Israeli, Palestinian profs to speak in S.F.

Two professors are trying to change the way the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is taught in Israel and the territories, and will speak about their experience May 10 in San Francisco.

Professor Dan Bar-On of Ben Gurion University and professor Sami Adwan of Bethlehem University in the West Bank jointly created a high school curriculum that exposes Palestinian students to the Israeli perspective of history, and Israeli students to the Palestinian perspective.

The professors worked with a team of Israeli and Palestinian historians. The result: a series of textbooks that set competing versions of history side-by-side on the same pages for students.

“The project aims to break down the stereotypes and build nuanced understandings,” Adwan told the BBC News.

His colleague, Bar-On, added: “What we’re talking about is the disarming of history, where the teaching of history no longer feeds the conflict.”

The professors’ talk is sponsored by the San Francisco, San Mateo and Napa Valley Jewish-Palestinian Living Room Dialogue groups.

The event, which is open to the public, will be held 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 10 at St. Ignatius High School, 2001 37th Ave., S.F.

Reservations are requested to Libby Traubman, [email protected] or by calling (650) 574-8303.

East Bay learn-in pays tribure to rabbi

A Tikkun Leyl Shavuot, a dusk-to-dawn night of learning, will convene at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday, May 22 at the JCC of the East Bay, 1414 Walnut St., Berkeley.

Special tribute will be paid to Rabbi Stuart Kelman, who is retiring after over two decade of service to the East Bay Jewish community.

Hundreds of people are invited to join rabbis and scholars — from Orthodox to secular — for the free event, sponsored again this year by the East Bay Federation’s Center for Jewish Living and Learning.

Chochmat HaLev will offer a pre-Tikkun musical service, followed by Congregation Netivot Shalom’s program for children. Renewal, Conservative and Orthodox Ma’ariv services will be held, as well as learning opportunities for those not attending services.

Study sessions will continue until dawn, with learning sessions for teens and a “quiet room” for resting.

The tikkun will conclude at dawn with two prayer services, one Orthodox and the other egalitarian.

The event is co-sponsored by more than a dozen area synagogues, educational groups and other Jewish community organizations.

For more information, contact Liz Lucas at (510) 839-2900, ext. 235.

Dill or no dill: Chabad hosts pickle-making event

If you’ve ever wished you could make your own kosher pickles, now’s your chance. The Sunday school for special needs and the Chai preschool, in association with Chabad of the North Peninsula, will sponsor a night of kosher pickle-making Monday, May 7. Attendees will make and take home a jarful of pickles.

The workshop was created by Rabbi Shmuel Marcus, director of the Hebrew High in Los Alamitos and brother of Rabbi Yossi Marcus, director of Chabad of the North Peninsula.

The event takes place 7 p.m. Monday, May 7 at the Bayshore Corporate Center, 1670 S. Amphlett Blvd. No. 125, San Mateo. Admission: $15. For reservations and information, call (650) 341-4510.

Auction to benefit Shalom Bayit

Shalom Bayit would like your help funding its domestic violence prevention programs — and have a beer while you’re at it.

An auction benefiting the organization will be held on Sunday, May 6 at 2 p.m. at the Gordon Biersch Brewery at 640 Emerson St., Palo Alto.

For more information, call (510) 451-8874.

Teen geography whiz wins state bee

Where’s the world’s tallest hotel and what is it called? That would be the Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai. But don’t beat yourself up if you didn’t know that. Mitchell Mankin did know it, though, and the 13-year-old San Franciscan took that knowledge to the bank.

The Brandeis Hillel Day School student recently won the state geography bee, held at Cosumnes River College near Sacramento, earning himself $100, a globe and a ticket to the national finals in Washington, D.C., on May 22 and 23.

The winner receives a $25,000 scholarship — and gets to meet emcee Alex Trebek, host of the television show “Jeopardy.”

Web memorials online

The Jewish National Fund late last month officially inaugurated the Living Memorial Program, which allows loved ones to create Web memorials for Israeli soldiers and victims of terrorism.

The first such page was created last summer in memory of Marla Bennett, a U.C. Berkeley alum killed in a terror bombing at Hebrew University in 2002. The page has raised more than $28,000 to benefit the JNF’s wartime emergency campaign. The money was used to take young Israelis out of bomb shelters and send them to camps in central Israel.

Information: www.jnf.org/livingmemorial.