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Bay Area celebrates Israel's 60th birthday!
Israel is turning 60 this year and we're celebrating! Throughout the Bay Area, congregations, schools, JCCs and other organizations will be hosting events to celebrate Israel's independence.
Israel's Independence Day, Yom Ha'atzmaut, falls on the fifth day of the Jewish lunar month of Iyar. On that date 60 years ago, David Ben-Gurion publicly read the proclamation that a new Jewish state named the State of Israel had been formally established. Yom Ha'atzmaut is preceded by Yom Hazikaron, a Memorial Day for the Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terror, the most moving and powerful commemorations the country experiences. Linking these two days is a reminder that Israelis owe their independence---the very existence of the state---to the soldiers who sacrificed their lives for their country.
In Israel, Yom Ha’atzmaut is marked by crowds gathering to watch public shows offered for free by the municipalities and the government. Many spend the night dancing Israeli folk dances or singing Israeli songs. During the daytime thousands of Israeli families go out on hikes and picnics.
For American Jews, celebrating Yom Ha'atzmaut has been a way to express solidarity with the state of Israel and to strengthen their alliance with the Jewish homeland. This year approximately 110 participants will experience Israel’s celebration first-hand on the Federation sponsored Israel @ 60 Mission, from May 1 – 8. Daily travel updates will be posted by Mission participants to the Federation's new blog: sfjcf.wordpress.com
Lucky for us, Yom Ha'atzmaut celebrations are not just occuring in Israel. This year, the Bay Area is hosting three huge events in Israel's honor:
Thursday, May 8, 2008, 5:00 p.m.
Temple Beth Jacob, 1550 Alameda de las Pulgas, Redwood City (map)
Come join us in celebrating Yom Ha'atzmaut, Israeli style. Music, arts and crafts, and lots of food! The celebration will feature a special performance by one of Israel’s most influential musicians, Miki Gavrielov! More...
Thursday, May 8, 2008, 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
JCCSF, 3200 California Street, San Francisco (map)
Hosted by the Jewish Community Relations Council, this symposium will feature courses on the topics of Israel’s arts and culture, multicultural community, conflict with its neighbors and the technological and environmental innovation. Stay later for Israel dancing and film screenings. More...
Sunday, June 1, 2008, 11:00 a.m to 5:00 p.m.
Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco (map)
The largest Israel Independence Day celebration in the Bay Area, this Federation sponsored Israel Center event attracts 20,000 people. The event closely resembles the actual Israeli celebration, featuring all-day music, ethnic food, and entertainment. More...
To find other celebrations taking place in the Bay Area, go to www.israelinthebay.org.
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Meeting a hero at Power of One
The Power Of One Gala is an annual gathering of Jewish women to celebrate and inspire the power of each and every one of us to make a difference in this world. Last week's event, sponsored by the Women's Alliance of the Jewish Community Federation, featured Dear Abby as the keynote speaker. Many know that Dear Abby's wisdom and advice is read by millions of people each day, but it takes the personal story of one woman to bring to light the impact of Dear Abby globally. Below is one such story.
Dear Abby,
My name is Sima Grabovsky. I am a Russian émigré who came to this country many many years ago. When I first came to the United States I worked as a janitor in a medical building. I worked until 1am every day, very late and very hard work. My English was not very good then, I could hardly read English at all. While I was at work, everyday I found the San Francisco Chronicle in my cleaning rounds. It was in that newspaper that I first saw your column. Abby, by reading your column I learned to read and understand English. Your column gave me my first window into American culture, American problems and problem solving and American lifestyle. Your writing taught me how to communicate in my new adopted country and how my neighbors saw the problems of life. Over the years I have become a loyal and devoted reader. You became my teacher and my friend. When I heard you were the Power of One 2008 keynote speaker, I jumped at the chance to finally meet my longtime friend and teacher in person. It will be a very special chance for me to meet a personal hero of mine, you. Abby, I wish you many many healthy years and thank you for opening my life up to the world through your column.
