Shorts: Bay Area

Queer yeshiva rabbi to run Talmud workshops

Rabbi Benay Lappe, co-founder of the queer yeshiva Svara, will lead two Bay Area workshops of intensive Talmud study.

The first, titled "Am I My Lover's Keeper? A Case Study in Radical Change," explores Jewish marriage and sexual ethics from a queer perspective. It will be held in the evenings from Sunday through Thursday, July 10 through 14, at Congregation Sha'ar Zahav, 290 Dolores St., S.F. Tuition: $350. Information: (415) 861-6932.

The second workshop is titled "Talmud as Political Manifesto," and will focus on how the rabbis of the Talmud used critical questioning and unique analytical methods to explode the myth of a single divine truth and of the Torah as a univocal source of truth. This course is geared towards rabbinical students, graduate students, prospective rabbinic/graduate students and those interested in ongoing serious text study. The day-long workshop runs from Sunday through Friday, July 17 through 22, at the Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies at The Graduate Theological Union, 2465 Le Conte Ave., Berkeley. Tuition: $650. Information: (510) 649-2482.




Portola Valley native becomes rabbi

Renee Bauer, a native of Portola Valley, has been ordained a rabbi from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia.

Before attending rabbinical school, she earned a B.A. in history and Judaic studies at Brown University. She previously worked in the Bay Area Jewish community with Rabbi Jane Litman of Berkeley's Congregation Beth El and Rabbi Eric Weiss of the Bay Area Jewish Healing Center. Bauer has accepted the position of rabbi at Congregation Mayim Rabim in Minneapolis. She served the congregation recently as student rabbi.




AJCommittee names new officers

At last month's 60th annual meeting, the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter, Northern California Region of the American Jewish Committee elected and installed six new board members.

They were Saundra Feher, Alex Gerson, Jonathan Graf, Nancy Price, Arthur Roth and Amy Sosnick. Additionally, new president Steven Kometsky was installed, and Robert Stein was presented with the chapter's Lloyd Sankowich Award for leadership.