The Jewish New Year

Mr. Kronenthal is preparing to attend synagogue services on Saturday, the first day of Rosh Hashanah, with the Center’s Jewish clients. As the Parks and Recreation Dept. Director of Culver City for decades, he remains the longest serving city employee in history. In these days that are tinged with anxiety, the hyper-active, gregarious Mr. Kronenthal described a rigorous rehabilitation program, the kind he has put thousands of persons through. It is a plan that would drain a person 50 years younger. A physical therapist by training, Mr. Kronenthal said that his knowledge of physiology has aided him in his speeded-up recuperation. “Knowing physiology,” he said, “I am trying to do as much walking as possible. Because of the way they moved veins around (to facilitate the bypass), I have to be careful about balancing my ambulation. I am working on my lungs now. They cut open your chest, you know, and the sternum takes longer to heal.” As has been his custom, Mr. Kronenthal still is stubbornly refusing to make concessions to the passage of time.