When someone dies, it's natural for relatives and friends to ponder the impact he or she had on their lives. I've been thinking a lot about Herb Brin in that context, and I hope that his many readers in San Diego County will join me and other friends at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 26, at Tifereth Israel Synagogue for a memorial service celebrating his life and works.

I want to publicly thank Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal of Tifereth Israel Synagogue, Stephen Abramson of the United Jewish Federation, Morris Casuto of the Anti-Defamation League and Gussie Zaks of the New Life Club of Holocaust Survivors for agreeing to facilitate the memorial service, at which we expect to read selections from his poetry and other works.

Back in the mid-1980s, I was presented with a choice of writing for either the San Diego Jewish Times or the Heritage. I studied and thought about both newspapers before making up my mind.
I'd like to make it clear that I didn¹t choose against the Times; I chose for Heritage. What attracted me was Herb Brin's fearless dedication to defending the Jewish people and his utter commitment to the cause. Here, thought I, is a man who is certain in his beliefs, doesn¹t temporize, is not afraid of alienating potential advertisers, a journalist through and
through.

At the same time, I will confess, I was somewhat repelled by Herb's personalized writing style. I had been trained by the Associated Press to try to remain objective. Later, working as a politics writer for the San Diego Union, I was very grateful for such training. How else could a
Democrat have survived on that conservative Republican newspaper?

Whereas I worked at neutrality, Herb's articles made it clear from the outset how he felt about people. If he thought someone was an anti-Semite, he would write in Heritage that the person was a ³sonovabitch² or sometimes use even more colorful language.

I cringed whenever I read that kind of journalism. I still do. I was willing to ignore my distaste for those kinds of articles because of the many other things that Herb did out of conviction.

He never was one to hide behind his typewriter. His unquenchable desire to find out what the enemies of the Jewish people were up to saw him regularly monitoring their demonstrations in person.

He had real guts! Ranking with some of journalism's best moments is the story of how he walked into the compound of white supremacists in Idaho, identified himself as the publisher of a Jewish newspaper, and asked for a tour. The darndest thing was that they gave it to him, and he reported every disgusting detail of the place.

I suppose nothing could really shock Herb, at least not after he covered the trials of Adolf Eichmann in Israel and of Klaus Barbie in France. The Anti-Defamation League considered him a great friend, seeing in him someone who was committed to the same defense mission.

Herb battled anti-Semites wherever he could find them. He was equally quick to praise Righteous Gentiles who came to the aid of the Jews. Long before the life of Oscar Schindler made it into either book or movie form, the story was told on the pages of Herb Brin's Heritage.
Over more than 40 years at the Heritage's helm, he celebrated numerous exclusives.

Herb also made his share of enemies, and not only among anti-Semites. He had little patience for anyone who was critical of Israel, and regularly excoriated fellow Jews whom he felt had leaned too far toward the Palestinians or other Arabs at the expense of Israel. Had he been more of a
diplomat, perhaps, some of the people who ran the Los Angeles Jewish Federation might not have felt it necessary to start up the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles— a newspaper which eclipsed Heritage in Los Angeles.

Over the years that I worked on Heritage, Herb was kind enough to say that he looked upon me as a member of the family — a very high accolade indeed. I feel the same way about his son Dan, who served as editor-in-chief during the Brin era of this newspaper and has continued as the senior associate editor since Norman Greene and I became the co-publishers of this newspaper.

I am an admirer as well of Herb's other sons, David, who is a well-known science fiction author, and Stan, who is an investigative reporter in Orange County.

It's fitting that Herb had arranged to be buried in Jerusalem, and not only because he was such an ardent Zionist. There is a well-known prophecy that when the Messiah comes, he will come through the gates of the Old City and the dead will be resurrected.

Journalist that he was, Herb wanted to make sure that he¹ll be there to report that big story firsthand!