by alexandra j. wall
staff writer
Nonna Shcop has been asked the same question again and again: “Why are you still here?”
“Here” is the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay, where Shcop has worked in the finance department for 25 years. Both she and Riva Gambert — who has served in a variety of positions at the East Bay federation — will be honored on Wednesday, June 1, for 25 years with the agency.
Shcop came to the Bay Area with her family in 1980. They were immigrants from Odessa and arrived via San Diego. With a degree in business management, working in the finance department of the federation was the first job she found.
She never thought she’d stay 25 years.
“To be successful in any business, you have to love what you’re doing, and I do,” said Shcop. “When you have this winning combination of a company you believe in, colleagues you respect and a job you like, you can’t lose. That’s why for 25 years, I commute across the Bay to work at the Jewish federation.”
Unlike Shcop, who is working in her field of study, Gambert strayed a bit from hers. She majored in biology in college and then did graduate work in paleoecology. Though she planned on getting a Ph.D., her husband’s work took them to Israel, where they lived for several years.
Gambert grew up in a very assimilated home; in a way, she considers herself a Jew-by-choice.
“I was raised by parents who did not care for organized religion,” she said. “They were not Zionists. They were not anti-Zionists, but Israel was not part of our family life.”
So being a Jewish professional was not something she ever considered.
“This has been a personal journey which has been exhilarating,” she said.
When she arrived in the Bay Area, she sought out part-time work, since they had young children. She got in touch with the Israeli consulate and learned about a one-day-a-week position staffing an “Israel information desk” at the Contra Costa Jewish Community Center. There, she was responsible for planning two Israel-related events a month. That was her entrée into the Jewish community, and after a few years, she became assistant director of the East Bay’s Jewish Community Relations Council.
After 14 years doing that, she moved into working for the East Bay’s Israel Center and Jewish Center for Living and Learning.
“I like to think of myself as a bridge or connector,” said Gambert, adding that her title – director of community programs, currently – is less important than what she is actually doing: getting people more involved in the community.
“No matter which department I may be associated with, my goal is to get people more involved and more committed and find issues or programming or fund-raising projects that enrich their lives.”
These projects have ranged from getting involved in the Soviet and Ethiopian Jewry movements to planning Holocaust commemoration ceremonies, as well as planning the East Bay women’s seder.
In some cases, Gambert has planned the same event year after year. “Even if it’s the same event, each committee brings a different outlook and different energy, so you recreate the event each time you do it, and that’s very exciting.”
Gambert cited working with the various volunteers over the years as one of her favorite parts of the job, as no one event can be successful without their input.
“What’s been especially rewarding is to bring people into the community who were not very affiliated or involved. They maybe thought they didn’t have much to contribute, but several years later they’re more empowered and connected to the Jewish community.
“Every day, I’m eager to go to work and I’m so lucky to work with the volunteers,” she said. “Every day I try to meet the challenges that come up and know that I’m connecting people and bringing them closer to Judaism and to the Jewish people and to Israel.”
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California