Powerful experience in Poland
A group of Bay Area Jewish teens on the annual Shalhevet trip (sponsored by the Bureau of Jewish Education and the Holocaust Center of Northern California) were in Poland, touring what had been a Jewish ghetto, when word came that the country’s president, Lech Kaczynski, was in a plane crash.
Drivers pulled to the side of road in Krakow to listen to the radio, and the whole city was remarkably quiet, reported Oakland’s Alida Jekabson, who was one of about 21 Bay Area teens on the trip.
A high school senior, Jekabson was only in the fourth grade when 9/11 happened, but she remembers American flags appearing everywhere. The same thing happened in Poland after Kaczynski died, she said. Polish flags, with black mourning ribbons attached, were on display throughout the country.
When the Bay Area group joined thousands of other Jewish teens to walk from Auschwitz to Birkenau in the March of the Living, many tied black ribbons to the Israeli flags they carried.
“One of our leaders announced that the Polish president was a great friend to Israel and that we were marching for that tragedy along with the tragedy of the Holocaust,” Jekabson said. “It was already very powerful, and that added to it.”
One more note: The group boarded its flight from Poland to Israel just before the Iceland volcano halted air traffic in the region.
Jewish history
Berkeley resident and historian Ava F. Kahn has co-authored (with Ellen Eisenberg and William Toll) “Jews of the Pacific Coast,” a comprehensive look into how Jews have helped shape the western United States.
Kahn and Eisenberg will discuss the topic at a special event to honor the memory of the late Seymour Fromer. Fromer was Kahn’s mentor, and as founder of a number of educational and cultural institutions, including the Magnes Museum, he was an important figure in this history, she notes.
The event is slated for 7:30 p.m. May 17 at Congregation Beth El in Berkeley. Kahn and Eisenberg will also be featured at a dinner seminar at 7 p.m. May 19 at the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. For information, contact Kahn at [email protected].
New women’s leadership
Women’s Philanthropy of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation will install its new board at a high tea at the Westin St. Francis on May 12. The new lineup: Jan Reicher, president; Carol Weitz, campaign chair; Joan Eichler, vice campaign/Power of One; Susan Hamlin, Jen Liebhaber and Ruthellen Toole, Lion of Judah; Miriam Gauss, Bernis Kretchmar and Marlyn McClasky, Lion of Judah endowment; and Jen Liebhaber, outreach.
In addition, two Jewish community activists will be honored: Kathy Williams will receive the Judith Chapman Women’s Leadership Award and Doris Blum the group’s Lifetime Achievement Award. For information or reservations, visit www.sfjcf.org/go/wp2010.
Short shorts …
Beyond Hunger, a nonprofit that deals with body image and eating disorders, will show the film “May I Be Frank” at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 13 at the Bridge Theatre in San Francisco. Felicia King of Woodacre is the executive director of Beyond Hunger … Jesse Barush of Napa and Tim Noonan of Sonoma were awarded the Boy Scouts Eagle Scout Award and the National Jewish Committee on Scouting’s Eagle Scout Award in March. Donna Mendelsohn, past president of Napa’s Congregation Beth Sholom, and Rabbi David White of Vallejo’s Congregation B’nai Israel were among the presenters.
This columnist can be reached at [email protected].