Teen who ran down Jewish girl sentenced
The Palo Alto teen who struck two young girls with her family’s Buick, killing 6-year-old Amy Malzbender and injuring her friend, was sentenced to a year in county jail on Friday.
Megan Joelle Coughran, 18, killed Malzbender, who was Jewish, and broke the leg of Chloe McAusland, 10, on Jan. 28, and then drove on to pick up her boyfriend and attend Palo Alto High.
Coughran has insisted she did not realize she struck the two girls on bicycles, even though police have determined she dragged Malzbender’s bicycle for roughly 200 feet and may even have swerved to dislodge it. DNA evidence also indicates Malzbender, at one point, landed on the Buick’s hood.
Coughran must also pay $10,000 in restitution and serve 1,000 hours of community service, while remaining on probation for five years.
Malzbender’s parents, Debbie Melmon and Tom Malzbender, lashed out at Coughran, whom they accuse of lying about failing to notice that she had struck the two young girls.
“If she would have stopped, I could have gotten Chloe and Amy into Megan’s car and rushed to the VA hospital emergency room about one mile away. I believe the extra 15 minutes that would have been gained likely may have saved Amy’s life. But that didn’t happen,” said Tom Malzbender in a courtroom statement.
“I am angry at Megan for not only lying about what happened, but for not providing any kind of explanation as to what actually happened.”
High Holy Day tune-in
Temple Isaiah and Comcast are teaming to provide a broadcast of High Holy Day services for Contra Costa Jews physically unable to attend services. The Lafayette synagogue’s services can be seen on the community access channel in Alamo, Blackhawk, Danville, Pleasant Hill, Martinez, Rossmoor and Lamorinda areas, or channel 24 or 26 if your cable originates from Martinez. For those whose Comcast service comes out of Walnut Creek, the services will show on channel 6. For all channels, the broadcasts will begin at 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 27 for Rosh Hashanah and at 1 p.m. Monday, Oct. 6 for Yom Kippur.
Author to speak in S.F. on eugenics
Edwin Black, author of “War Against theWeak: Eugenics and America’s Campaign to Create a Master Race,” will speak at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 23 at the Jewish Community High School of the Bay. His lecture is titled, “Eugenics: From Long Island to Auschwitz.”
Sponsors for the event include the Holocaust Center of Northern California, the Armenian National Committee and San Francisco State University. The school is located at 1835 Ellis St., San Francisco. For more information, call (415) 345-9777.
Tawonga teens will discuss their summer trip to El Salvador
Seventeen Bay Area teens will give a slide show presentation on Tuesday, Sept. 23 of their service trip this summer to El Salvador.
The Camp Tawonga-sponsored project put local youngsters to work on agricultural, irrigation and building projects in the village of Ciudad Romero.
The presentation starts at 7 p.m. at Brandeis Hillel Day School, 665 Brotherhood Way, San Francisco.
Palo Alto rabbi
to head Northern California board
Rabbi David Teitelbaum, executive director of the Board of Rabbis of Northern California, recently announced that Rabbi Sheldon Lewis of Congregation Kol Emeth will serve as the new board president. Vice-presidents are Rabbis Helen Cohn of Congregation Emanu-El, Allen Bennett of Temple Israel, Evan Goodman of Congregation Beth Israel-Judea, Sheldon Marder of the Jewish Home and Eric Weiss of the Bay Area Jewish Healing Center.
The remainder of the board of directors is made up of Rabbis Mikki Bourne and Jack Frankel of San Francisco, Jay Miller of San Mateo, Ari Cartun of Congregation Etz Chayim, Micahel Lezak of Congregation Rodef Sholom, Harry Manhoff of Congregation Beth Sholom (San Leandro) and Stephen Pearce of Congregation Emanu-El. Ex-Officio is Malcolm Sparer and counselor is Rabbi Lavey Derby.
Education group appoints local members
Bonnie Slavitt-Moore of Saratoga was elected development vice president and Mina Cohen of Mendocino was elected secretary for the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education. They were appointed at the organization’s annual gathering, “Conference on Alternatives in Jewish Education,” held recently at Ohio State University.
In addition to serving on United Jewish Communities’ Overseas and Israel Affairs Committee and working as a UJC campaign trainer, Slavitt-Moore is the co-chair of endowment for the Jewish Federation of Greater San Jose. Cohen has served as a teacher and director at the Mendocino Coast Jewish Community Torah School and is an adjunct faculty member in art history at College of the Redwoods.
Literacy group seeks volunteer tutors for local kids
The Jewish Coalition for Literacy is recruiting volunteers to serve as reading tutors for kindergarten through third-grade youngsters.
Daytime and evening training sessions are being held in San Francisco, Peninsula and East Bay locations now through Oct. 22. The sessions last two and a half hours.
For information, go to www.jclread.org or call (415) 977-7445.
South Bay temple joins effort to
enliven Shabbat
Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos Hills is among 11 synagogues nationwide launching a new program aimed at enhancing Shabbat programs.
Called Synaplex, the project is designed to help congregations develop as places of learning, gathering and culture as well as prayer. The effort is funded by STAR, Synagogues: Transformation and Renewal.
Information about Synaplex: www.starsynagogue.org.
Troops to get
New Year’s
candy and honey
Jewish military personnel serving in Iraq and other overseas locations will get care packages of honey, apple-flavored caramel corn and cards for Rosh Hashanah.
The goodies will be distributed by the New York-based Jewish Chaplains Council to personnel in the Middle East, Europe and Asia.