(All of these remembrances are already on the web at TriangleUpdate.com. They are reprinted from the Update.)
Rick Feibusch
Years ago, Phil asked me if I would like to check out the scene at Mishkon Tephilo Synagogue. I told him that I had not spent much time at a temple since my Bar Mitzvah in 1961….. and that I really was not into organized religion. He quickly answered, “Great, we are the most disorganized shule in Southern California…”
Chris Williams
I Met Phil many years ago when various Venice neighborhoods would come together for community clean-ups. We would walk down alleys loading abandoned items such as couches, mattresses, weeds and general junk into Carol Tantau’s small red pickup sometimes stacked several feet higher than the cab to meet a city garbage truck that could not negotiate the alleys.
Phil was an involved caring member of the community always striving to make it a better, safer place. Sometimes that put him in danger like the fire that was set to his home at one point. Phil was one of the early supporters of the Neighborhood Council program. He worked tirelessly with organizers Tisha and Chris Bedrosian, Rick Feibusch, Darryl Dufay, Carolyn Ward, and many others to try and bring open, forthright neighborhood representation in the Council office.
I had the honor to serve with him as a Boardmember and as a member of the first Land Use and Planning Committee (LUPC). While on LUPC I learned about Phil’s involvement in earlier community projects including a pivotal role in the Venice Land Use Plan in the Eighties and early Nineties known as the Venice Specific Plan. Phil’s knowledge of the VSP was so welcome when we as LUPC members tried to sort out the zealous hyperbola from the facts of the various factions competing for their ‘vision’ of Venice.
Always fair and candid, Phil could cut through the smoke and find the kernel of truth. He valued core truths over political ideologies at all times and therefore was able to work with all the people of Venice. I truly enjoyed working with him and always found I would learn something new whenever we conversed. I will miss him. Venice has lost one of its unsung heroes.
Eileen Pollack Erickson
While I was aware Phil had been ill, my reaction to seeing this news was still “OH NO!!!” Phil’s passing is a huge loss to the community. He was smart, funny, irreverent, kind, and will be so missed! To Roberta and your daughters, my heart goes out to you. Through your grieving, I know you will also have so much gratitude for the many great years you had together with this lovely man.
Arnold Springer
To Milwood and Triangle Neighbors:
Jed Pauker from VNC told me by E mail several days ago that Phil Raider had
passed. The services and memorial for Phil Raider were held at Temple
Mishkon Tephilo on June 3, at 11am.
I attended the services and the memorial. I am grateful to Jed for letting
me know.
I saw Steve Friedman and Melanie Murez. I saw VNC President and Mrs.
Newhouse. Jed Pauker was there as was Martha Avery.
Rabbi Shevitz of Crescent Place said the prayers and said that Phil was so
very active in community here in Venice.
Phil was a great guy. A mensch. More then just a mensch, a Mensch, if you
get what I mean.
To me ‘mensch’ means …A real human being;. I guess Mensch with a ‘capital
M’ means that’s really, really true! But of course, I am being presumptuous
here so please forgive me. Who knows what is real!
I liked Phil Raider a lot. I worked with him briefly on the Venice
Neighborhood Council, when I got early on my first ‘appointment’ to the
LUPC. The VNC had been created after the failure and rejection of the Grass
Roots Venice Neighborhood Council that I myself had stayed away from.
Phil tried to set the new VNC and its LUPC on the proper path or trajectory.
He was successful. The ‘Mensh’ set them straight.
Mensch means: good person, honest person, decent person, engaged person,
community active person. Intelligent, fair, balanced, just, and decent — a good interlocutor for community.
Apparently Phil was all of those in spades, not just in the ‘political
arena’, but also in the spiritual arena, at the historic Jewish Temple on
Main Street in Ocean-Park – Venice, California. I would be surprised if
there weren’t other social and spher-ic interventions as well.
Thanks Phil— God Speed to you.
You will live in Nirvana with the other Menschen.
Challis Macpherson
He was on my LUPC committee and I worked with him on VNC Board. He always cut through the “drek und angst” that some tried to bring into either committee or board meeting and sent the miscreants on their way out. Loved the man.
Georgann Abraham
Chris and I are so saddened to hear of Phil’s passing. Chris noted that there may have been periods of time when we were not in contact but there were so many ways our paths ended up crossing. We first knew him through a running group out of The Starting Line store on Washington Blvd – gheez about 30 years ago. When he did the NYC marathon, I was visiting friends in New York. I cheered at the finish line. He inspired me to do the same at a couple of years later.
Years later we all ended up participating in the VNC. He then helped us with some repairs in both our previous and current homes. He made some suggestions for some of the remodeling we did that we always attribute to Phil.
He was so smart and so funny. We will always remember his quick wit and the twinkle in his eyes. Our hearts go out to Roberta and his family.
Darryl Dufay
When I heard of Phil’s passing I was immediately sadden. Yet, that sadness was just as quickly replaced by a smile on my face. A smile of the joy that I remember Phil brought to wherever he was. His friends, whom I know, talked about the committees and organizations that we were all part of. I still see and hear him with that extraordinary wry humor he possessed. If you wanted to survive the tenuous meeting, sit next to Phil. You were carried through by his hilarious and insightful comments. In the years I knew him his devotion and involvement to his Jewish faith grew and grew. He was a special person, articulate, intelligent, and engaging. For me he is not gone because I have such wonderful memories. Thank
you Phil!
