About Marla Bennett    Marla Bennett     List of honorees         Louis Rose Society         Jewishsightseeing home

Tribute to Marla Bennett (written by Norman Greene, delivered by Daniel Greene)

Good morning. In a perfect world, we would be gathered here today to present the Gary and Jerri-Ann Jacobs Humanitarian Award to a vivacious, extremely intelligent, talented and caring young woman by the name of Marla Bennett. But this is not a perfect world.  Hurricanes, cruel poverty and murders do occur.  One such terrorist attack ended the promising life of Marla Bennett at age 24.  She was in the right place at the wrong moment.     Marla was San Diego's first civilian victim of a senseless terrorist attack at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.  If that was all that she was, her name
might only be a blessed memory.

But Marla was special.  She was an activist.  She wanted to do it all.  To learn, to study, to perfect her understanding of Judaism and the world
around her and to do good deeds.  She was an ardent believer in the goodness of man, the role of Israel among the nations, the bright future for world
peace. 

There are a number of memorials to Marla.  In addition to naming this chapter of Magen David Adom after Marla, two gardens in Israel, a window in
a Jerusalem synagogue, and two gardens in California, as well as a life saving ambulance donated to Magen David Adom and a van for troubled street
kids in Israel were named in her memory.  One fund carries  her name to assist youth traveling to Israel and another fund was established to assist
with Jewish and non-Jewish charities in California and Israel.  Soon there will be a new cabin named for Marla at Paul Newman's Hole-in-the-Wall-Gang
Camp for ill children which is now under construction in the Jordan River Village in Israel. 

Marla probably would be astounded and delighted to know that Magen David Adom has created a new humanitarian award which will bear her name for years to come.

Amazing as it may seem, this 24 year old touched the hearts and minds of countless people throughout the world through her actions and her writing
skill. Perhaps it was her article on life in Jerusalem, which she wrote at my request for a Yom Yerushalayim  issue of the San Diego Jewish Press Heritage newspaper, that helped her message so clearly resonate.  Upon her death that article was reprinted by the L.A Times, The Washington Post, the New York Times, the Atlanta Constitution and numerous other publications around the globe.  Most recently, it was quoted again in the San Diego Jewish Journal.

Marla's voice was forever recorded:  Her message was of compassion and her desire for the world to achieve the Jewish ideal of tikun olam.....to make
this world a better place.

It is in that spirit that the Marla Bennett Memorial Friends Society of Magen David Adom salutes two very worthy recipients of the first Marla
Bennett Humanitarian Award.  They are being honored for their boundless energy and their compassionate, generous and loving spirit.  It would be
nice to think that there is a bit of Marla in every wonderful and far-reaching humanitarian deed performed by Gary and Gerri-Ann Jacobs.