Dining with Dine …

After a private lunch meeting with their new CEO Tom Dine, board members of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation are anticipating working with a leader with a tremendous amount of energy and verve, reports board member Michael Jacobs (who gets credit for the heading of this item). Dine told the group that he’s proud to be joining a cutting-edge federation — a fact he knows firsthand from his days visiting San Francisco.

Meeting as well with federation staff, Dine revealed that it was an e-mail from an unknown “Eunice” that let him know the federation was interested in him. Though he receives hundreds of e-mails each day, it captured his attention because he has only known two Eunices — Eunice Kennedy Shriver and his mom. This was neither. She’s Eunice from an executive search firm hired by the federation as recruiters.

A mitzvah at any age

Daniel Markman, 25, says it was his grandfather’s joking nudge over a meal that inspired him to have a bar mitzvah at the Western Wall. The beginning law student at University of San Francisco grew up in a culturally Jewish family in Southern California, but never had a bar mitzvah. He went to Israel for the first time with Birthright Israel earlier this year. The big event happened at sunrise on the last day of the trip, as he was surrounded by friends who got up very early to support him. The whole experience, from saying the blessings at the Kotel to being pelted with candy by young Orthodox boys, was “pretty neat,” he said. And yes, Grandpa was thrilled. Markman recommends the 10-day trip, which is offered free to Jews 18 to 26, as a terrific opportunity to visit and learn about Israel. The Web site for info is www.birthrightisrael.org.

Santa Rosa’s Grandma Flo, aka Florence Metz, will celebrate her 90th birthday with a bat mitzvah of her own. She’ll be called to the Torah at Congregation Beth Ami on Sept. 10. Assorted family members who will join the celebration include her children John Metz and Susan Bindman and grandchildren Tamara, Josh, Naomi, Leah and Shannah Metz and Catherine and Julia Bindman.

Film Festival outtakes

San Francisco Jewish Film Festival Director Peter Stein admits that instead of watching “Hotel Berlin” for the fourth time he slipped off to catch “The March of the Penguins,” which was also playing at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael … And Nancy Fishman recalls that at an only-in-Marin screening of his movie “Le Grande Role,” Peter Coyote told the audience that when he informed his Yiddishe grandma that he wanted to be an actor, she responded that his chosen career would be as useful as “using cups on a dead person.”

Short shorts …

Mazel tov to Shana Penn who is being honored in Poland on the 25th anniversary of the Solidarity movement. Her book “Solidarity’s Secret” is about the women who worked with Lech Walesa to create a democratic Poland. These “founding mothers” will be recognized for the first time at a reception hosted by the U.S. ambassador to Poland, Victor Ashe, where Penn will be honored. Penn’s invite came from Walesa….Susan Morenstein of San Francisco went to visit her mom in the hospital and ended up there herself. She slipped in the lobby and broke her leg. She’s on her way to recovery — at home.

Suzan Berns, a freelance writer and publicist, welcomes your submissions of cute, poignant or informational anecdotes about you and your organizations at [email protected].