Camp Tawonga feeds 18 firefighters

Camp Tawonga was host not only to 18 firefighters Wednesday, Aug. 11, but five fire trucks, as a blaze got within two miles of the Jewish summer camp near Yosemite.

While the firefighters stayed less than 24 hours at Tawonga, which was in no danger, their visit provided campers an opportunity to play on the fire engines.

The last time Tawonga hosted firefighters was in 1999, when the camp was in much more immediate danger. “That was much bigger,” said Ken Kramarz, Tawonga’s director. “They actually came into camp with hundreds of firemen. This was on a much smaller scale.”

The firefighters joined the campers for meals in the dining hall. “The firemen had nothing to do,” said Kramarz, “but they were so appreciative. They even loved the food.”

S.F. State hires Jewish studies professor

San Francisco State University added a tenure-track professor to its Jewish studies department with the addition of Kitty Millet, an expert on Holocaust literature.

Millet joins Professors Marc Dollinger and Fred Astren as full-time faculty in the SFSU Jewish studies department. The assistant professor’s course on modern Jewish thought begins this fall.

For the past five years, Millet was a lecturer in comparative and world literature at SFSU, teaching courses on myths, the epic and the novel. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, after getting her undergraduate degree at U.C. Irvine.

Joshua Venture accepting applicants for 2005

Joshua Venture, a San-Francisco-based Fellowship for Jewish Social Entrepreneurs, is currently accepting applications for the 2005-2007 fellowship. This program offers an opportunity for young Jewish leaders up to age 35 to gain entrepreneurial skills, training, nonprofit tools for development and management, and to join a peer network while enriching their communities through startup and growing organizations.

Fellows so far have launched Heeb magazine and a network for young survivors of breast cancer.

For information, visit joshuaventure.org, or e-mail [email protected].

Sudan vigil at S.F. Civic Center Plaza

A number of religious and humanitarian organizations have teamed up to host an interfaith vigil calling for the end of atrocities in the Darfur region of Sudan on Wednesday, Aug. 25, from noon to 1 p.m. at San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza.

The Jewish Community Relations Council, American Jewish World Service, United Religions Initiative, San Francisco Interfaith Council and others are calling for an end to ethnic slaughter and a stepping up of relief efforts.

Similar rallies and vigils will be taking place across the nation on that day. For more information, call Elizabeth Friedman Branoff, AJWS’ Bay Area regional director, at (510) 594-9344.

Silicon Valley JCC looks north to fill top spot

Los Gatos’ Addison Penzak Jewish Community Center has tabbed Hal Bordy as its new executive director. Bordy had occupied the top spot at the Rose and Max Rady JCC of Winnipeg in Canada, and the move comes as a homecoming of sorts for the Southern California native.

A 30-year veteran of Jewish communal service, Bordy is already at work and will immediately put his capital fund-raising expertise to the test as he helps to inaugurate the JCC’s 118,000-square-foot Gloria and Ken Levy Family Jewish Campus, set to open late next summer.