Community Shavuot observances

Two Shavuot celebrations that are open to the community will be taking place in the East Bay.

Tikkun Leyl Shavuot will bring together scholars from the Orthodox to the secular to teach and study all night long at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center. The event, which is sponsored by a number of East Bay synagogues and institutions, will begin at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 25, and go until dawn the next day at the BRJCC, 1414 Walnut St., Berkeley. Information: (925) 979-1998.

In addition, a multicultural Shavuot festival will take place from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, May 23, at the BRJCC. Sponsored by the Institute for Jewish & Community Research and a number of the area's Jewish institutions, the Shavuot festival is meant for Jewish families with black, Asian, Latino and mixed-race members. The celebration will feature drumming, art projects, adult workshops and a book fair. Special guests include Rabbi Capers Funnye, from the Beth Shalom B'nai Zaken Ethiopian Congregation in Chicago, Rabbi Gershom Sizomu, spiritual leader of the Abayudaya Jews in Uganda, and Miri Hunter Haruach, director of Project Sheba in Los Angeles. The event will take place Information: (415) 386-2604.