B Nai B Rith

Services for Walter Hendin, a retired pharmacist and businessman, will take place at noon today at the Sol Levinson & Bros. funeral home, 6010 Reisterstown Road.Mr. Hendin, who lived on Bancroft Road before retiring to Hollywood, Fla., in the early 1970s, died of cancer Saturday at Hollywood Memorial Hospital. He was 70.Mr. Hendin was a graduate of City College and a 1941 graduate of the University of Maryland Pharmacy School, where he was student council president and editor in chief of the yearbook.

Two mayors, and two awards: Teddy Kollek, mayor of Jerusalem for the last 26 years, and Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke, were given "Menorah Awards" last night by the Menorah Lodge of B'nai B'rith for their contributions to Jewish causes.Mr. Kollek, 81, who walked with a cane because of a recent leg injury, recalled his first visit to Baltimore, in 1951, when he was traveling with Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion. Then, as now, Mr. Kollek was engaged in raising money.As head of the Jerusalem Foundation, Mr. Kollek has raised money in the United States and other nations to pay for parks, museums and other civic projects throughout Jerusalem.

Robert Simon, 73, a retired partner in Howard County Supply Co., died Sunday at Johns Hopkins Hospital of cancer.Funeral services were being held today at the Levinson funeral establishment, 6010 Reisterstown Road.Mr. Simon, who lived on Peach Tree Court in Pikesville, retired in 1984 as a partner in the building supply company with which he had been associated since 1947.In the late 1940s, he had been the owner of the North Avenue Plumbing Supply Co.During World War II, he served in the Army Corps of Engineers in North Africa.

Robert C. Harrison, retired head of recreational land acquisition for the state Department of General Services, died Thursday of cancer at the home of his son in Bethesda.Services were being held at 11 a.m. today at the Levinson funeral establishment, 6010 Reisterstown Road.Mr. Harrison, who was 79, lived in the Park Towers West Condominium.He retired about 15 years ago from the state post he had held for about seven years.A lawyer, he had earlier served as an assistant city solicitor in Baltimore for 15 years, handling land condemnation cases.

Norman Joel Keiser, the chairman of a Baltimore insurance agency and a World War II veteran, died Friday at Sinai Hospital of complications from pneumonia. He was 79 and lived in Pikesville. Born in Baltimore, Mr. Keiser was a graduate of City College and attended the University of Baltimore, where he studied business. He entered the Army at the beginning of World War II and served in the Quartermaster Corps while stationed at Pacific headquarters in Hawaii. At war's end, Mr. Keiser returned to Baltimore and the firm founded by his uncle and his father, Louis Keiser.

Sanford Mervis, an attorney, died Feb. 15 of a heart attack at his home in Ellicott City. He was 57.Born in Baltimore, he graduated from Forest Park High School and the Mount Vernon School of Law in Baltimore, to which he returned as a lecturer in 1970 and 1971.In 1965 and 1966 he was an attorney to the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, the Subcommittee on Investigations and the Special Subcommittee on Health. He then went into private practice, but was an assistant public defender for Howard and Carroll counties in the 1970s.

Rabbi Abraham D. Shaw, who served a Baltimore congregation for more than 60 years, died Thursday at Methodist Hospital in Houston from complications during surgery. He was 88.Rabbi Shaw, a Houston resident at the time of his death, joined Temple Oheb Shalom in 1936 and was affiliated with the congregation throughout his life."It is extraordinary for a person to serve [his] entire rabbinical career at one pulpit," said Rabbi Donald R. Berlin, leader of the temple. More than 1,110 families worship there.

Philanthropic cooperation among the various Eastern Orthodox branches in the United States will be explored at the eighth annual meeting of the Orthodox Christian Laity organization Nov. 17-19 in Baltimore."

The melting pot is bubbling as Christmas draws closer. Reflecting the county's ethnic diversity, Christian congregations offer a rich mix of holiday traditions."