Now the wireless communications magnate and his family have taken steps to preserve that history: They have established a $1.4-million endowment to create a program in Mediterranean Jewish Studies through the UCLA Center for Jewish Studies.
Starting in the fall, the endowment will pay for visiting scholars to teach one quarter a year about Mediterranean Jewish history or culture. It also will pay for quarterly lectures and seminars on communities in Italy, France, Spain, Greece, Egypt, Israel, North Africa and the Balkans.
The gift, announced earlier this month, is the latest to a university from the renowned engineer, who pioneered technology used in cellular telephones. In 2004, Viterbi and his wife, Erna, donated $52 million to the school of engineering at USC, his alma mater.
The new UCLA undertaking follows a pilot program in Italian Jewish Studies launched three years ago, also with support from the Viterbi Family Foundation.
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Robert Kennedy remembered
To mark the upcoming 40th anniversary of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, two of the region's leading religious figures will preside over a ceremony at the hospital where Kennedy died.
Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and Rt. Rev. J. Jon Bruno, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, will lead the ceremony Tuesday in the All Soul's Chapel at Good Samaritan Hospital. Kennedy was taken to Central Receiving Hospital, which no longer exists, before he was moved to Good Samaritan, where he died at 1:44 a.m. on June 6, 1968.
The hospital has long been affiliated with the Episcopal Church. It was founded in 1885 by Sister Mary Wood, an Episcopal nun, as the nine-bed Los Angeles Hospital and Home for Invalids. Two years later, St. Paul's Episcopal Church assumed control of the facility, largely through the efforts of women at the parish.
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Walking for Darfur
Jewish World WatchGood Samaritan Hospital reports that about 1,000 people have signed up to participate in its second annual Walk for Darfur, a three-mile walk to be held Sunday to raise awareness about the ongoing violence in Sudan.
In recent years, a number of Jewish groups and congregations have tried to call attention to violence against non-Arab black Africans by mostly Arab militias in Darfur, in western Sudan.
The walk is scheduled to begin at Jewish Federation Valley Alliance, 22622 Vanowen St., West Hills. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. and the walk at 9 a.m. More information is available at www.jewishworldwatch.org.
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duke.helfand@latimes.com
steve.padilla@latimes.com
