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Friday May 25, 2007

Faces

by susan berns

Goodbye hello…

“hello goodbye” was the theme of the Bureau of Jewish Education’s annual meeting on May 10 at the JCC of San Francisco. It was goodbye to Bob Sherman, executive director who, after 14 years, is moving to New York City where he’ll head the BJE there. And bye-bye, too, to outgoing board president Nanette Freedland, board members Bruce Burnam and Lawrence Gallant and the BJE marketing director Mariana Roytman Schiffner, who is moving to Los Angeles where her husband lives. Always on the job, Schiffner reminded Sherman to get closer to the microphone as he surprised her with a going-away gift.

Sarah Bannerman presented Ilan Vitemberg with a spiffy new suitcase on behalf of the participants in the Diller Teen Fellows. It was to replace the “pitiful” one he carried when he led the group on their Israel trip, she said. Program participants had filled the suitcase with gifts including a mirror, because he taught them to “reflect deeply” and cards, because with his Hebrew accent, he called them “dealer” teens.

The “hello” part of the evening was to announce Sherman’s replacement, but Freedland said that unfortunately that would be delayed a few weeks. But new board members Julie Bannerman and Beverly Pinto, and incoming board president Michael Perman were welcomed.

Thanks, but …

At the Koret Prize lunch, on May 9, Koret President Tad Taube told prize winner Elie Wiesel that they had searched for the right gift (in addition to a generous donation to his foundation) and finally found it: a signed first edition of “God in Search of Man” by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. After thanking him, Wiesel replied, “I hate to disappoint you, but he and I were close friends and I already have his book inscribed to me.” Always gracious, he added, “I’ll keep this one because it has your signature.”

Weathering the storm

S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation’s Lisa Gurwitch’s sister was among those evacuated by the fire near Los Angeles’s Griffith Park earlier this month. In an op ed piece for the May 11 Los Angeles Times, Annabelle Gurwitch wrote: “I’ve always wondered what I would take with me in the event of an emergency. Now I know. I packed our cat, our son’s favorite stuffed animals, my grandmother’s silver and a really expensive pair of shoes. No underwear, but our wedding invitation and some designer shampoo! What was I thinking?” P.S. All was fine.

Long shorts …

Jeannie Rizzo, executive director of the Breast Cancer Fund, and Jose Cisneros, San Francisco city and county treasurer, who visited Israel on the Jewish Community Relations Council’s GLBT mission in March, reported on their trip at the group’s May meeting. Rizzo described talking with two gay men from Kiryat Shmona who stayed in town during last summer’s hostilities. They took care of the people who stayed, she said, and, as a result, created strong bonds in the community. In describing the impact the Western Wall had on him, Cisneros commented about the Women in Black, saying he’d like to be there with them. “You’ll have to go in drag,” Rizzo cracked …

Dan Shiner of Mill Valley, a book dealer, picked up a tattered old book at an estate sale a couple years ago, which recently netted nearly $3,000 on eBay. It was written by Meriwether Lewis — of the Lewis and Clark explorers — and describes in detail their 1803 expedition from St. Louis to the Oregon coast.

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

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