Janet Berg retires after 30 years with San Jose federation

When Janet Berg was first approached about working at the Jewish Federation of Greater Silicon Valley (which then went by a different name), her answer was, "Don't be silly."

Not only did she change her mind, but she recently retired after 30 years there, having held almost every title the organization offered.

Originally from Seattle, Berg grew up very involved in the Jewish community but never considered it for a career. When she first arrived, newly married, in San Jose in 1964, she served as president of Hadassah and on the federation board.

Berg, who had worked in journalism, took a hiatus to raise her young children but then decided to go back to work. She was at an insurance company when she got the call from the federation director.

It took three months, but she did decide to work there. In that year, 1975, the federation estimated it served about 15,000 people. Its campaign was maybe a bit over $500,000. Now it's more than $2 million, and the area has perhaps 50,000 Jews.

When she began, Berg was editor of the Jewish Community News, Women's Division director and office manager.

She since worked as director of the Jewish Community Relations Council, director of administration, director of endowment and interim executive director (five separate times). But she was always happy to hand that job over to someone else.

"I had kids, and I liked my life the way it was," she said, adding that since her position changed every few years, that helped mix it up and keep things interesting.

"I was very happy working in the jobs I had."

Berg loved the opportunity to meet people such as Elie Wiesel and Abba Eban, and being smiled at by Golda Meir.

But she's loved working with the local volunteers the most.

"The volunteers are so philanthropic," she said. Noting that it's common for federation lay leadership not to socialize much with the professional staff, she said, "The people I've worked with have become my closest friends. The San Jose federation is like one big happy family."