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Friday November 3, 2006

Faces

by suzan berns

Moving about

After 25 years at Camp Tawonga, Debra Newbrun, who succeeded Ken Kramarz as executive director, is leaving camping to become associate director of the JCC of San Francisco. Ann Gonski, a short-termer — she’s only been with Tawonga for 20 years — will serve as interim exec. Besides being a part of Tawonga’s leadership team, Gonski is the co-founder of the award-winning Grief and Growing program and the Peacemakers Weekend, which was featured on the CBS evening news. The two will begin their new jobs on Jan. 1, 2007.

At the Jewish Community Endowment Fund, PR and publication whiz Beth Cahn has left the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation to launch a freelance career. Cahn was the JCEF Marketing and Communications manager for eight years.

Judy Wolff-Bolton is executive director of the Osher Marin JCC, succeeding Ron Mogel, who retired after 15 years of service. Wolff-Bolton was acting director for a year before being appointed to the job last spring. (Apologies for the tardiness of this announcement … it got buried in Faces files.)

A-list eating

At the Jewish Home’s Someone’s in the Kitchen fundraiser, communications coordinator Ilana Glaun says she heard a “gentleman without a name tag” telling his buddy, “This is an A-list party!” Barbara and Jeff Farber chaired and Phyllis Friedman and Barbara Rosenberg were honorary co-chairs. One of the 39 chefs who prepared three-course meals for the 550 guests was Sharon Lebewohl, formerly of NYC’s 2nd Avenue Deli. Her specialty — pumpkin crème brulee.

Youth news

Proud dad Elliott Sopkin writes that his son David Sopkin will be beating the drums in the Macy’s Great American Marching Band in New York City on Thanksgiving. He’s among 200 students from across the nation chosen for their musical ability and past achievements. The younger Sopkin is 18, a senior at Palo Alto High School where he’s a drum major for the Pep Band. He also drums in Rabbi Josh Zweiback’s band at Congregation Beth Am, which plays monthly on Shabbat.

In San Anselmo, Aviva Herr-Welber, 12, organized a children’s concert featuring Tim Cain, a former member of Sons on Champlain band, to raise money for the town’s library. Her dad, Elihu Welber, told the Marin Independent Journal that she raised more than $1,200. Aviva is a seventh-grader at Brandeis Hillel Day School.

Sightings

Tova Grunes of Oakland and the East Bay Jewish Community Federation was filmed by Minneapolis TV crews cheering for Minnesota during the A’s/Twins playoffs and ended up all over the news there. A Minneapolis native, Grunes is a “diehard baseball fan.” … Theodore Bikel showed up at the Contemporary Jewish Museum’s opening of the Jewish Identity Project wearing a Tevye-type hat, reports Stacey Silver of the CJM. It was an interesting juxtaposition to the people in the exhibit’s photographs, who challenge concepts of who is a Jew.

Short shorts …

Watch for “Kid David” (aka David Shreibman, almost 18, of San Rafael) at Warriors games this season. He’ll be break dancing with the Renegades at half-time, says his dad, Henry Shreibman … James Kleinmann, once managing director of A Traveling Jewish Theatre, is the executive director of the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra … Rabbi Gary Greenebaum, formerly with Hillel at San Francisco State and director of the American Jewish Committee’s L.A. chapter since 1990, has been named its U.S. director of interreligious affairs.

This columnist can be reached at faces@jweekly.com.

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