Commentary editor to speak in S.F.
Norman Podhoretz, editor-in-chief of Commentary and influential neoconservative, will speak 8 p.m. Monday, Oct. 22 at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco.
Podhoretz will discuss his latest book, “World War IV,” which offers his take on the threat of Islamic extremism. He also offers his explanation of the Bush administration’s so-called Global War on Terror.
The lecture is presented in partnership with the Koret Foundation, the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture, and the Republican Jewish Coalition, Northern California Chapter.
The lecture will take place in Kanbar Hall at the JCCSF, 3200 California St. Tickets are $10-$15. For information, call (415) 292-1200 or visit www.jccsf.org.
Reward for information on vandalized sukkah
A $2,000 reward has been established for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for scrawling anti-Zionist graffiti on a U.C. Davis sukkah earlier this month.
The cloth structure, which stood on the school’s main quad during Sukkot, was defaced with permanent marker slogans including “End Israeli Occupation” and “Free Palestine.”
Anyone with information regarding the U.C. Davis incident is asked to contact Sgt. Paul Henoch at the campus police department at (530) 752-1230. Anonymous tips may be provided at (530) 752-9944. The reward is sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League, Jewish Community Relations Council, the Sacramento-area Jewish Federation and the pro-Israel group Stand With Us.
Koret OKs $1 million to E. Bay day school
Contra Costa Jewish Day School will soon have a permanent home, thanks to a $1 million challenge grant from the Koret Foundation to complete its $7.5 million capital campaign.
The grant moves the school — the only Bay Area Jewish day school without a permanent home — closer to breaking ground on its 18,000-square-foot school building on the campus of Temple Isaiah in Lafayette.
CCJDS is now working to raise $1 million to meet the Koret challenge. The school also wants to raise an additional $1 million to implement “green building” practices into the construction process.
The school needed a new building because it has outgrown the space it rents from Temple Isaiah. It has grown from 23 to 93 students in the seven years it has been open.
The school plans to break ground in early 2008. The new building will be adjacent to Temple Isaiah and is expected to be completed in early 2009. Once the main school is built, CCJDS will also construct a 7,000-square-foot gymnasium, at an additional cost of $2.3 million.
New Israel program for young adults
Two agencies have come together to offer Jewish young adults a new opportunity to live in Israel.
The Leading International-Israeli Fellowship Experience (LIFE) is an initiative of Brit Olam and MASA that combines an intensive learning process with hands-on experience in international relief work.
In the program, which begins in June 2008, 15 young adults will join 15 Israelis to volunteer and develop leadership skills that can be implemented in their home communities. The program was designed and will be overseen by Israeli and international experts in the fields of international relief, Israel-Diaspora relations, volunteer management and youth programming.
The eight-month program costs $13,000 and is divided into three parts. In the first four months, participants will volunteer, study and learn about Israel’s social-change community. Following that, participants volunteer for three months with a humanitarian project. The last month is spent assessing what they have learned.
For information and to apply visit www.britolam.org.
Multi-city Chanukah concerts include Bay Area
To celebrate the festival of lights, Taglit-Birthright Israel and JDub Records will co-sponsor a Chanukah concert Saturday, Dec. 8 in cities around the world.
“The Eight” takes place in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Seattle, Washington, D.C., Tel Aviv, Mumbai, Moscow and Sydney. The shows feature artists selected by Jewish record company JDub, as well as menorah-lighting ceremonies.
The San Francisco show features headliner Apollo Sunshine, and will be held 8:30 p.m. at the Independent, 628 Divisadero St. Confirmed musical guests at other shows include Israeli hip-hop superstars Hadag Nachash; the Trachtenberg Family Slideshow Players; Middle Eastern-Gypsy collective Balkan Beat Box; and Dengue Fever.
Tickets for “The Eight” go on sale Friday, Oct. 19 to alumni of Birthright Israel (via www.goeight.com) and on Oct. 26 to the general public at goeight.com. Tickets: $12-$14 .For information, contact Dave Cirilli (212) 246-7044 or dave@giantnoise.com.
Stanford prof to speak on Dutch philosopher
Rebecca Goldstein, a Stanford philosophy professor and author of “Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave us Modernity,” will lecture on that topic Thursday, Oct. 25 at Stanford.
Goldstein is a novelist, biographer and winner of the 1996 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. Baruch Spinoza, a 17th-century Dutch philosopher born to a Portuguese Jewish family, was critical of Jewish religious texts and in 1656, at the age of 23, was expelled from the Jewish community.
Goldstein’s lecture, which is free to the public, begins at 8 p.m. in the Tresidder Union, Oak West Room. The event is sponsored by the Taube Center for Jewish Studies and the S.F. Jewish Community Endowment Fund.
Courses offered on women authors
Congregation Beth David adult education is partnering with University of California-Santa Cruz Extension to offer Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) courses at Beth David.
The first course, a four-week workshop, begins Oct. 23 and will focus on American Jewish women writers — including Rebecca Samuel, whose 18th-century letters describe immigrant life, and Shirley Kaufman, whose poems try to make sense of contemporary issues and relationships.
Classes will meet 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Tuesdays from Oct. 23 through Nov. 13 at Congregation Beth David, 19700 Prospect Road, Saratoga.
The class costs $58 for members, $78 for nonmembers. Students will be asked to keep a reading journal and to share their conclusions with their classmates.
For more information visit www.ucsc-extension.edu/OLLI, call (408) 861-3876 or email olli@ucsc-extension.edu.
Remarkable women nomination sought
Are you or someone you know a “woman to watch”?
If so, Jewish Women International wants to know. The organization is currently accepting nominations for its 2008 Women to Watch awards. Women will be recognized for their contributions to business, law, art, music and literature.
The deadline for nominations is Nov. 1.
Winners will be profiled in the fall 2008 issue of Jewish Woman, JWI’s award-winning quarterly magazine, and will be honored at a celebratory event Dec. 15, 2008 in Washington, D.C. The celebration begins with a small symposium, allowing the women to discuss success, womanhood and Jewish identity in an intimate setting.
For more information please contact either Susan Jerison or Alix Fried at (800) 343-2823, or visit www.jwi.org.
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California