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Tuesday October 9, 2007

Shorts: Bay Area

Barry Reich marks 40 years as voice of Burlingame temple

Barry Reich made his debut on the bimah at age 5, when he sang a solo during the High Holy Days. That was the start of something good. Next week, Reich marks his 40th anniversary as cantor at Burlingame’s Peninsula Temple Sholom with a three-day celebration that runs Friday, Oct. 12 through Sunday, Oct. 14.

The son of famed Los Angeles cantor Israel Reich, Barry Reich graduated from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. In 1967, he first met the late Peninsula Temple Sholom rabbi, Gerald Raiskin, and right away be-came the synagogue’s chazzan, part time at first, and later full time.

An accomplished guitarist and performer, Reich has also recorded several albums of Jewish music, including one on which he was joined by his father and siblings, all cantors (his brother, Brian Reich, is cantor at Berkeley’s Congregation Beth El).

Reich’s Peninsula Temple Sholom friends and fans will honor the cantor with a special musical Shabbat service 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 12, a tribute concert featuring Bob Sarlatte at 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 13, and another concert by folksinger Julie Silver at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 14. All events at Peninsula Temple Sholom, 1655 Sebastian Drive, Burlingame. Tickets to the Saturday concert: $40-$120. Information: (650) 697-2266.

Kabbalah expert to speak in S.F.

Michael Laitman, an internationally regarded authority on Kabbalah, will be in the Bay Area to share his insights into Jewish mysticism. The founder of Israel’s Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education & Research Institute and author of more than 30 books will give a lecture 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 11 in San Francisco.

Laitman will discuss Kabbalah and how individuals of any faith tradition can incorporate its lessons into everyday practice. His latest book is “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Kabbalah.”

The lecture takes place at Le Meridian Hotel, 333 Battery St., S.F. Admission is free. For more information, visit www.kabbalahevent.org.

Palo Alto’s eruv up and running

The long-sought Palo Alto eruv is now functioning, and observant Jews are enjoying the privilege of shlepping their young children to shul.

It’s the culmination of eight years of struggle for Rabbi Yitzchok Feldman, spiritual leader of Congregation Emek Beracha. But don’t count on a rabbinical end-zone dance from Feldman — he’s happy, but he’s keeping things understated.

The rabbi confirmed to j. that the eruv, which was approved in late June by the Palo Alto City Council, is now fully operational. But he was mum on when exactly it went up, or what route it traces. He alluded to concerns that those not favorably disposed to the installation of an eruv — a community backlash helped sink Feldman’s first attempt at an eruv in 1999-2000 — might commit mischief.

“It’s a very exciting development, I think this is a wonderful thing,” Rabbi Yosef Levin of Chabad of the Greater South Bay, told j. at the time of the eruv’s approval.

“Rabbi Feldman deserves a lot of kudos for this. Whatever he was doing, he was doing it very quietly.”

Daniel Pearl’s father, imam to hold dialogue

Judea Pearl, the UCLA computer science professor and father of slain Jewish journalist Daniel Pearl, will engage in a public dialogue with Souleiman Ghali, founder of the Islamic Society of San Francisco, on Monday, Oct. 15 at the JCCSF, 3200 California St., S.F.

For more information about the 8 p.m. event or for tickets, which range between $10 and $18, call (415) 292-1233.

Expert on the Jews of Egypt to speak at JCCSF

André Aciman, author of “Out of Egypt,” will deliver a lecture at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. The Egyptian-born, Harvard-educated writer appears Sunday, Oct. 14.

Aciman’s book, a memoir of his youth growing up Jewish in Alexandria, and of his family’s subsequent expulsion from Egypt, was praised by the New York Times as a “mesmerizing portrait of a now vanished world.”

Aciman will speak at 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 14, Kanbar Hall at the JCCSF, 3200 California, S.F. Tickets: $15-$20. Information: (415) 292-1233, or online at www.jccsf.org.

A’s owner is first speaker for breakfast series

Silicon Valley developer Lew Wolff, the principle owner of the Oakland A’s, will be the inaugural speaker at the “Business and Bagels” breakfast series at the Silicon Valley Federation’s Levy Valley Campus, 14855 Oka Rd., Los Gatos.

To register for the 7:30 a.m. event on Tuesday, Oct. 9, visit http://ss19.pair.com

/jfed/businessandbagels.html.

Iran ordered to pay millions to family of local terror victim

A District Court in Washington has ordered the Iranian government to pay $12.9 million in compensation to the family of Marla Bennett, a U.C. Berkeley alum who was killed in a bombing at the Hebrew University’s cafeteria in July 2002.

Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that Iran was legally responsible for the terror attack because it supported and sponsored Hamas, the organization that carried out the bombing.

Bennett, a 24-year-old from San Diego who was active in the Berkeley Jewish community, was one of nine students and workers killed in the attack at the cafeteria at the university’s Mount Scopus campus. She was a student on a one-year Jewish Studies program.

Two of the people killed in the bombing were Israelis and the others foreign citizens, among them, three Americans. About 10 people were seriously hurt.

The attack took place at lunchtime, when the cafeteria was packed with diners. The terrorist, a Hamas member, placed a bag at the heart of the cafeteria and then left the building. The blast completely destroyed the place, shattering windows and causing parts of the ceiling to collapse. n

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