__________________ Nassau _________________
HERALD
Calmer U
nctuary. Your Home is Your Sa
Taxes Don’t Let Highay ! w Chase You A
Holistic Health Cent
er & Spa HERALD
All the news of the Five Towns
Presented by
lichoiceawards.com
Rocking out at Israel fundraiser
X REDUCTION PROPERTY TA THE LEADER IN
Apply online at aldnote mptrg.com/her 266 or call 516.715.1 Maidenbaum Pro
Page 10
l Hablamos Españo
ion Group, LLC perty Tax Reduct
VoL. 103 No. 3
JANUARY 15 - 21, 2026
$1.00
W IN ER N
MASSAGE
Premium Accomodation s At Affordable Prices! 131 Main Street, Unit 8 | Ea st Rockaway 516-758-7029 www.calm eruny.com
Hewlett coach John Palladino wins county service award By AIDAN WARSHAVSKY awarshavsky@liherald.com
Courtesy John Palladino
John Palladino, head coach of the Hewlett High School varsity football team, has always believed that actions speak louder than words. He has carried that attitude with him, he said, since he first picked up a football at age 7, and this year it helped him win the Jim Barbanell Memorial Service Award. Palladino got a call a week before the Nassau County High School Football Coaches Association’s 59th annual Gridiron Dinner on Dec. 10, notifying him of his recognition for his service to Nassau County high school sports. The award commemorates the life of the late Jim Barbanell, a Newsday reporter whose pas-
Palladino, second row center, has an affinity for helping his players grow, both athletically and in the classroom.
Continued on Page 7
How a N. Woodmere family turned loss into service By MELISSA BERMAN mberman@liherald.com
A new documentary, premiering in Manhattan this month, tells a Sept. 11 story rooted not only in loss, but also in what followed — a legacy of service that began in a Five Towns home and extended halfway around the world. “Zzaslow K-427,” set to premiere on Sunday at the Dances With Films festival at Regal Union Square, traces the journey of a black Labrador retriever that became the longest-serving mine-detection dog of the post-9/11 era. But the film’s emotional focus is on Ira
Zaslow, a North Woodmere father whose life, and death, shaped so much that came afterward. Zaslow was an assistant vice president at Lehman Brothers, on the 38th floor of Tower 1 of the World Trade Center. He died in the Sept. 11 attacks. “Losing my dad was a catalyst to start the organization,” Ira’s son Bryan Zaslow said. Within a month after the attacks, Bryan had begun working to establish the Ira Zaslow Foundation, with the purpose of providing children a safe and encouraging environment in which to grow and play. The foundation’s goals also include
honoring the victims of the attacks and ridding the future of terrorism. “I felt it was important to keep him with me, and it felt incredible to start this to make a difference, and to remember how great of a man he was,” Bryan said. “I also was able to learn about him on a grander level.” In the years after his death, Ira Zaslow’s name became better known in the community he loved. North Woodmere honored him by renaming the block he lived on, Flanders Drive, Ira Zaslow Drive. “He was my dad before he was anything else,” Adam
Zaslow, Bryan’s younger brother and the writer and producer of “Zzaslow K-427,” said. “I wanted people to know who he was, not just how he died.” Rather than centering on the destruction of 9/11, the film opens in New York City, alive, crowded and vibrant, before the audience meets Ira Zaslow. One of its most poignant moments
is an ordinary one: Adam wakes his father late at night to talk about the basketball star Michael Jordan, unaware that it would be their last conversation. “That’s the memory I hold on to,” Adam said. “It wasn’t dramatic. It was just us, and that’s what makes it sacred.” Continued on Page 9