SAN DIEGO–As the world celebrates the going and coming of another year, from 2015 to 2016, the occasion will be a bittersweet one for Tifereth Israel Synagogue’s former rebbetzin, Jeanne Gold, and her brother Shelly Weissbuch. It was another secular new year, in 1938, when Esther and her husband-to-be, Jule, were planning their own wedding for […]
Esther Weissbuch, 1915-2015 Read More »
Obituaries & memorials
JERUSALEM–Israel’s fifth president, Yitzhak Navon, died on Friday, Nov. 6, at the age of 94. He served as Israel’s president from 1978 to 1983. In New York, The World Jewish Congress issued a statement: “We extend our condolences to Yitzhak Navon’s widow, and to his children and grandchildren. His life story reflects the history of the
Yitzhak Navon, Israel’s fifth president Read More »
Middle East, Obituaries & memorials
Editor’s note: Former Sheriff Bill Kolender’s death at the age of 80 was announced on Tuesday, Oct. 6, by San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman, whose own career in many ways followed Kolender’s. He was the first Jewish police chief of San Diego. Zimmerman, also a Jew, was the first female police chief of San Diego.
A farewell to Sheriff Bill Kolender Read More »
Obituaries & memorials, San Diego CountyBy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — Three years ago, when I was looking for someone with whom I could converse in German, an acquaintance put me in touch with Margaret Raphael. After a brief telephone conversation I made my way to her home in one of Jerusalem’s established neighbourhoods, and we began a friendship
A fond farewell to a genuine Raphael Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Obituaries & memorialsBy Rabbi Ben Kamin ENCINITAS, California — There was nothing physically imposing about Lou Dunst—a cherubic, dignified man with a sweet smile yet deep sorrowful eyes. At times, when he walked slowly by, it seemed that a stiff breeze could knock him down. But then you realized that not even the wind could do such a
In memory of Holocaust survivor Lou Dunst Read More »
Obituaries & memorials
Saying Goodbye to Mom By Saul Schwartz WASHINGTON, D.C. — My mother, Geraldine Myra (Young) Schwartz, lived most of her life in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, before she retired to San Diego with her husband, Norman Schwartz, 20 years ago. This is the story of her last few months and what I learned from about life from her
Geraldine Myra Schwartz, 1933-2015 Read More »
Obituaries & memorials, San Diego County
LA JOLLA, California — Judge Murry Luftig, long-time resident of San Diego, passed away on August 27 at the age of 92. He is survived by his wife of sixty-eight years, Rita Luftig, and his children, Vicki Pierce, Mitchell Luftig, Andrea Ferber, and Laura Luftig, along with seven grandchildren and five great grandchildren. Judge Luftig
Judge Murry Luftig, 1923-2015 Read More »
Obituaries & memorials, San Diego County
By Rose Aslan Granddaughter LAGUNA WOODS, California — Bernice Loeb (née Seiler), of Laguna Woods, returned to her Creator on Wednesday, July 29, after a short illness, at the ripe old age of 93. She lived a long and fulfilling life. Bernice was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1922, daughter of Charles and Rose
Bernice Loeb (July 24, 1922 – July 29, 2015) Read More »
Obituaries & memorials, San Diego County
By Stephen Hazan Arnoff NEW YORK –A light faded from the world in recent days. Rami Wernik of blessed memory, zichrono l’vracha, was a phenomenal friend, husband and father; a scholar, teacher, mentor and leader; a man of dignity, humor, loyalty, generosity and truth — a light gone elsewhere after a heroic struggle with cancer. Something like
Eulogy for Rami Wernik, dean at AJU Read More »
Jewish Religion, Obituaries & memorials, USA
SAN DIEGO — Sgt. Alfred Menaker, a World War II veteran, died May 16, 2015 at the age of 95. Born in Philadelphia, PA he moved to San Diego in 1974 with his, Thelma, a former commander of the Jewish Auxiliary Post 185 . Alfred and Thelma were married for 68 years before her passing
Alfred Menaker, JWV, 1920-2015 Read More »
Obituaries & memorials, San Diego CountyBy Sheila Orysiek SAN DIEGO — When Maya Mikhaylovna Plisetskaya was eleven years old her father was executed as an “enemy of the people” by the Stalinist regime governing the USSR. Her mother was sent to a prison camp. Though the family was originally from Lithuania, Maya was born in Moscow on November 20, 1925.
Maya Mikhaylovna Plisetskaya (1925-2015) Read More »
Obituaries & memorialsWARSAW, Poland (WJC) — At a state funeral in Warsaw attended by world leaders, including European Council President Donald Tusk and German President Joachim Gauck, Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, Poland’s former foreign minister and an Auschwitz prisoner who helped save Jews from the Holocaust, was laid to rest on Monday, May 4. Bartoszewski, a historian, writer and
Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, z”l, Righteous among Nations Read More »
International, Jewish History, Obituaries & memorials
SAN DIEGO (Press Release)– Elie Shneour was born in France on December 11, 1925. The son of Zalman and Salomea Shneour, he had one sibling — Renee Shneour, who later became Spanish dancer Laura Toledo. Shneour was raised in Neuilly sur-Seine, a suburb of Paris. His family was of Jewish heritage, his father having emigrated from Czarist Russia
Elie Alexis Shneour (Dec. 11, 1925 — April 14, 2015) Read More »
Obituaries & memorials, San Diego County
By Robert Sommers FALLBROOK, California — My father. Amos Sommers, died Monday, April 6, in the early morning hours. The attendant went into his room and might have seen a last breath around 1:30 in the morning. Not official of course, not until the nurse came by about three, we got the call over at
Amos Sommers, Nov. 28, 1926 – April 6, 2015 Read More »
Obituaries & memorials, San Diego County