Faces

Making choices

Diana Grand is chairing the East Bay federation's primo women's event, "Choices," which features Vanity Fair journalist Marie Brenner. It's slated for Thursday, April 14, at Caffe Verbena Atrium in Oakland. Committee chairs include Jody Schultz, Myra Feiger, Alison Feinberg, Claudia Felson, Terry Friedkin, Naomi Jacobson, Ellie Marks, Jill Smith, Julie Ovadia and Nicki Gilbert. Information: www.jfed.org.




Expansion

Howard Brown announced the expansion of PlanitJewish. The online Jewish community calendar and resource has added Pittsburgh to the cities it serves. Howard, who is president, and Steve Kaufman, chair, co-founded the service, opening it with a San Francisco site in 2002. Check it out at www.PlanitJewish.com.




Young leadership leading

Joshua Malina isn't a politico, but he plays one on TV (he's the veep's assistant on "West Wing"). He also has very strong pro-Israel opinions that he expressed at a United Jewish Communities Young Leadership conference in L.A. last month, reports Sarah Krumholz, community campaign director of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation. The Bay Area was well represented there. Ilana Gauss and David Stern recruited 48 participants for the JCF and Jonathan Wornick led the East Bay federation contingent, which included Naomi Jacobson, Stacy Cohen, Robert Efroymson, Warren Leiber, David Phillips and new director Tova Grunes.




Mazel tov and congratulations

Santa Rosa's Irwin Lachman received the 2003 National Medal of Technology and Stanford University's Charles Yanofsky received the National Medal of Science in the area of biological science from President Bush at the White House on March 14. The awards, the highest in the nation for science and technology, are given for pioneering research and innovation.

The Anti-Defamation League will honor two at the group's May 9 event. Robert M. Dell, chairman and managing partner, Latham & Watkins, LLP, will receive the Distinguished Jurisprudence Award and Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo) will receive the Perlstein Civil Rights Award. Information: (415) 981-3500.

Alan Markow, past board president of Hillel of Silicon Valley, was named an Exemplar of Excellence at the 2005 Western Hillels Lay Leadership Institute. ... Leonard Rifkind was installed as Marin Bar Association president. ... Laura Lauder has joined the board of Spark Networks plc, a provider of online personal services. ... Eric Benhamou has been named to the board of directors of Silicon Valley Bancshares, the diversified financial services holding company of Silicon Valley Bank.

Niece Rabbi Julie Saxe-Taller and nephew Cantor Jeffrey Saxe officiated and children Ira and Nina Kaufman stood up for Gene and Susan Kaufman who got married in front of friends and family for the first time recently. When they tied the knot 38 1/2 years ago (but who's counting?), they eloped. The occasion took place in celebration of the bride's special birthday.

Thank you to Janet Silver Ghent who just retired from her job as j. senior editor after oh so many years. She has edited this column (and much, much more) carefully, thoughtfully and gently. Enjoy!

Correction: Ann Lazarus was the former CEO of Mount Zion Health Fund (not the hospital, as incorrectly stated in the last column). Apologies!




Faces is one-year old this week! Suzan Berns, a freelance writer and publicist, welcomes your submissions of cute, poignant or informational anecdotes about you and your organizations at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).