Six Jewish professionals and community leaders, chief among them Richard Goldman, will be honored at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco on June 11 at the 99th annual meeting of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation.
Goldman, a past federation president and a top national philanthropist, is receiving the Robert Sinton Extraordinary Leader Award, named after a major community leader who died in 1997.
In recent years, Goldman is best known for the international Goldman Environmental Prize presented each year in San Francisco. But he has a long record of charity work going back to 1951, when he and his late wife, Rhoda, established the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, which has distributed more than $550 million — $175 million of it to Bay Area projects. In April the fund was ranked in the top 100 in total giving by the New York–based Foundation Center nonprofit.
The following awards also are being presented at the annual meeting:
• Kevin Waldman, president of the Young Adult Division from 2005 to 2007, will receive the Lloyd. W. Dinkelspiel Award for Young Leadership. Waldman led the Tel Aviv One Young Adult Mission to Israel and also served on the federation’s board. He currently serves on the JCF’s Israel & Jewish Peoplehood Commission and on the board of the Jewish Community Relations Council.
• Debbie Togliatti, who has been teaching at T’enna Preschool of the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center in Palo Alto for 22 years, will receive the Grinspoon-Steinhardt Award for Excellence in Jewish Education. Through hands-on gardening and nature activities, Togliatti has helped children explore the natural environment. She also writes a monthly column in the school newsletter for parents in which she addresses such topics as home composting, buying local, reducing waste and planting a Havdallah garden.
• Marc Dollinger will be named Volunteer of the Year. Dollinger holds the Richard and Rhoda Goldman endowed chair in Jewish studies and social responsibility at San Francisco State University. He is immediate past president of Brandeis Hillel Day School, vice president of the board of governors for the Bureau of Jewish Education and sits on numerous boards.
• Jehon Grist, executive director of Lehrhaus Judaica, will receive the Agency Staff Person of the Year award. Through Lehrhaus, Grist and 150 part-time faculty members provide Jewish adult education courses for 4,000 students at 30 local sites. Grist, who has been at Lehrhaus for 20 years and has a doctorate in Near East Studies, was on the faculty of U.C. Berkeley and CSU Fresno before taking his position at Lehrhaus.
• Lisa Kron will be named Jewish Community Federation Staff Person of the Year. Having worked at the federation for 11 years in several departments, including donor relations, leadership development, the Community Campaign, and major gifts, she was promoted in 2007 from campaign assistant to development business operations manager.
The annual meeting is set for 5:45 to 7 p.m., following a 4:30 p.m. reception, at the JCCSF, 3200 California St., S.F. The meeting is free and open to the public.
Free registration for the annual meeting is available at www.tinyurl.com/oye39l.
Five vie for best Jewish program of the year
The S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation is adding some suspense to its annual meeting June 11, waiting until that evening to name the Jewish Program of the Year.
Unlike in the past, the S.F.-based JCF has released a list of five nominees — all described as “equally deserving” of the award. They are:
• Tech-Career. The Israel-based program empowers young Ethiopian Jews in Israel by providing them technology and software training, with the goal of placing graduates in high-tech industry careers.
• Get Up and Go. The Peninsula Jewish Community Center program provides transportation services for some 100 frail seniors, with volunteers helping them run errands and go to the grocery store, pharmacy and medical appointments, among other things.
• Institute for Curriculum Services (ICS): National Resource Center for Accurate Jewish Content in Schools. The Jewish Community Relations Council works with textbook publishers to correct inaccuracies related to Jews, Judaism and Israel. It has resulted in more than 1,800 changes in Jewish and Israel-related sections and over 430 changes in K-8 textbooks in California.
• Jewish Chaplaincy at Stanford University Medical Center–Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Program. Provides spiritual and emotional care to 400 hospitalized Jewish children and their families annually at the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital.
• Jewish Community Teen Foundations, Jewish Community Endowment Fund. Teaches local teens about Jewish values through philanthropy. The teens have awarded more than $650,000 to deserving organizations.