681
Remembrances of Phil
(All of these remembrances are already on the web at TriangleUpdate.com. They are reprinted from the Update.)
Rick Feibusch
Years ago, Phil asked me if I would like to check out the scene at Mishkon Tephilo Synagogue. I told him that I had not spent much time at a temple since my Bar Mitzvah in 1961….. and that I really was not into organized religion. He quickly answered, “Great, we are the most disorganized shule in Southern California…”
Chris Williams
I Met Phil many years ago when various Venice neighborhoods would come together for community clean-ups. We would walk down alleys loading abandoned items such as couches, mattresses, weeds and general junk into Carol Tantau’s small red pickup sometimes stacked several feet higher than the cab to meet a city garbage truck that could not negotiate the alleys.
Phil was an involved caring member of the community always striving to make it a better, safer place. Sometimes that put him in danger like the fire that was set to his home at one point. Phil was one of the early supporters of the Neighborhood Council program. He worked tirelessly with organizers Tisha and Chris Bedrosian, Rick Feibusch, Darryl Dufay, Carolyn Ward, and many others to try and bring open, forthright neighborhood representation in the Council office.
I had the honor to serve with him as a Boardmember and as a member of the first Land Use and Planning Committee (LUPC). While on LUPC I learned about Phil’s involvement in earlier community projects including a pivotal role in the Venice Land Use Plan in the Eighties and early Nineties known as the Venice Specific Plan. Phil’s knowledge of the VSP was so welcome when we as LUPC members tried to sort out the zealous hyperbola from the facts of the various factions competing for their ‘vision’ of Venice.
Always fair and candid, Phil could cut through the smoke and find the kernel of truth. He valued core truths over political ideologies at all times and therefore was able to work with all the people of Venice. I truly enjoyed working with him and always found I would learn something new whenever we conversed. I will miss him. Venice has lost one of its unsung heroes.
Eileen Pollack Erickson
While I was aware Phil had been ill, my reaction to seeing this news was still “OH NO!!!” Phil’s passing is a huge loss to the community. He was smart, funny, irreverent, kind, and will be so missed! To Roberta and your daughters, my heart goes out to you. Through your grieving, I know you will also have so much gratitude for the many great years you had together with this lovely man.
Arnold Springer
To Milwood and Triangle Neighbors:
Jed Pauker from VNC told me by E mail several days ago that Phil Raider had
passed. The services and memorial for Phil Raider were held at Temple
Mishkon Tephilo on June 3, at 11am.
I attended the services and the memorial. I am grateful to Jed for letting
me know.
I saw Steve Friedman and Melanie Murez. I saw VNC President and Mrs.
Newhouse. Jed Pauker was there as was Martha Avery.
Rabbi Shevitz of Crescent Place said the prayers and said that Phil was so
very active in community here in Venice.
Phil was a great guy. A mensch. More then just a mensch, a Mensch, if you
get what I mean.
To me ‘mensch’ means …A real human being;. I guess Mensch with a ‘capital
M’ means that’s really, really true! But of course, I am being presumptuous
here so please forgive me. Who knows what is real!
I liked Phil Raider a lot. I worked with him briefly on the Venice
Neighborhood Council, when I got early on my first ‘appointment’ to the
LUPC. The VNC had been created after the failure and rejection of the Grass
Roots Venice Neighborhood Council that I myself had stayed away from.
Phil tried to set the new VNC and its LUPC on the proper path or trajectory.
He was successful. The ‘Mensh’ set them straight.
Mensch means: good person, honest person, decent person, engaged person,
community active person. Intelligent, fair, balanced, just, and decent — a good interlocutor for community.
Apparently Phil was all of those in spades, not just in the ‘political
arena’, but also in the spiritual arena, at the historic Jewish Temple on
Main Street in Ocean-Park – Venice, California. I would be surprised if
there weren’t other social and spher-ic interventions as well.
Thanks Phil— God Speed to you.
You will live in Nirvana with the other Menschen.
Challis Macpherson
He was on my LUPC committee and I worked with him on VNC Board. He always cut through the “drek und angst” that some tried to bring into either committee or board meeting and sent the miscreants on their way out. Loved the man.
Georgann Abraham
Chris and I are so saddened to hear of Phil’s passing. Chris noted that there may have been periods of time when we were not in contact but there were so many ways our paths ended up crossing. We first knew him through a running group out of The Starting Line store on Washington Blvd – gheez about 30 years ago. When he did the NYC marathon, I was visiting friends in New York. I cheered at the finish line. He inspired me to do the same at a couple of years later.
Years later we all ended up participating in the VNC. He then helped us with some repairs in both our previous and current homes. He made some suggestions for some of the remodeling we did that we always attribute to Phil.
He was so smart and so funny. We will always remember his quick wit and the twinkle in his eyes. Our hearts go out to Roberta and his family.
Darryl Dufay
When I heard of Phil’s passing I was immediately sadden. Yet, that sadness was just as quickly replaced by a smile on my face. A smile of the joy that I remember Phil brought to wherever he was. His friends, whom I know, talked about the committees and organizations that we were all part of. I still see and hear him with that extraordinary wry humor he possessed. If you wanted to survive the tenuous meeting, sit next to Phil. You were carried through by his hilarious and insightful comments. In the years I knew him his devotion and involvement to his Jewish faith grew and grew. He was a special person, articulate, intelligent, and engaging. For me he is not gone because I have such wonderful memories. Thank
you Phil!
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