Maurice R. Commanday, an innovative engineer in the aircraft industry, a veteran of World War II and Israel\’s War of Independence, and an active supporter of the Freedom of Religion movement in Israel, died July 23 at the age of 84.
Irwin M. Weinstein, one of the founders of the National Israel Cancer Research Fund (ICRF) and its Los Angeles chapter, died July 21 of a stroke and kidney failure. He was 76.
Elizabeth Marmorston Horowitz, founding director of the USC Law School paralegal program and a Juvenile Court mediator, died July 21 of cancer. She was 72.
Irv Kaze, a KRLA Sportscaster and longtime sports executive, died suddenly from a heart attack Saturday, June 29, at the age of 75.
Peter Grant, veteran Los Angeles reporter, editor, public relations executive and Jewish community activist who was the first journalist to enter Japan after its surrender in 1945, died June 4 in San Diego at age 86.
Audrey Skirball-Kenis, founding trustee of the Skirball Cultural Center, died June 19, at the age of 87.
Sivan Hamburger, one of the longstanding, staunch leaders of the Bureau of Jewish Education (BJE), died June 3, at the age of 87.\n\nHamburger was a passionate Labor Zionist, who as a young, idealistic high school student, spent a year in the Land of Israel, during the time it was still called Palestine. His love of Israel, Hebrew and Jewish learning followed him throughout his life.
Lew Wasserman, philanthropist, former chairman and chief executive of Music Corporation of America (MCA) and one of the last old-time movie moguls, died June 3 from complications of a stroke. He was 89.\n\nWasserman was born March 22, 1913, in Cleveland, Ohio, to Russian immigrant parents, Isaac and Minnie, proprietors of a struggling restaurant. In 1936, the same year that Carl Laemmle lost control of Universal Studios, a 22-year-old Wasserman, with only a high school education, began at the bottom at MCA\’s Cleveland office, a talent agency with a celebrity roster that included Benny Goodman and Frank Sinatra. Wasserman worked his way up the corporate ladder and, a decade later, on Dec. 16, 1946, became MCA\’s president.
Marshall Sosson, concertmaster at many Hollywood studios, died on April 29, 2002, at the age of 91.
Avner Sharoni, owner of Tempo restaurant in Encino, died April 13 at the age of 49.
In 1977, Sharoni, then a 24-year-old Israeli, moved to Los Angeles after he served in the Israel Defense Force. He bought Art\’s International Sidewalk Cafe and within a few weeks, had added hummus and pita to the menu and changed the name to Tempo, after the popular Israeli soda.
