Moroccan celebration planned at Kehillah
Kehillah Jewish High School in Palo Alto will host a Mimouna celebration Wednesday, April 11. The traditional Jewish-Moroccan celebration of liberty, community, friendship and hospitality concludes Passover.
The public is invited to attend Mimouna, which features live music from the Yuval Ron Ensemble, traditional Moroccan cuisine and dancing.
Tickets are $5 to $15 in advance, $7 to $20 at the door. The program begins 7 p.m. at Kehillah, 3900 Fabian Way, Palo Alto.
For more information, contact the event sponsor, JIMENA — Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa at (415) 977-7407.
Swastika mars Emanu-El’s Passover
A passing NBC news van discovered a swastika scrawled on an outer wall of San Francisco’s Congregation Emanu-El on the eve of Passover.
The foot-wide defacement was drawn in blue pen on a wall near Lake and Arguello streets, presumably on Monday, April 2. It was only the second incident of vandalism reported by the Reform congregation in 20 years.
“Whether or not it was intentionally done on Passover I don’t know. But it certainly was intentional to put it on a Jewish institution to make a statement,” said Jonathan Bernstein, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League.
Detectives from the San Francisco Police Department’s hate crimes division are investigating the incident.
Stanford Chabad honoring Tad Taube
Chabad of Stanford is set to open its new Rohr Chabad House at Stanford University. To celebrate, Chabad will host an inaugural reception on May 2, honoring Tad Taube.
In addition to his roles as Koret Foundation president and chair of the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture, Taube is a Stanford alumnus still active with his alma mater.
The event takes place 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 2, at the Rohr Chabad House at Stanford, 1289 College Ave., Palo Alto. For further information, call (650) 494-3274.
Student cookbook benefits MAZON
For her senior project, Natasha Miller, a student of San Francisco’s Jewish Community High School, has created a cookbook to raise money for charity. The 17-year-old collected kosher recipes from students, teachers and school staff, and plans to sell the cookbook through the end of the semester. Proceeds go to MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger.
All seniors at JCHS are required to complete a final Keystone project, which includes community service, a research paper and a presentation. Miller’s cookbook includes more than 60 recipes, among them: Chewy Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies, Moroccan Squash Soup and Grandma Rae’s Brisket.
Miller’s cookbook sells for $10. For more information, contact Natasha Miller at (707) 738-9114.
Fund makes JVibe free to area teens
Thanks to a grant from the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, Bay Area teens can get a free three-year subscription to JVibe, the magazine for Jewish teens.
Support from the fund provides up to 1,500 new subscriptions to JVibe for teens in the nine Bay Area counties.
Teens can sign up for a subscription at www.jvibe.com.
Administrators, teachers and youth coordinators can contact Adam Marks at amarks@jflmedia.com for further information about the free offer.
Virtual library caters to the younger set
A virtual library is doling out Jewish books and CDs for children ages six months to 6 years.
The PJ Library — so-called because the stories and music distributed are predominantly designed for bedtime — sends parents age-appropriate, monthly reading and listening material to help them teach their children Jewish stories and values.
The library began in 2005 with manpower and money from the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, based in Springfield, Mass.
It’s a service that’s so far available only in 30 Jewish communities where a local philanthropist or organization has partnered with the Grinspoon Foundation. That includes San Francisco and Santa Cruz, thanks to the Jewish Community Endowment Fund of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation.
Though the library’s resources are available to all Jewish families with children under age 6, it was created with the primary purpose of reaching out to intermarried and unaffiliated Jewish parents.
For more information or to get a “library card,” check www.pjlibrary.org.
Hadarom gets Internet-friendly
The Rabbinical Council of America, the largest Orthodox rabbinic group in the world, recently announced that Hadarom, its 50-year-old Hebrew Torah journal, is available online at www.rabbis.org.
The Web site isn’t the first time Hadarom has embraced technology. Several years ago, the council scanned issues that appeared until 2000 and made them available on CD-ROM.
The annual journal has had a venerable history among American Torah journals appearing in print. From 1947 when it was founded to 1989, it was edited by the late Rav Chaim Dov Chavel. Since then, it has been edited by Rav Gedaliah Dov Schwartz, Av Bes Din of the Bes Din of America and the Chicago Rabbinical Council.
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California