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Friday June 9, 2006

Shorts: Bay Area

State court rejects claims against judge

The California Supreme Court tossed out a case claiming a Jewish judge conspired with a former Alameda County prosecutor to keep Jews off of capital juries.

Former prosecutor Jack Quatman alleged that Judge Stanley Golde chided him for considering Jews to sit in the jury of a 1987 murder trial.

Yet an April 2005 ruling by Judge Kevin Murphy of the Santa Clara County Superior Court tossed Quatman’s allegations, describing the former prosecutor as “dishonest and unethical.”

The top court ruling June 1 took much the same line after deeming Quatman an unreliable witness.

Golde, a respected member of Oakland’s Temple Sinai, died in 1998.

J. gets press awards

J. the Jewish news weekly collected four awards at the Peninsula Press Club’s 29th annual Greater Bay Area Journalism Awards.

In the specialty story category, staff writer Dan Pine won a second place award for “A solid Golda performance — cctress brings Israel’s Iron Lady to Bay Area stage.” Writer Joe Eskenazi won honorable mention in the sports story category for “Knockout! In this corner: San Mateo’s world champion.”

Art director Cathleen Maclearie and photographer Joyce Goldschmid both won honorable mentions in page design for “Finding light in the darkness.”

Winners were selected from 578 entries from media professionals in 11 Bay Area counties.

Entries were judged by the Florida Press Club, Milwaukee Press Club, the Press Club of Cleveland and the Press Club of Southeast Texas.

The awards were presented at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Foster City on June 1.

Former firefighter ordained as rabbi

Paul Shleffar received his rabbinic ordination last month from the Academy for Jewish Religion in Los Angeles.

The Redwood City resident, who worked for many years as a firefighter, was the subject of a 2004 j. cover story, “Ignited by Judaism.” For the past four years, he has commuted weekly to Los Angeles in order to undertake his rabbinic studies at the non-denominational school.

As a rabbi, Shleffar, 48, plans to continue his teaching and counseling work with teenagers and adults as well as write and translate works focusing on Chassidism, spirituality and spiritual growth.

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