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Friday January 19, 2007

Shorts: Bay Area

Bob and bob Judaica moves to Los Altos

After 25 years in Palo Alto, local Judaica institution bob and bob closed its doors last week. That’s the bad news.

The good news is, the store plans to reopen about two miles down the road in Los Altos as early as next month.

Mother and daughter Shirley and Ellen Bob signed the lease for a former water sports store at 4500 El Camino Real on Friday, Jan. 12 and have already moved their inventory to the new location. With a little refurbishing, they’ll be ready to roll.

“You know, right now this feels like the best possible solution in the world,” said Ellen Bob, who will be paying half the rent in Los Altos that she did in Palo Alto, for a slightly larger store with parking.

“We’re going to be a mile away from two synagogues, a Jewish day school and a mile and a half from the new JCC. We were five miles from Beth Am and now we’re two and a half. We’re moving closer to the center of what the Jewish population study said was the highest density of Jews” in the Bay Area, Bob said.

The news of bob and bob’s closure shocked and saddened Peninsula Jews in December, and the store’s new lease on life came as a relief.

More ‘Synaplex’ events in the Bay Area

In addition to the trio of “Synaplex” events on tap for this weekend — at Oakland’s Temple Beth Abraham, Berkeley’s Netivot Shalom and San Rafael’s Rodef Sholom — two more Bay Area synagogues will host events in the near future.

San Francisco’s Sha’ar Zahav will have a Synaplex Shabbaton on Friday, Feb. 2 and Saturday, Feb. 3, which is Tu B’Shevat, as will Tiburon’s Kol Shofar.

Synaplex is aimed at finding innovative new ways to get Jews to walk through synagogue doors. The Star Foundation, the program’s sponsor, claims Synaplex offers people the chance to “celebrate Shabbat the way they want to.” That could be a coffee klatch and Torah study, a wine-and-cheese reception or inserting yoga into Jewish studies.

For more information, contact Beth Abraham at (510) 832-0936, Netivot Shalom at (510) 549-9447, Rodef Sholom at (415) 479-3441, Sha’ar Zahav at (415) 861-6932 or Kol Shofar at (415) 388-1818.

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