Jewish Council Official Killed by Gunman at Automatic Teller

A prominent official of the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles was shot and killed by a gunman at an automatic teller machine in West Los Angeles early Tuesday morning, police said.

Jerry Weber, 49, had just completed a transaction at the drive-up teller when two men approached and ordered him in “loud and profane language to get out of the car,” said Lt. Ross Moen, commanding officer of the LAPD’s Pacific Division detective unit.

“He was responding defensively, saying, ‘Don’t shoot,’ that kind of thing, when the suspect fired,” Moen said.

Weber, the father of two teen-age daughters, was hit several times and died shortly afterward at the UCLA Medical Center. His wife, Sally, who was sitting next to him, was not hurt.

The gunman and an accomplice were still at large late Tuesday, police said. The attack, apparently an attempted robbery, occurred at a Wells Fargo bank branch in a shopping center near the corner of Sepulveda and National boulevards, Moen said.

A resident of Encino, Weber was the director of the Council on Jewish Life, an agency that he headed since it was founded 10 years ago. It has been active in bringing together different elements of Los Angeles County’s Jewish population, which is estimated at more than 600,000.

The Council on Jewish Life is part of the Federation Council, an organization that represents more than 500 Jewish groups and devotes itself to fund raising and other community concerns.

“He was sort of a human bridge between the secular and the religious communities and between the various schools of thought within religious Jewish life,” said Rabbi Harold Schulweis, spiritual leader of Valley Beth Shalom, the synagogue where Weber was an active member.

‘Spiritual Searcher’

“He was always a spiritual searcher. He looked for authenticity, for integrity, for altruism. It didn’t always come over that way, because his exterior was kind of sometimes remote . . . but those who knew him understood what motivated him,” Schulweis said.

Jerry Friedman, chairman of the the Council on Jewish Life, said he and other lay leaders relied on Weber as “a professional who really felt what he was doing.”

He said the agency’s six commissions reflected the breadth of Weber’s concerns: the arts, synagogue affairs, spirituality, mixed marriages, Jews with disabilities and Israelis living in Los Angeles.

“The council is probably the heart and soul of the Jewish Federation in getting out there and trying to get everybody to understand and be sensitive to many of the issues and to try to get us to be one Jewish people,” Friedman said.

Moen said the shooting was part of an increase in robberies at automated tellers throughout Los Angeles in recent months.

“We advise people that it’s 24-hour banking, but if it’s midnight, what do you need $40 for?” he said. “It’s an easy way for an addict to get money. People who were generally stealing property and fencing it at 10% of cost are finding this easier.”

Well-Lit Area

The Webers were using a cash machine in a well-lit area within sight of a busy all-night market, Moen said. “It was a senseless killing. Most of them are senseless.”

Weber, a Los Angeles native, was a graduate of UCLA and UC Berkeley. He joined the federation in 1974 as assistant planning director and earlier worked for the Jewish Welfare Federation in San Francisco.

He was a movie buff and well-connected in city politics and in Washington, according to Martin S. Appel, a former chairman of the Council on Jewish Life.

In addition to his wife, Weber is survived by daughters Adina, 15, and Gavi, 13.

Schulweis said the funeral will be held in a day or two at the synagogue, a rare honor that is a tribute to Weber’s community service and his active role in the temple.