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1,800 miles and dayenu

Sasha Z. Leidman, 19, of Mill Valley, hiked 1,800 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail from Yosemite Valley to British Colombia, a 90-day trek that began June 14 and ended Sept. 11.

 

“As thru-hikers [long distance hikers] say, he did it with no flips, no skips and no quits,” writes proud Dad, Frank Leidman, adding, that he and his wife, Carol, “say ‘Shehechiyanu’ every time we see him ... in one piece and back in civilization.”

 

On day 55 of the trek, Sasha noted in his trail journal, in which he recorded the journey’s highs and lows (literally and figuratively): “Often I ask myself whether or not hiking such a long distance is natural. Are we really nomadic people meant to roam the countryside with no ties to any particular place? Did we evolve to be able to walk from dawn to dusk? Increasingly, I found that the answer is no.”

But 17 days later, on day 72, his outlook had changed: “In the past few days, I have felt as if I am a Jew freed from Pharaoh’s rule and set forth to wander the desert to discover that God rained down delicious food and supplies on my way to the Land of Milk and Honey … The trail is my Moses. Every day I feel like saying, if God had given me enough time to hike for three months, dayenu, it would have been enough.”

You can read Sasha’s complete journal at http://www.trailjournals.

com/SashaZLeidman.

 

Memories and memorials

Bob Hirsch, 91, of San Francisco was among 30 World War II veterans who flew to Washington, D.C., on an “Honor Flight” on Sept. 16 to visit the memorials for World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. At every site, he was greeted by passers-by thanking him for his service.

“I felt very honored. So much so, that with the High Holidays coming up, I felt like a rabbi being thanked for the service,” he reports. Hirsch served in the South Pacific with the Marine Corps from 1941 to 1945.

 

‘Dude’ explores the coast

 

Ron Berman of Kentfield quips that he writes children’s books “Because I’ve always wanted to write the great American novel but I have the attention span of a squid.” Squid? Sounds as if Berman has an affinity for sea creatures.

 

His first book (of four) was “Sasha, the San Francisco Sea Lion,” and the one that he just published and currently is touting is “Dude, the Surfin’ Sea Otter.” It’s about an otter that explores California’s Central Coast and ends up as a star at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It’s available at Book Passage (in San Francisco and Corte Madera). His next book, which he’s writing now, has a Jewish theme, he says, noting that it “features some very unlikely Jews.”

 

Short shorts ...

There’s another new rabbi in the Bay Area. Rabbi Corey Helfand joined Peninsula Sinai Congregation in Foster City on Aug. 1. He received his rabbinic ordination in May 2011 from the Jewish Theological Seminary along with a master’s in Talmud and Jewish law and a certificate in pastoral care … Rabbi Josh “Yoshi” Fenton, formerly the director of the Center for Jewish Life and Learning at the Addison-Penzak JCC in Los Gatos, has a new post at the S.F.-based Bureau of Jewish Education: He’s the director of the agency’s newly created Center for Community Engagement.

Eve Bernstein of San Francisco and her daughters, Rachel Bernstein and Julie Bernstein, are co-chairs of Power of One, sponsored by Women’s Philanthropy of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation and slated for Feb. 16, 2012.

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