference on anti-Semitism in Bratislava, followed by a European Union conference on anti-Semitism to be held in Brussels.
