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Camels and ostriches and crocodiles, oh my!

Camels, snakes, owls, locusts, spiders and ants are all part of Bay Area artist Tamar Assaf’s paintings of animals in the Old Testament, on display this month at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library in San Jose. Assaf traveled to Israel to photograph the animals, then painted them in fragmented images — her way of documenting their loss from the wild. About ants in the Bible, she notes on her website (www.tamarassaf.com) that there are two mentions in the book of Proverbs, which gives guidance for moral life. Says Proverbs 6: “Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise.”

On the mound for Israel

Guy Stevens of Lafayette pitched against the Czech Republic, Russia, Austria and Croatia this summer — as a member of Israel’s national baseball team.  His mom, Sarah Gopher-Stevens, writes, “I am an Israeli (dual citizen, as are all my children). Someone mentioned to us that Israel has a national baseball team and they wondered if Guy qualifies to play on it. We are big baseball fans and love Israel and the combination was interesting.”  She wrote to the league and they invited Guy to play. P.S. Guy’s not just some guy who likes to throw a ball around — he was a star player at Campolindo High School and pitches for Pomona College where he will be a sophomore in the fall. This summer, when he’s not in Israel, he plays for the East Bay Colt .45s.

Overheard at the SFJFF

“Saviors in the Night,” the moving opening feature at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival about a German couple and the farmers who saved them from the Nazis, will play in San Francisco theaters, according to the distributor, who was overheard talking to audience members as they exited. The film is based on the memoirs of Marga Spiegel, who wrote it to publicly thank the many Germans who helped save Jews. Now a lively 98, Spiegel thrilled the audience as part of a post-film panel. Dutch director Ludi Boeken, who translated Speigel’s German for the audience, noted that the only thing harder than financing an independent film is getting it distributed and into theaters.   

Short shorts

Former ADL director Jonathan Bernstein has joined Not in Our Town as executive director. The group, which began in Billings, Mont., 16 years ago when the community rallied around a Jewish family victimized by a hate crime, opposes bias by using media to highlight those who stand up to hate and intolerance… Carol and Ken Ogren, who live 100 yards from Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, write that their son Brian Ogren is an assistant professor in the Department of Jewish Studies at St. Mary’s College in Maryland … Hyman Mitchener of Los Altos and Stephen Grand of San Francisco received honorary doctorates from the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology … Saul’s Deli in Berkeley is seeking salami that’s humanely and sustainably raised and antibiotic-free. Says a sign in the window: “Saul’s customers love salami. We have the demand — help us procure the supply.” And for non–meat eaters (even the sustainably raised type), Saul’s offers the vegetarian “Ruben” sandwich, with a Portobello mushroom instead of pastrami, as in the traditional Reuben … According to JTA’s Fundermentalist blog, “philanthropy guru Phyllis Cook,” who retired from her longtime position as director of the Jewish Community Endowment Fund two years ago, was among the “dozen of the foremost thinkers on Jewish philanthropy” who commented on the state of fundraising in the spring edition of Contact, the journal of the Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life.

This columnist can be reached at [email protected].