New faces/titles at S.F. federation …

Alice Lowenstein has been named senior director of marketing for the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation. She was a vice president of communications at Fidelity Investment’s Services for Strategic Advisers in Boston before joining the JCF in February as director of endowment communications … Karen Bluestone, the federation’s director of planning and agency services for the past two years, has been named chief planning and program officer. In the newly created position, Bluestone will oversee the federation’s planning, grant-making and programmatic functions.

In other changes and additions … Tara Mohr was named senior planner and will work with federation staff to develop regional councils in keeping with the JCF’s new strategic funding model. Mohr, who has an MBA from Stanford, developed and edited “The Women’s Passover Companion” and “The Women’s Seder Sourcebook” (among other past work) … Roberta Zucker Catalinotto joined the JCF in February as chief development officer, overseeing fundraising activities. Prior work includes director of development for the Hirschorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., and in earlier years, a stint at the JCF as director of Project Renewal … Rabbi Marv Goodman is the federation’s newly created Rabbi-in-Residence, after 19 years at Peninsula Sinai.

And finally … Rita Choit Adler, formerly an attorney in practice with her husband in the Adler Law Firm, is assistant director of the Jewish Community Endowment Fund. Adler notes that she met her husband 26 years ago at the federation’s singles gathering, Blue Monday.

Maggie Harmon has joined the East Bay Jewish Community Foundation as a gift-planning officer. An estate-planning attorney, she will serve as the foundation’s in-house legal counsel, work with the Professional Advisory Council and conduct estate planning seminars … Tanya Shore is the new regional campaign associate in the Contra Costa division. Before joining the federation, she was office manager at San Ramon’s Beth Chaim Congregation and did marketing and event planning at Hillel of Greater Philadelphia.

Roi Matalon and Arielle Frank were recognized for their outstanding contributions to the Peninsula’s Friendship Circle at the group’s annual volunteer appreciation dinner last month. The two, who received the Gold Heart Award, were among 100 teens who contributed a whopping 6,000 volunteer hours to the organization. Friendship Circle is a multifaceted program to give children with special needs an opportunity to share weekly one-on-one time with a teen volunteer.

Rabbi Yoel Kahn, who will become senior rabbi at Berkeley’s Congregation Beth El on July 1, is giving congregants a high-tech way to get acquainted. A video posted on YouTube has 15 (count ’em) segments on topics ranging from “why I became a rabbi” to “worship services as sacred theater.” You can find it at the congregation’s Web site, www.bethelberkeley.org. Click on “Get to Know Rabbi Kahn.” Quipped Kahn about the thousands of hits he’s receiving, “I hope I didn’t use up all my best lines before my first sermon.”

Anat Harrel’s seventh-graders at Fremont’s Temple Beth Torah raised more than $4,500 for the Ronald McDonald House at Stanford, “more than any previous seventh-grade class in Temple Beth Torah history … a great feat for a small class,” says Harrel. They presented the donation to RMH director Honey Meir Levi last month at a “handing over the funds” ceremony at the temple.