Faces

Chance meeting

Yaron and Tali Lipschitz met in Israel when Tali interviewed with Yaron for a position in Nitzamin, a preparatory course for Jewish Zionist educators. She was accepted ... into the program, and "into my life," he says. Recently, Yaron followed his wife of three months to work in the Bay Area Jewish community. He's the new director of youth services for the Center for Jewish Learning and Living, and she is the shlichah (Israel emissary) for the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay.




Nomination nachas

Deborah Lopez reports that among the "big macher" dealers at Hadassah's casino and dessert bash in celebration of the group's nomination for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize were Rabbi Helen Cohn, Rabbi Eric Weiss, Cantor Roslyn Barak, Assemblyman Mark Leno and Nate Levine, executive director of the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco.

Party-goers can bid for silent auction prizes such as a night with KGO-AM's John Rothmann, a VIP capitol tour with state Sen. Jackie Speier and a book group with Rabbi Alan Lew. On the guest list are Stanford's Dr. Irving Weisman, an expert in adult stem-cell research who will be honored that night and Bob Klein, who chaired the coalition that passed Proposition 71 a year ago and now chairs the institute that resulted from its passage. The event is Saturday, Nov. 19. Contact the Hadassah office at (415) 771-5900 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) for info and tickets.




On stage

Three local folks are among the presenters in Toronto at the United Jewish Community's General Assembly — the annual gathering for the country's federation professional and volunteer leadership. And they are ... from the East Bay federation, Campaign Director Lisa Tabak who will speak on involving young adults; Building New Bridges Director Dawn Kepler, who will facilitate a discussion on the inclusion of interfaith families; and Rabbi Dov Greenberg from Stanford Chabad, who will serve on a panel called "Defining Today's College Student."

On the same panel is Avram Infeld, an Israeli educator who currently heads the national office of Hillel Foundation. (The description of the program on the UJC Web site gave this reporter pause. It says, "When Hillel posed the question, 'Who is Today's College Student? ... '" Just wondering if he asked it on one foot.)

Infeld chaired the San Francisco-based Jewish Community Federation's S.F.-Israel Amuta in 1985 when it was founded. He couldn't make the 20th anniversary celebration of the partnership in Israel this week, nor could Brian Lurie, who was the federation's executive director at the time. So a teleconference between the two was videotaped to present at the event. Ah ... the wonders of technology.




Kudos & mazel tovs

Liz Wallerstein and Marilyn Millman, both of San Rafael, received Volunteer Recognition Awards from the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation at their Survivor Tribute Luncheon in October. Sue Weinstein chaired the eighth annual event. ... The JCF's South Peninsula region awarded their volunteers Judith Cheskin and Rob Levison for service to the community at the group's campaign kickoff event last month. Cheskin received the Jim Brooks Achievement Award and Levison, the Harvey Koch Leadership Award.




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).