Faithfully,
Sima Grabovsky
San Francisco, CA
Women's Alliance was contacted before the Power of One event by Sima who desperately wanted to meet Dear Abby, but could not afford the ticket price. Moved by the woman's story, Women's Alliance paid for her ticket, ensuring the opportunity for Sima to meet her personal hero.
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Campaign Update with the Traegers:
Passover: A Time for Reflection and Action
For many of us, Passover is a favorite childhood holiday: songs and stories and traditions surrounding the 4,000 year old tale of escape and freedom. There's comfort in the tradition and ritual; empathy for the bitterness of slavery; and finally joy in liberation and salvation.
As adults, we experience the same comfort. We gather around the seder table with family and friends, following the traditional order of the haggadah, eating symbolic foods, and engaging in discussion. The compelling theme resonates in our hearts.
Passover is rich in social justice themes. In the Exodus story and in the Passover seder, we experience hunger, homelessness, oppression and redemption. As adults, it's impossible to recognize the hardships and struggles of our people without appreciating our own bounty today. It's impossible to celebrate the story of our own redemption without reflecting on the ongoing pursuit of freedom and the right to a secure and productive future in the world.
Today we have so much to celebrate in our own lives. But others in the world are still held down by poverty, by need, and by oppression. Our traditions of tzedaka (giving and doing) and tikkun olam (repairing the world) won't let us sit silently by. We are compelled to care, to act – to help.
Giving to the Annual Campaign lets you share the bounty of Passover with those who desperately need it: an elderly man who is lonely and frail; a Jewish child living in abject poverty in the Former Soviet Union; a new arrival trying to build a future for his or her family in Israel.
With your support, so far this year we have raised nearly $23 million, including the $1 Million Nancy and Stephen Grand Challenge Grant.
We can’t rest now – we still have a distance to go to make our goal of $27.5 million. But we'd like to give you heartfelt thanks on behalf the many lives you touch through your gift to the Federation.
May you and your loved ones enjoy a warm and wonderful Pesach together!
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Daniel J. Sokatch named Federation CEO
Thanks to the tireless efforts of Tom Kasten, David Agger, and the entire Search Committee, the Federation has found a new Chief Executive Officer. Coming to us from his post as founding executive director of Los Angeles-based Progressive Jewish Alliance, Daniel J. Sokatch is lauded as combining energy and charisma with intelligence, Jewish wisdom, and a compelling vision for the future of the Jewish community. "For me," says Sokatch, "the Bay Area Jewish community, with its profound commitment to tzedek, tikkun olam and to a vibrant and thriving Jewish culture and community, is the perfect place...to build a federation for the 21st century." Sokatch will assume his post as CEO on July 15, 2008.
Learn more about Sokatch at the new Federation blog:
sfjcf.wordpress.com/2008/04/10/daniel-sokatch-named-jcf-ceo
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Spotlight on the LGBT Alliance
Excitement is in the air at LGBT Alliance. After only 4 months on the job, new director, Lisa Finkelstein, is moving forward. As director, she is responsible for building relationships, programs and partnerships that engage and empower LGBT Jews to participate in the Jewish community – a job that comes easily for Finkelstein.
Assuming the leadership role of the alliance is more than just another community position for Finkelstein, who self identifies as queer. "What drew me to the alliance,” she says, “is that my community is the Jewish community and my community is the queer community. It was something that fully embraced who I am as a human being, who I am both professionally and personally."
No stranger to activism, Finkelstein's career includes educating runaway and homeless youth; launching charter schools for children from low-income families; and campaign organizing and directing the philanthropic foundation for wealthy entrepreneur Jared Polis, founder of BlueMountainArts.com.
Finkelstein takes over for former director Bonnie Feinberg. Long before taking the job, Finkelstein happened to meet Feinberg and was duly impressed. “I thought what she did was amazing,” recalls Finkelstein. “What a great thing to work toward: community change.”
