Career man
Diana Gutkina says that her father, Eduard Gutkin, jokes that career-wise he’s downwardly mobile: He went from the chief doctor of a psychiatric hospital at 24 years old to a nurse’s assistant at the age of 65.
Of course, he also moved with his family from his home in Belarus in July 1993, settled in San Francisco, studied English 12 hours a day for two years, then graduated from a nine-month course as a nurse’s assistant. After stints at a San Rafael nursing home and hospice he landed a job in the Post Anesthesia Care Unit at UCSF. There he’s been named both Employee of the Month and Employee of the Year. This January, he was honored by his colleagues with the department’s Pride Award.
After coming to the United States, Diana writes, her father began to study and practice Judaism and has collected 30 boxes of newspaper articles about Israel, the Jewish people, America and Russia. He’s also accumulated a database of Jewish literature. He picked up another American habit — driving. In Belarus, he only dreamed of having a car. Now, he’s driving his fifth car. (The first two were provided by the Jewish community to commute to his San Rafael job.)
Fighting domestic violence
Cissie Swig, longtime activist in the fight against domestic violence, co-chaired the first-ever summit on domestic violence and human trafficking held last month in San Francisco. A panel on “The Role of the Faith-Based Community in Preventing Violence Against Women” included Congregation Emanu-El’s Rabbi Sydney Mintz, Shalom Bayit’s Naomi Tucker, and S.F. Interfaith Council’s Rita Semel as moderator. Hanita Zimrin, of the Israel Association for Child Protection, participated in a panel on confronting global human trafficking.
Short shorts
Former Bay Area resident and San Francisco State professor Laurie Zoloth (now director of the Center for Bioethics, Science and Society at Northwestern University) was on National Public Radio’s “Science Friday” on Feb. 17, talking about stem-cell science and the future of medicine. … Sam Salkin writes that Bob Haas was honored by the Yeshiva University Museum, and the honor was noted in the Forward in January. … Laurel Kloomok, regional director of the Jewish Family and Children’s Services/Parents Place in San Francisco since 1996, was named executive director of First 5 San Francisco Children and Families Commission. The commission is in charge of distributing tobacco taxes annually to fund children’s programs. … Israeli architect Irit Axelrod, who has practiced for 12 years in Tel Aviv, has opened a San Francisco office. Her designs include the Education Center at the David Ben-Gurion Heritage Site in Israel as well as residential work featured in Dwell magazine.
Finally…
Lawrence Helman reports that “That Man: Peter Berlin,” a documentary he co-produced, was called “superb” by the New York Times. It played in February at the Castro and this month will show internationally in theaters in South Africa, Mexico City, Iceland and Belfast… A plug for the Bureau of Jewish Education’s new e-newsletter, the BJEbuzz. It’s lively in look and content — and provides lots of information about the good work of the BJE. Contact [email protected] to get on the emailing list.
The columnist can be reached at [email protected].