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Friday July 25, 2008

Faces

by suzan berns

Mitzvah makers

Two Marin high school seniors went from fulfilling requirements for a class at Redwood High to doing a mitzvah for 100 low-income older adults. Daniella Lowenberg of Tiburon and Ariella Gross of Larkspur chose Jewish Family and Children’s Services’ Senior Companion Program as their project for their service learning class elective. They loved their ongoing visits with seniors, and decided they wanted to do more. Together they raised $1,300 for first-aid kits, which were distributed by JFCS volunteers to 100 low-income older adults.

And in other teen philanthropic news, the S.F.-based Jewish Community Endowment Fund’s Jewish Community Teen Foundation, and director Sue Schwartzman were featured on a Page 1 story in the San Francisco Chronicle on July 14.

Author! Author!

“Cool Jew: The Ultimate Guide for Every Member of the Tribe” is the provocative title for Berkeley writer Lisa Alcalay Klug’s new book. It is scheduled for release Sept. 1, but according to Klug, has already landed on Amazon’s best-selling humor list and is in its second printing. She’ll be making a number of author appearances around the Bay Area, particularly for teen audiences, which, one might guess, are especially interested in being cool Jews. Visit www.cooljewbook.com for info.

Marin writer Rita Lakin writes that “Getting Old is a Disaster,” the fifth of her Gladdy Gold mystery books, is due out in December. But in the meantime, Lakin is surveying readers to see if they think Gladdy, a Florida senior and happenstance detective, should marry her boyfriend, Jack, in the sixth book. (Single people sell, but will married people? Or are they too boring? Lakin asks Gladdy in a cute dialogue in a recent email newsletter.) If you’re a Gladdy fan, you can cast your vote for marriage — or not — by writing to the author at RitaLakin@aol.com.

Making music in Krakow

Members of the Jewish Music Festival’s Ark Project, which you may have seen perform at this year’s festival, traveled this month to Krakow, Poland, to play in the Cracow Jewish Cultural Festival. Brian Garrick is the JMF’s new assistant director, replacing Rebecca Turnbull, who has moved to the East Coast.

Short shorts …

Judith Rosenthal Schwartz of Oakland proudly reports that her stepdaughter, San Francisco native Emma Schwartz, will be commuting between New York City and Washington, D.C., for her new job as producer of ABC Network News. She was formerly an editor at U.S. News & World Report. Emma’s parents are Marshall Schwartz and Hannah Marks of San Francisco … In Anti-Defamation League news, Regional Director Jonathan Bernstein was appointed to S.F. District Attorney Kamala Harris’ new Civil Rights Advisory Board. Roberta Zucker has joined the ADL staff as the associate director of development … Rhoda Agin of Albany, a voice and speech coach–therapist, was named consulting chairperson of the Department of Communication Disorders at the University Center of Ariel in Ariel, Israel. She was also elected secretary of the East Bay JFCS board … Gary Cohn, formerly executive director at Congregation Emanu-El, is new senior vice president and regional manager of City National Banks Commercial Banking services office in San Francisco.

Apologies … to Nan and Molly Dellheim, writers of the “How I Look Journal,” for leaving out an “l” in their name in the last column. Their book has been vetted by the Clinical and Scientific Committee of the National Eating Disorders Association.

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

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