And community change is what the LGBT Alliance is all about. Originating in 1996 when Alvin Baum Jr., emeritus board member and former chairman, presented the federation's board with the "Proposal from the Gay and Lesbian Task Force," the task force identified the Jewish LGBT community's distinct needs for the federation to address. In 2001 the task force formed the LGBT Alliance, the first and only LGBT division at an American Jewish federation.
To follow up on the initial study in 1996, the alliance, which now falls under the federation’s programming and planning department, has commissioned Jewish Mosaic to conduct a new study to measure and assess the needs of the queer Jewish community to direct the organization into its future programming, grant-making, and growth. Finkelstein looks forward to putting the updated findings into action in order to build upon the foundation laid by previous directors.
Partnering with Jewish Mosaic, Progressive Jewish Alliance, and CA Faith for Equity the alliance plans to educate, support and mobilize our Jewish community to promote equality for LGBT people and to safeguard religious freedom in order to secure marriage equality for all Californians. For Finkelstein, social justice work is “something you have to do. It’s as important as going to work in the morning.”
Under Finkelstein the alliance has continued to sponsor numerous social gatherings, holiday celebrations, film screenings, museum tours and excursions for LGBT Jews, their partners and families.
Already on the schedule is a 10-day Pride in Israel trip for people in their 20s and 30s who want to experience Israel from a gay perspective, meeting with gay soldiers in the Israeli army and convening with gay activists and leaders to learn about the many issues going on in Israel’s gay community.
Also in the plans is Keshet LGBT Weekend at Camp Tawonga. Besides normal camp activities, skilled counselors will facilitate dialogue for teens about growing up with gay parents, with adults attending workshops ranging from gay parenting to adoption, to Judaism and your sexuality.
“I believe in living as if you pay rent to be part of the community,” says Finkelstein. “To live on this earth and to be a Jew, tzedakah should be a way of life.”
Portions of this article were taken from the J. and the Bay Area Reporter. We thank both publications for permission to use their stories.
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Other Events
Tuesday, April 22, 2008, 8:00 p.m.
Perbacco Ristorante + Bar, 230 California St., San Francisco (map)
Please join us at the stylish Northern Italian Perbacco Ristorante for the fourth night of Passover! More...
Friday, April 25, 2008
The Jewish Community Federation is pleased to call for nominations for its
2008 Awards of Excellence for Distinguished Service for:
- Volunteer of the Year
- Agency Staff Person of the Year
- Program of the Year
- Federation Staff Person of the Year
More...
Sunday, April 27, 2008 - Monday, April 28, 2008
Various venues
Israel's master novelist Abraham B. Yehoshua astonishes readers with his masterly, unexpected turns in story lines and his ability to get under the skin and into the soul of Israel today. At once profoundly serious and highly entertaining, Yehoshua has been awarded the Israel Prize, the Koret Jewish Book Award and The Los Angeles Times Book Prize. More...
Tuesday, April 29, 2008 - Sunday, May 4, 2008
Various venues
The Bay Area is hosting many commemorations in honor of those lost in the Holocaust. More...
Sunday, May 4, 2008, 5:00 p.m.
Congregation Beth Am, 26790 Arastradero Rd, Los Altos Hills (map)
Performances by:
- Basso cantante Sergey Zadvorny, accompanied by Tatiana Scott
- Pianist and composer Ella Belilovskaya
- Singers Elena Stepanova, Dmitry Anisimov, Victor Tapia and Vladimir Zagatsky
- Children’s dance group “Fire Bird Dance Studio”
- Virtuoso button accordion player Grigory Krumik
- Vocal ensemble “The 4-th Voice is Off Pitch”
More...
Thursday, June 5, 2008, 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
JCCSF, 3200 California Street, San Francisco (map)
Presentation of the Awards of Excellence, Dinkelspiel Award, and Helen Diller Family Awards for Excellence in Jewish Education; election of new and continuing Board members; honoring staff and lay leaders for their service; and welcoming the Federation’s new CEO. More...
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