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The Mensch List – Section
The Mensch List 2013
Last month, for our eighth-annual mensch list, we again invited all of you to submit your nominations of extraordinary volunteers, and again the outpouring of suggestions of amazing people was overwhelming.
The Mensch List: Hope for Paws founder’s dogged devotion
When Eldad Hagar, co-founder of the dog rescue Hope for Paws, arrived at the trash heap in Wilmington last November, a defeated-looking white husky huddled miserably amid the garbage, her red and raw body racked with mange, bacterial infections and parasites.
The Mensch List: A survivor marches with the living
Sidonia Lax, now 86, survived the Holocaust but won’t let that define her. “I am a thriver,” she said. A stroll through her Sherman Oaks home is proof — her walls overflow with decades of family photos and mementos of her work as a member of the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council and other organizations.
The Mensch List: A passion for helping struggling Iranian-Americans
Two years ago Elena J., a middle-aged, impoverished Iranian-Jewish woman in Los Angeles, was stricken with a rare illness that forced surgeons to amputate one of her legs.
The Mensch List: The matchmaker
For a moment, it seemed like Jacob Segal was the interviewer. Walking into Delice Bakery on a recent Monday morning, the 67-year-old businessman was already there, sitting by the window facing Pico Boulevard, huddled over the Los Angeles Times.
The Mensch List: She has tzedakah in the bag
Maya Steinberg, 17, never imagined that Purses for Peace, the bat mitzvah project she started when she was 12, would be so successful.
The Mensch List: Feeding body and soul
While some synagogue sanctuaries are adorned with fresh flowers, the bimah of Temple Beth Hillel in Valley Village is lined with towers of fresh apples and oranges. Although the décor, devised by Leslye Adelman, is stylish, it is also functional.
The Mensch List: Person of the Book
Armin Szatmary takes his membership in the “People of the Book” very seriously. So seriously, in fact, that once per week, for 15 years, the 73-year-old retired salesman has set aside time to help illiterate kids in Los Angeles’ public schools learn to read.
The Mensch List: Bearing witness to Russians’ Holocaust stories
For the past seven years, Leon Shkrab, 67, has volunteered every week at Bet Tzedek Legal Services, conducting intake interviews in Russian with Holocaust survivors who are applying for Holocaust reparations through the representation of lawyers at the pro bono law firm.