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Honoree
Mort Vogelson
As a child growing up in Brooklyn, I
received a Jewish education and was taught the mitzvah of “tzedakah.”
I remember placing a few cents in a tin box (pushka) that hung on the
wall.
—Mort Vogelson, Book of Life Inscription, Jewish Community
Foundation, October 2002
Honored by: Gerry & Marilyn Greber,
Carlsbad, California, July 17, 2005
I first became acquainted with Mort, on Sunday January 6, 2002, at a
ceremony installing a plaque honoring San Diego Jewish War Veterans.
This plaque was being placed on a wall at the present JCC in La Jolla.
This plaque was originally placed on the grounds of the old JCC on 54th
Street in 1958. This location was
now was being taken over by the North Park Apostolic Church.
Mort, on his own, contacted the minister of the church and received
permission to reclaim the plaque. He
found the plaque, removed it, and had it installed at its current resting place.
Mort was Commander of the Jewish War Veterans Harry Apelman Post 185 here in San
Diego. At the time the plaque was
re-installed at the present JCC, Vogelson said that he “wanted the memory of
the Jewish War Veterans to be remembered by the people living here."
He was also the driving force behind the saving of the Aron Kodesh
(Holy Ark) and bringing it from its former place, the Naval Training
Center in San Diego, to its current home in The Veterans Memorial Center and
Museum in Balboa Park. It had been
used for Jewish services at that location and was being stored in a warehouse.
Mort has been very active all his life in the teaching of Jewish values to
children. He is quoted as saying
“It is my hope that all Jewish children in the San Diego community will grow
up as delighted and grateful to be a Jew as I am.
To me charity and community are closely linked.
If we don’t help each other, who will.”I have found that my all too
brief associations with Mort on various occasions have been personally rewarding
via the learning and warmth that he radiated.
He will be deeply missed by the Jewish community.
— Gerry Greber, July 17, 2005
Articles
about Morton Vogelson