Karen Roekard writes that Jewish genealogists abound in the Bay Area. Indeed, two recently won awards for their work. Stephen Morse, of San Francisco, whose calendar of speaking engagements includes Germany, Copenhagen and England (along with more mundane locales such as Livermore, Sacramento and Chicago) won the 2007 Award of Merit from the National Genealogy Society. Roekard herself won a first-place award in the International Society of Family History Writers and Editors “Excellence in Writing” contest in the category “Want-to-be-Writer/Columnist” (“The only one open to me,” she joked.) Her winning piece is being published in “Avotaynu, The International Review of Jewish Genealogy.” Roekard has translated the Yiskor book from the town of Belz, Ukraine, which includes a list of 7,500 people from the town who died in the Holocaust.

According to Roekard, other local genealogists and their areas of interest include Rosanne Leeson of the South Bay, Alsace Lorraine and Romania; Robin Magid of Kensington, Poland and specifically the town of Lublin; Vivian Kahn of the East Bay, Hungary; Henry and Marcia Kaplan of the South Bay, Galicia; Judy Bastun of San Francisco, Litvak; Ron Arons of the East Bay, Jewish criminals; and Jeremy Frankel of San Francisco, president of the local group of Jewish genealogists. If you’d like contact info for any of these folks, email [email protected].

Supporting science and Technion

Lorey Lokey of Atherton was honored by Israel’s Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in June for his visionary support for interdisciplinary research and discovery. He was among seven who received honorary doctorates for their contributions that are helping establish Israel as a world center of science and scholarship. The institute also dedicated the Lorey Lokey Park.

Lokey and Joanne Harrington were part of a contingent of Bay Area Technion University supporters who visited Berlin and Israel on American Technion Society’s annual mission. Other participants were Thalia Broudy, Berkeley; Jim Chanin, Oakland; Paul and Barbara Sonnenblick, San Francisco; Jerry Cohen, Walnut Creek; Jan Berkman, Gold River; Paul Harrington, San Jose; Hy and Myrna Mitchner, Los Altos; Dan Maydan and Anette Rado, and David and Edna Reznik, Los Altos Hills; and Jack Kadesh, ATS director. The local folks were among a group of 140 who pledged a whopping total of $25 million to the university on the trip.

Short shorts …

Puppeteer Jennifer Levine, formerly of Oakland and past director of religious education at Temple Beth Abraham, will participate in the New York International Fringe Festival this month. Her original show is based on a story about New York’s Lower East Side told to her by her 99-year-old grandma, whose voice (on tape) is featured in the show. Contact Levine at [email protected].

Koret Foundation CEO Jeff Farber announced a $150,000, three-year grant to Berkeley Repertory Theatre for the theater’s internship program. Linda Law of Atherton was named to the national board of ORT America. She is the founding partner of Law & Associates, one of the only female-owned real estate development firms in the country. Joyce Linker is chairing the Community Campaign for the Contemporary Jewish Museum’s Campaign for the New Museum. She has been an active volunteer and fundraiser for the museum since it was founded. “The only job Joyce hasn’t done for the museum is building architect,” quipped Stacey Silver, CJM marketing director. “But we think Daniel Libeskind is doing a good job of that.”