2 end-of-life workshops set

A panel discussion on "End of Life Issues, Dealing with Chronic Disease and Aging Parents" will take place at 9:45 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 1 at Congregation Shir Hadash, 16555 Shannon Road, Los Gatos.

Presenters will include Dr. Ted Cohen, medical director of Hospice; Debra David, professor of gerontology at San Jose State University and Liz Dietz, a registered nurse at San Jose State University.

Also, at 9:45 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 22, Anne Brener, author of "Mourning and Mitzvah," will present a program on using Jewish mourning rituals as a source of strength and comfort.

For information on either workshop, call (408) 358-1751.

Author Leonard Fein will be scholar-in-residence at Beth Am

Leonard Fein will address "If Not Now, When? A Jewish Response to a Fractured World" during Congregation Beth Am's scholar-in-residence weekend Friday, Jan. 30 through Sunday, Feb. 1 at 26790 Arastradero Road, Los Altos Hills.

Fein is the author of more than 700 articles and essays that have appeared in the New York Times, The New Republic and other publications. He writes an opinion column for the Forward.

He will speak on "Is Judaism a Political Religion?" following an 8 p.m. service Friday, Jan. 30.

He will address "Is it Good for the Jews?," exploring the questions of why Jews should worry about the world at large, at 4:15 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 31. At 7:30 p.m. the same day he will speak on "Relating to Israel in Stressful Times."

At 10 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 1, Fein will speak on "Doing the Work of Tikkun Olam." Brunch will follow at noon.

Cost is $15-$65. For information, call (650) 493-4661.

Berkeley professor researches insurance firm

Professor Gerald D. Feldman of U.C. Berkeley is currently in Berlin compiling an account of Allianz AG's history under the Nazi regime and during the postwar restitution period.

Four subsidiaries of the German insurance company are among those carriers being sued as part of a multibillion dollar federal class-action suit seeking to reclaim lost policies for Holocaust survivors.

Feldman, a professor of history and director of U.C. Berkeley's Center for German and European Studies, has begun researching the company's historical archives, while a team of historians under his direction is looking into archives in Berlin, Moscow and Warsaw. Additional research is planned in the United States, France, Austria and the Czech Republic.

According to Christopher Worthley of Allianz's Munich office, Feldman hopes to complete his research and publish his findings in book form by 1999.

— Leslie Katz