December
12, 2005 December
12, 2005
Newsletter No. 13: Louis Rose Society for the Preservation of Jewish History
American Jewish Committee honors
its presidents on our Louis Rose website
The San Diego chapter of the American Jewish Committee has
become the first Jewish organization in San Diego to take advantage of the Louis
Rose Society's "organizational biography" program. Its ten past
presidents as well as its current president, Tad
Seth Parzen, all have been honored on the website. By researching
articles about the activities of these 11 leaders over their lifetimes, the
Louis Rose Society also will be compiling material that can easily be
consolidated into a history of the American Jewish Committee's work in San Diego
County.
The past presidents, in order of their service beginning in 1981, were Dorothy
Garfield, Nadine Savitch,
Norman Hahn, Deborah
Horwitz, Jerry Harris, Hamilton
Loeb, Penny Adler, Paul
Meyer, Marty Block and
Joan Dean. Except for
Garfield and Hahn, all are still living. Inasmuch as Block previously had
been honored on the website by LRS members Robert & Helaine Baum,
there was no charge to the American Jewish Committee for including the link to
Block's web pages on the AJC organizational page.
Under the program, organizations pay the same $36 fee as that paid by
individuals to join the Louis Rose Society. The $36 fee includes the right to
honor one individual from our San Diego Jewish community. Each additional
individual may be honored at $18 (chai). Once an individual is honored on
the site, the Louis Rose Society begins the process of placing information about
that person upon the website culled from the archives of the Southwestern
Jewish Press, San Diego Jewish Press-Heritage and the San Diego Jewish
Times. Members and friends may also submit material, including
photographs, for on-line posting about the honorees.
Although the AJC was the first San Diego organization to take
advantage of this opportunity to have aspects of its history researched at a
remarkably low rate, our Society has been in discussion with other Jewish
organizations about similar programs. We hope to make announcements soon
about others who are joining the effort to make our San Diego Jewish history
more accessible. If you are a member of a synagogue, club, agency, or
Jewish interest group that you would like to see become a participant, please
call Don Harrison at (619) 265-0808 to get this very inexpensive process
started.
As of today (December 12), our membership
stands at 183 individuals and organization. Thus far 210 people have been honored
on our website.
Harrison to lead tour of Jewish Old Town on Sunday, Jan. 22
Louis Rose Society cofounder Donald H. Harrison
will lead a walking tour highlighting the Jewish history
of Old Town San Diego on Sunday, January 22, beginning at the Robinson-Rose
House on the Plaza in Old Town State Park. Harrison has conducted this
tour from time to time for a variety of organizations, but this is the first
time it is being offered to members of the Louis Rose Society. The tour
will start in the State Park and be completed at the old Temple Beth Israel in
Heritage Park. A minimum donation of $5 to the Jewish
Community Foundation/ Louis Rose Fund is requested. Please reserve a place
on the tour by calling Don at (619) 265-0808 or messaging him at sdheritage@cox.net.
By popular request, another
tour of Rose Canyon to be led by LRS member and naturalist Rick Kamen
is planned, perhaps in February or early March. Details in an upcoming
newsletter.
Membership News: A double simcha for Gert Thaler in Israel
RING AROUND THE GERT—LRS
member and honoree Gert Thaler was the guest of honor in the Tel Aviv
public school kindergarten
classroom that she, along with daughter Linda Neiman and son-in-law
Harvey Neiman and fellow San Diegan Jaime Brenner donated through the
Tel Aviv Foundation. The December 12th ceremony not only honored Gert
for her 85th birthday but celebrated her recent release from the
hospital
after a pulmonary ailment sidelined her in Israel for nearly two months.
Gert is scheduled to fly back to San Diego this week, where doctors have
ordered her to follow a regimen of "rest" and
"relaxation"—words not normally associated with the energetic,
peripatetic Ms. Thaler.
Please share your news with other members of
the Louis Rose Society family! Message
the facts to Donald H. Harrison at sdheritage@cox.net
Names in
boldface are LRS members; underlined names are those of LRS honorees. You
may follow a link to that honoree's web page.
Lawrence Baron wrote a
fine book, Projecting the Holocaust into the Present, about movie
portrayals of the Shoah. For the Tifereth Israel/ Temple Emanu-El film series,
Baron led a discussion on Sunday, December 11, on Mendel—a 1997 film
about a family of Holocaust survivors. Baron,
head of SDSU’s Lipinsky Institute for Judaic Studies,
is interested in Jewish movies of all sorts, leading a discussion series
at Temple Solel on such flicks as The Frisco Kid and Where’s Poppa. ...
Robert Baum reports that he is recovering nicely from knee replacement
surgery...We are saddened to report that Esther Brenes, mother of Philip
and Roger Brenes and widow of LRS honoree Sam
Brenes, has died. Her funeral will be at
3 p.m. on Tuesday, December 13, at Greenwood's Garden Chapel. Shiva will
be observed at 7: p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday, and at 6
p.m. on Saturday, at the home of Roger Brenes. Call 619-222-5215 for
directions...
A perfect Chanukah gift!
Remember, you can make a member of the San Diego
Jewish community an honoree of the Louis Rose Society by sending a check in his/
her honor to the Jewish Community Foundation, 4950 Murphy Canyon Road, San
Diego, CA 92123. Or if you want to do it even more quickly, simply call
the
Foundation offices at (858) 279-2740. Make sure to tell them the donation
goes to the Foundation's Louis Rose Fund, and in whose honor the donation is
being made. For new members, the donation required for the honor is $36.
It costs only $18 for each additional honoree. Act now, please!