Faces

All in the family

East Bay resident KT Waxman reports that being the president of a synagogue may be in the genes of her husband's Brooklyn-grown family. Steven Waxman (her husband) is president of Congregation Beth Chaim in Danville, an egalitarian congregation. Leon Waxman (her dad) is president of B'nai Israel, a Reform congregation in Rossmoor. And Bruce Waxman (her brother-in-law) was president of his congregation in Fishkill, N.Y.




Celebrating Hebrew Free Loan

Elton Blum of San Francisco and Arlene Krieger of Hillsborough co-chaired the 100-plus-year-old Hebrew Free Loan's third annual night with the Traveling Jewish Theatre last month. The crowd heard from HFLA's president, Stephen Becker of San Jose, and exec Ed Cushman and TJT's Devra Aarons before a special presentation of "The Wonders." Among the celebrants were Stu and Lee Pollak with Debbie and Yona Levy, their daughter and grandson (all of San Francisco) — plus 16 friends; Phil Wohl and Daphna Mendelson of Belmont on a night out just two weeks before their wedding; and Susan and Jay Mall, now of San Francisco. Susan left for Israel the next morning, staffing an SF-based Jewish Community Federation mission.




Passover fun

At Congregation Rodef Sholom Sisterhood's workshop on making a seder, Meredith Kahn introduced a new song — with hand gestures — to the tune of "Louie, Louie" (remember it from the '60s). The chorus goes: "Pharoah, Pharoah, whoa baby, let my people go." It's available on CD from Mah Tovu, a Denver-based group, for $5 on their Web site www.mahtovu.com. And while you're there, you can see pictures of Ari, born in January to one of the band members.

Participant Barbara Schechner offered samples (and a recipe) for Birds' Nest cookies (a yummy alternative to macaroons) and Grace Alexander suggested gluing matzahs to the sides of a rectangular glass vase, for a Pesach-themed flower arrangement. East Bay resident Ira Steingroot's book, "Keeping Passover," was endorsed as the best all-around resource.




More Passover music

"Elijah" in gospel, with a little jazz thrown in and "Eliahu Hanavi," played on a blues trumpet — both songs are on the just-released Klezmatics CD, which they previewed at the Jewish Music Festival. Jewish African American gospel singer Joshua Nelson joined them (on the album and in concert) and really rocked the house! Mazel Tov to festival director Ellie Shapiro for another superb event.




Short shorts ...

Talkers Magazine and Political Junkies Handbook have both named Jeff Katz, talk show host on KNEW-AM 910, one of the 100 most influential talk show hosts in the United States. A right-wing Republican, he says with pride, Jeff recently spoke to the local chapter of the Jewish Republican Coalition, headed by Norman Epstein and Ken Wornick. Barbara Babow of Corte Madera, senior consultant at Transworld Systems Inc., was honored at the group's "Green Leaders and Achievers" national conference in Las Vegas last week for 34 years of outstanding contributions to the company and its clients.

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).