Spiritual retreat for GLBT Jews planned
After four successful retreats in the Northeast, Nehirim: GLBT Jewish Culture and Spirituality, will host its first Western retreat March 7-9 at the Walker Creek Ranch in West Marin.
The retreat is in partnership with Jewish Mosaic: The National Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity. Rabbi Julia Watts Belser, a graduate of the transdenominational Academy for Jewish Religion in Los Angeles and a doctoral student in Jewish Studies at U.C. Berkeley, will lead the retreat.
Nehirim West will include traditional Shabat prayer, meditation, yoga, dance, workshops and seminars. Teachers include Jhos Singer, Rabbi Jane Litman, Karen Erlichman, Sara Felder, Andrew Ramer, Noach Dzmura, Dev Noily, Bruce Bierman and Jay Michaelson.
The weekend retreat costs between $175 and $475. Financial aid is available. For more information or to register, contact info@nehirim.org.
Internships available with Shalom Bayit
Shalom Bayit, Bay Area Jewish Women Working to End Domestic Violence, is currently looking for college interns for the spring and fall.
Interns serve as youth outreach educators in the agency’s prevention program, Love Shouldn’t Hurt. Love Shouldn’t Hurt is a teen outreach program providing prevention skills and information about dating violence to Bay Area Jewish youth. The interactive workshops give sixth-grade through college-aged youth the chance to talk about relationships, both dating and friendships, in an open, non-judgmental environment.
Internship hours are flexible and workshops led by interns take place in many cities around the Bay Area. For more information or to apply, email teen@shalom-bayit.org or call (510) 451-8874
Beth Am hosting health care forum
Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos Hills will host an community forum on health care in America. Titled “Caring for the Common Good: Health Care Crisis in our Own Backyard,” the forum is sponsored by Beth Am Women, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Santa Clara and Beth Am’s Peninsula Interfaith Action.
The event, which is free, takes place 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Jan. 27. Beth Am’s Rabbi Adam Allenberg moderates. Speakers include Liz Kniss, member of the Santa Clara Board of Supervisors; Chris Wilder, executive director of Valley Medical Center Foundation; Rhonda Lakatos, chair of NAMI Santa Clara Speakers’ Bureau; and Joann Zimmerman, board member of Silicon Valley Leadership Group and former senior vice president for Northern California Operations, Kaiser Foundation.
Congregation Beth Am is located at 26790 Arastradero Road, Los Altos Hills. Contact Jane Marcus at (650) 856-7985 or Jean Wolman at (650) 967-2220 for more information.
Temple Israel hosts cooking series
Temple Israel in Alameda will host “Jewish Chefs and Nosherei,” a six-part series of lectures and demonstrations from prominent Bay Area chefs. The series begins 10:30 a.m. Jan. 27 and runs through March 2.
Each chef will recount their start in the culinary world, share recipes, and do some cooking. Scheduled guests include Charles Siegel from Charles’ Chocolates; Karen Adelman and Peter Levitt from Saul’s Deli in Berkeley; Ernest Weil of Fantasia Confections; Bob Jaffe from Oakland’s Grand Bakery; Faz Poursohi from Faz Restaurants; and Kevin Weinberg of the Walnut Creek Yacht Club.
Tickets can be bought through Temple Israel by calling (510) 522-9355. Tickets: $75 for the entire series, $15 at the door. Proceeds go toward temple educational supplies. Temple Israel is located at 3183 McCartney Road, Alameda. For information, go to www.templeisraelalameda.org.
Author, Yiddish translator Ken Blady to speak in S.F.
Ken Blady, the author of “The Jewish Boxers Hall of Fame” and “Jewish Communities in Exotic Places” will speak at Congregation Beth Israel-Judea at 9:30 a.m. Jan. 27.
In a speech titled “A Whirlwind Tour of Jewish American History,” Blady will address subjects ranging from Christopher Columbus’ alleged Judaism to the history of Jews in the underworld.
A $5 donation for the speech, to be held at 625 Brotherhood Way, San Francisco, is suggested. Information: (415) 586-8833.
Australian kabbalist coming to Mill Valley
Rabbi Laibl Wolf will examine the subject “Are Your Body and Soul a Good Fit?” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 22 at 200 Hazel Ave., Mill Valley. A donation of $13 is suggested. Information: (415) 381-3794.
Also, on Feb. 3 at 10 a.m., Rabbi Hillel Scop and his wife, Chana, will host the grand opening of Chabad of Mill Valley’s new location — 247 Shoreline Highway (near the Starbucks). RSVP to the above phone number.
Lantos supports Saudi arms sale
Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo) is blocking an effort by Jewish Democrats in Congress to stop the planned sale of arms to Saudi Arabia.
Reps. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) and Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) asked colleagues to sign a letter to Lantos, the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, asking him to convene the committee to block the arms sale.
“Chairman Lantos does not intend to ask the committee to consider any resolutions of disapproval on this matter,” Lantos spokeswoman Lynne Weill said Jan. 15 when asked about the letter.
In a statement last June, Lantos suggested that he would support the sale because it would help contain the Iranian threat.
“We welcome the development that the Saudis and other Gulf states have recognized that a nuclear weapons-equipped Iran is a mortal threat to them,” Lantos, Congress’ only Holocaust survivor, said at the time.
Lantos, who recently revealed that he has esophageal cancer, is not seeking re-election in November. — jta
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California