Shorts: Bay Area

Chanukah celebration, book drive for literacy

The Jewish Coalition for Literacy will be a holding book drive and Chanukah celebration to benefit literacy Sunday, Dec. 17.

Author Nancy Levine and musician Scott Levin will be in attendance.

Guests are asked to bring books for donation to help support the coalition's pledge to promote literacy.

The event will take place at the Jewish Community Center of the East Bay, 1414 Walnut St., Berkeley, from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m.




Logo contest will take winner to Israel

A trip to Israel is the grand prize for the "Capture the Dream" contest asking students in grades 4-7 to create a logo for one of the summer aliyah planes of Nefesh B'Nefesh, an organization that assists North American and U.K. Jews in making aliyah.

The winner and a guest will be flown to Israel for a three-day trip on a plane decorated with the winning logo. Their artwork will also be published in the May issue of Babaganewz, the contest's co-sponsor.

The deadline for entries is Jan. 29, and the contest is open to students in the United States and Canada.

In past contests, students have created travel brochures, postage stamps and greeting cards, all designed to help strengthen their ties to Israel.

Visit www.babaganews.com for more information.




Cruise ships resume visits to Israel

Princess Cruises and Holland America Line have just announced plans to resume trips to Israel.

The first ships will drop anchor in Israel in April 2007.

The companies' last ships docked in Israel in 2000. They stopped the cruises because of the second intifada and U.S. State Department travel warnings.




Tehiyah chooses new head of school

A South African woman who has been a longtime educator at day schools in South Africa, Arizona and New York will serve as Tehiyah Day School's next head of school.

Bathea James will start the job full time in July, and will visit the El Cerrito school in January.

James is the current president of RAVSAK, the Jewish community day school network based in New York. James' work at RAVSAK has enabled her to visit, learn from and provide consulting to day schools all around the country.

Tehiyah's board of trustees unanimously approved her to be the next head of school.

James' day school experience includes working at Tucson's Hebrew Academy and King David High School in Johannesburg, South Africa. She has also worked as a clinical social work therapist and at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa. She and her husband, Sam, have two sons.




update

Roni Ben-David, formerly of the Arava Institute and profiled in a Nov. 24 j. story on the Jewish Professional Co-op, now works at Jewish Community High School of the Bay in San Francisco.