by suzan berns
Moving on
Eleven years ago, when Mervyn Danker took over as head of the Ronald C. Wornick Jewish Day School (then the Jewish Day School of the North Peninsula), the campus was tiny and just 65 kids were enrolled. Today enrollment is 260 and growing, writes Kathy Williams, immediate past president of the board. And, she adds, Danker, “a most beloved head of school,” has announced that he will be leaving at the end of the school year. He hasn’t shared his plans yet, but according to the school’s Web site, he is a marathon runner, hiker, cyclist and news and film buff. That ought to keep him busy.
Mitzvahs for Dream House
LB Lipney-Burger, a Brandeis Hillel Day School student in San Francisco, gave new meaning to the words “bat mitzvah”: She enlisted her partygoers in a project stuffing pillows and teddy bears to present to children at Jewish Family and Children’s Services’ Dream House. Mom and Dad, Karen Lipney and Sid Burger, helped do the pre-party prep work. LB hopes she’s starting a bat mitzvah “mitzvah” trend.
And … a Dream House family is snuggling under a handmade blanket from Kehillah Jewish High School students. Kim Hunter, Etelle Shur, Susan Gavens, Natalie Telis, Hila Gutfreund, Natalya Flom and Deb Jacobson, members of the Double Chai Knitting and Crocheting Group, gave their first blanket to the agency. “Having such a beautiful blanket … with such goodwill and good wishes knitted into it, is bound to be an extra blessing,” said JFCS’ Elizabeth Nelson.
Author, author …
Joni Russell and Sabrina Hill of Los Gatos have released their second edition of “The Everything Baby Shower Book.” According to Joshua Russell, it’s packed with ideas, including 50 new baby shower themes such as the “Super Bawl Sunday” tailgate shower and “Baby Grand: A Piano Bar Sing-Along Shower.” The authors will be doing book signings around the area in the next few months … Sanford Rudnick of Walnut Creek donated his book “God’s Formula” to the library of the Great Synagogue in Rome, which, he writes, is one of the oldest in Europe.
Honors at the Reform biennial
At the Union for Reform Judaism’s biennial last month, Rabbi Judy Shanks of Lafayette’s Temple Isaiah led Shabbat services for 6,000 worshippers. “It was a great honor [for her] to be selected to lead the service,” writes Michael Fox, an East Bay photographer and j. contributor who snapped her picture … Gabby Volodarsky proudly reports that Oakland’s Temple Sinai won a first place and an honorable mention for programming — two of the 13 programming awards given by the URJ. The awards were accepted by a large contingent of Temple Sinai members and staff who attended the conference.
Short shorts …
Jeremy Lipsin, a Sebastopol high school freshman, was featured in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat’s Teen Life column in December. In the interview by reporter Rayne Wolfe, Lipsin noted that he felt lucky that his late grandfather, Martin Boimoil, who was a Holocaust survivor, came to his bar mitzvah … Rabbi Nate Ezray of Temple Beth Jacob and Greg Sterling, the Jewish National Fund’s board president, spoke at the agency’s chanukat habayit in its new spacious offices Jan. 13. New JNF staff includes Jill Wynns and Amir Levi … Shel Wolfe reports that his law firm, Steefel, Levitt and Weiss, has merged with the Los Angeles firm Manatt Phelps & Phillips.
This columnist can be reached at faces@jweekly.com.
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California