Welcome back, Roberta!
Roberta Zucker Catalinotto has joined the staff of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation as chief development officer. According to Tom Dine and John Pritzker, JCF’s CEO and president respectively, she will direct the federation’s collaborative financial resource development efforts. Catalinotto is returning to both the Bay Area and the federation. She served as director of Project Renewal in the 1990s before moving to Orange County. Most recently, she has been director of development for the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.
Oprah-worthy
Debbie Chizever Taback and Daniela Barnea, both of Palo Alto, were guests (but not together) on Oprah. Taback’s appearance — on the Jan. 26 show — started with a trip to Target when strangers behind her in the checkout line paid for her $200 worth of holiday gifts. They were part of an Oprah-inspired giveaway. Taback was first thrilled by the surprise gift, then began to feel uncomfortable about it. “I didn’t need this … I’m able to be a stay-at-home mom because we can afford it,” she wrote. “I realized … I had the opportunity and obligation to pay it forward.” Taback arranged with Palo Alto Utilities to pay $100 toward the bills of two needy customers and then matched the $200 with a donation to Hebrew Free Loan Association. At HFLA, she noted, as loans are repaid, the money can be loaned again … in other words, a perfect example of paying it forward.
You can watch Daniela Barnea on Feb. 5 when she and others selected to represent Dove (the soap, not the ice cream) in their “real women” commercials are on Oprah’s show. Barnea, a Hebrew teacher at Peninsula Temple Sholom, says she tried out for the spot on a lark. And in a small-world twist, Barnea’s daughter Mishkie Barnea-Smith, who accompanied her to the taping in Chicago, has baby-sat for Taback’s infant daughter.
Changing the world
Lorry Lokey of Atherton took a break from a January holiday in Hawaii to be honored in San Francisco by the American Society for Technion — Israel Institute of Technology (ATS). His gift to the Technion established the Lorry I. Lokey Interdisciplinary Center for Life Sciences and Engineering, a new department that according to keynote speaker, Technion professor and Nobel Prize winner Aaron Ciechanover will “change the face of Israel and eventually the world.”
Among the celebrants were Steve and Nancy Grand, Len and Vivian Lehman, Hi and Myrna Mitchener and Bob Schwedel. In a particularly touching moment, says Jack Kadesh, Carol Malnick, wife of David Malnick, ATS Silicon Valley co-president who died recently, explained that she, their daughter Meredith Malnick and David’s mother Edith Malnick were at the event to honor David’s memory.
According to Kadesh, ATS regional director for Northern California and Seattle, residents have donated an astounding $47 million to the Technion in the last two years.
Short shorts …
Rabbi Yossi Marcus of the North Peninsula Chabad reports that the group has awarded Barbi and Warren Lazarow the Chessed-Philanthropy award and Rochelle and Mervyn Danker the Education award. They’ll be presented on Feb. 25 at the NP Chabad’s fifth anniversary event featuring Israeli violinist Lior Kaminetsky and rabbi/comedian Abba Perlmutter of Belmont Shores. Visit www.chabadnp.com for information … Marin Brandeis Hillel eighth-grade students Rebecca Waxman, Becca Stadtner and Talia Berson held a bake sale and raffle and raised $800 for the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
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