Summer schooling

Emily Shapiro Katz of San Francisco was one of three Bay Area educators who spent a week in July learning about well-known and unsung women heroes in Jewish history — and creative ways to incorporate information about them into teaching. Shapiro Katz (director of the Tauber Jewish Studies Program for adults at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco), Jessica Alper (a teacher at the Contra Costa Midrasha in Walnut Creek) and Yeshi Gusfield (a teacher at Midrasha in Berkeley) were among 25 educators chosen to attend the national conference sponsored by the Jewish Women’s Archive. After the session ended, Shapiro Katz said she would definitely be seeking stories from her bubbe on her next visit.

Louise Stirpe-Gill of Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos Hills participated in the Rabbi Alexander Schindler Fellows Program for Interfaith Family Certification. The program provides lay people with skills and tools to lead congregations in welcoming interfaith families to synagogue life.

Jewish TV

Contemporary Jewish Museum Director Connie Wolf, along with staff members Fred Wasserman and Janine Okmin, will chat with host Rabbi Eric Weiss about the outstanding opening and future plans for the museum on the Sunday-morning show “Mosaic,” airing at 5 a.m. Aug. 17 on KPIX-TV Channel 5 … On KRON-TV Channel 4 at 5:30 a.m., Sunday, Aug. 10, “A Jewish Perspective” host Rabbi Henry Shreibman discusses the work of the Anti-Defamation League with ADL’s Jonathan Bernstein and Nina Grotch. Both shows rotate with other religious shows once a month in the same time slot.

Kid stuff

Here’s a plug for two great, free programs for parents and their young children, brought to you through our federations. The cleverly named Chai Baby, a project of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation, provides complimentary welcome kits to new parents, filled with gifts, coupons for Jewish organizations and information on raising a Jewish baby. The kits are delivered in person by knowledgeable volunteers. Sharon Weinberg is the new chair of the program, succeeding Kathy Williams and Tracy Stettner, who helped launch it three years ago under the auspices of the federation’s Jewish Community Information and Referral. Learn more at www.chaibaby.org.

Meanwhile, the PJ Library provides Jewish books and music once a month for two years to families with kids from 6 months to 5 1/2 years old living in the East Bay, San Francisco or Silicon Valley federation areas. Notes Vivien Braly, project coordinator of the federation’s Parenting Matters, the books “transform bedtime stories into Jewish memories.” To sign up, visit www.pjlibrary.org.

The PJ Library is a national initiative of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation. It’s funded in the Bay Area by the Jim Joseph Foundation, the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay and the Jewish Community Endowment Fund.

Short shorts …

San Francisco-based attorney Stephen B. Ruben was appointed to the Elkins Family Law Task Force, a new statewide task force to improve fairness and efficiency in family law proceedings … Tim Taich reports that his son Zachary Taich, a graduate of Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School in Palo Alto, was presented with a commendation by the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisor for the historic trail he created in Almaden Quicksilver County Park for his Eagle Scout project … Alan Zeichick was named Trustee of the Year at Peninsula Temple Sholom in Burlingame. When he’s not serving as the synagogue’s Webmaster or chairing committees at PTS, he works as a journalist and editor for a New York media company.

This columnist can be reached at [email protected].