Items in today’s column also include:
* Remembering the Pittsburgh Massacre
* Doing Mitzvot
* Political bytes
* Coming our way
* In Memoriam
SAN DIEGO — On what would have been oceanographer Walter Munk’s 102nd birthday on Saturday, Oct. 19, surfers gathered in a ring near the Scripps Pier in La Jolla while others gathered on the pier itself to honor Munk by tossing biodegradable flowers into the ocean. San Diego Union-Tribune reporter Charles T. Clark reported that a seal “even made an appearance, jumping in and out of the water nearby.” Often described as the “Einstein of the Oceans,” Munk died in February of this year. The City of San Diego honored him in 2017 on his 100th birthday by naming a walkway along the beach of La Jolla, “Walter Munk Way.”
Munk was credited during World War II with figuring out what day from the standpoint of wave action would be most propitious for the Allies to land at the beach at Normandy. He went on to become a trail blazer in various areas of ocean knowledge. Among those paying tribute to him on Saturday was Imperial Beach Mayor Serge Dedina, a coastal conservationist.
Ken Stone of the Times of San Diego quoted Dedina as recalling that while Munk was charting tidal action for the Normandy Invasion, “My mother was in London being bombed at the time,” and “My father’s family [was] being carted off to concentration camps and being eviscerated by the Nazis. So I always personally thanked Walter for helping to liberate Europe, to make sure our troops were safe and to play a footnote in … world peace.”
Dedina said that Munk, as a teacher, “encouraged all of us to understand that we have to do more to protect and preserve mother ocean.” The Imperial Beach Mayor quoted Munk as having told him: “There’s nothing that a small group of smart people can’t do to change the world.”
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Remembering the Pittsburgh Massacre
Tom Sudow, international president of The Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs, an organization affiliated with the Conservative movement of Judaism, is urging its members to “Show Up for Shabbat” on Friday, Oct. 25, and Saturday, Oct. 26, on the first yahrzeit of the eleven persons slain at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue “to honor the victims and raise our collective voice for a world free of anti-Semitism, hate, and bigotry.” Conservative congregations in San Diego County include Congregation Beth Am, Congregation Beth El, Congregation B’nai Shalom, Congregation B’nai Tikvah, Ner Tamid Synagogue, Ohr Shalom Synagogue, Temple Beth Shalom, and Tifereth Israel Synagogue. Situated clse to the county are Congregacion Hebrea de Baja California in Tijuana, and Congregation B’nai Chaim in Murietta.
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Doing Mitzvot
Lesley & David Cohn, owners of the Cohn Restaurant Group, have contributed $100,000 in profits from the Tacos Libertad shop in the Hillcrest area since its opening in 2017. Each month the shop donates 100 percent of its profits to a designated non-profit group such as the Rady Children’s Hospital, KPBS, the Balboa Park Conservancy, and KPBS. “Both David and I grew up in philanthropic families and their generosity to those in need has always been an inspiration to us,” Lesley Cohn stated. “Both our children and grandchildren volunteer in the community as they have been taught that giving is more rewarding than receiving.” October’s profits will go to The League of Extraordinary Engineers, which engages young students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, Times of San Diego reported.
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Political bytes
* San Diego Union-Tribune Columnist Michael Smolens reports that Peter Navarro, the former San Diegan who now serves as a top adviser to President Donald Trump on China affairs, salted the books he wrote on China with a made-up person to whom he attributed various quotes buttressing Navarro’s views. That person was called Ron Vara, an anagram of the last name of Navarro. According to Smolens, Navarro described Vara as his little “inside joke that has been hiding in plain sight for years.” In San Diego, Navarro had run unsuccessfully for a variety of public offices, including mayor, city council, and county board of supervisors.
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Coming our way
* Rabbi Yael Vurgan of the Sha’ar Hanegev municipality of Israel – which is the partnership region of the Jewish Federation of San Diego County – will address the brunch club of the Federation’s Women’s Philanthropy Board at 10 a.m., Wednesday, Nov. 6, on “her experience working as a woman of clergy in an area that is under constant threat.” Reservations may be made via this website.
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In Memoriam
* A paid obituary in today’s San Diego Union-Tribune reports the death Oct. 9, of UCSD Professor Emeritus Murray Rosenblatt, 93, who was a fellow in the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and the American Association for the Advancement of Science as well as a Gugenheim fellow and a member of the National Academy of Science. Survivors include daughter Karin Rosenblatt, of Champaign, Illinois, and son Daniel Rosenblatt of Live Oak, Texas. Memorial contributions may be made to the Murray and Adylin Rosenblatt Endowed Lecture Series at UC San Diego. A memorial service is planned Friday, Nov. 1, at El Camino Memorial Park, 5600 Carroll Canyon Road, with burial to follow.
* James E. Lasry, M.D., 91, was reported in a paid obituary in the San Diego Union-Tribune to have died on Friday, Oct. 11, at his home. A founding partner of the San Diego Internal Medicine Group, he served as Chief of Medicine at Sharp Memorial Hospital, President of the San Diego County Heart Association, and Vice President of the California Heart Association. A memorial is planned Nov. 29th at the Athenaeum Music and Arts Library in La Jolla, where he was an active member, as he was in such other arts institutions as the San Diego Museum of Art, the La Jolla Chamber Music Society, the Balboa Art Conservation Center, and the Burchfield-Penney Art Center at Buffalo State College. He is survived by his wife Lois, daughter Lynne, son David, four grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. Donations in his memory may be made to the Athenaeum, Balboa Arts Conservation Center, and the La Jolla Symphony and Chorus.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com Obituaries in this column are sponsored by Inland Industries Group LP in memory of long-time San Diego Jewish community leader Marie (Mrs. Gabriel) Berg.