Other items in today’s column include:
*His and her stories of converting to Judaism
*Political bytes
* Recommended reading
Editor’s Note: From time to time in this space, we will be running a “Behind the Byline” story, telling you about the life and career of one of our regular volunteer writers. Today, we tell the story of Jerry Klinger.
SAN DIEGO — Though he lives in Boynton Beach, Florida, Jerry Klinger writes stories for this publication from all over the United States and the globe.
Klinger is president of the Jewish American Society of Historic Preservation, an organization which he largely funds. It has erected more than 100 historic markers honoring Jewish-American contributions in this country, Europe, and Israel.
The son of a Holocaust survivor, Klinger, who is a retired senior vice president with Merrill Lynch, says his and wife Judy’s motivation for starting and financing the historic marker program is Holocaust related.
He said he wants the markers to demonstrate that Jews are an integral part of the American story, and that our people have been here–and contributing to America–from colonial times on.
Anti-Semites, he added, would like to deny the longstanding Jewish contributions to America. “You strip that from people and they become the ‘other;’ and once they become the ‘other,’ it is easier to say ‘we have to get rid of the other.'”
The first marker put up by the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation in the late 1990s was at the site of Temple Montefiore, the first synagogue in New Mexico — at a location in Las Vegas, N.M., that is now a Catholic church. The second marker was put up in Pensacola, Florida, where the first synagogue of that state was erected.
Having moved on from synagogues to individual Jewish achievements, Klinger has his eye on several locations in San Diego County where he’d like to erect historic markers. They include Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, where he proposes honoring San Diego’s first settler Louis Rose; the downtown federal bankruptcy court, where he’d like to erect a marker honoring Judge Jacob Weinberger; the Salk Institute where he’d like to honor Dr. Jonas Salk, and the Rincon Indian Reservation, where he’d like to honor 19th-century Indian rights advocate Wolf Kalisher.
The local Louis Rose Society for the Preservation of Jewish History, of which I am the current president, is a partner in exploring the marker program.
Klinger told me he and Judy had been traveling in New Mexico when they read about that state’s first synagogue being in Las Vegas, but upon arrival there, they could find no synagogue nor marker. A Catholic Church had been built on the property in question, and the local priest as well as the bishop in Santa Fe, happily agreed to have a marker erected.
In addition to the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, the Klingers also are the principal funders of the To Save a Life Foundation, which works with organizations in Israel seeking to get prostitutes out of that life and into healthier and more dignified careers. “We’re trying to give them choices so they don’t have to sell their bodies,” he said. One of the projects is what Klinger calls a “shoe fund,” in which money is prepaid to shoe stores to enable women to come in and obtain shoes for their children.
“What I want is for children to see that their parents are taking care of them,” he said. “If the mother can afford to pay only 25 cents for a pair of shoes, that okay, it doesn’t matter.” The important thing, he said, is that the child sees the mother being a caring provider.
*
His and her stories of converting to Judaism
Mark & Kira Thomas have been searching for sometime for a religion in which they could feel comfortable. In today’s edition of San Diego Jewish World, the couple relate their journeys to Judaism in side-by-side his-and-hers articles.
*
Political bytes
*Terra Lawson-Remer, opposing incumbent Kristin Gaspar in the 3rd county supervisorial district, offers these proposals on housing: “A public bank dedicated to financing affordable housing can provide below-market access to both land and capital, reducing costs to build. These construction cost savings will result in lower rents and lower housing purchase costs. We can encourage infill development near workplaces and transit centers through streamlined permits for dedicated affordable units, with zoning regulations that prohibit sprawl growth. And we can expand “inclusionary housing” — ensuring that new housing developments always include affordable units, not just homes for the wealthiest.”
*Assemblyman Todd Gloria, a candidate for mayor of San Diego, has announced he has raised over $1 million in his campaign – sufficient, he says, to maintain his front-running status in the March 3 race in which his major opponents are San Diego City Councilmembers Barbara Bry and Scott Sherman.
*
Recommended reading
*San Diego Union-Tribune columnist Diane Bell has a story about a one-ton Holocaust sculpture by Shirley Lichtman that will be erected near the offices of the Jewish Federation of San Diego County after many years in storage at the Chabad Hebrew Academy. Originally commissioned by the New Life Club of San Diego, the sculpture once stood at the now demolished Jewish Community Center on 54th Street. The sculpture lists the names of the main concentration camps and has both water and eternal flame features.
Jerry Klinger, profiled at the top of this column, has written a story in the Times of Israel about his proposal to fund Anne Frank memorials in countries throughout the world.
*
Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com