Tekiyah on the island
The sound of the shofar was heard on Angel Island on Sept. 25, thanks to the initiative and lungpower of Eva Seligman-Kennard of San Anselmo. Chair of the North Bay region of the Jewish Community Relations Council (among other involvements), Seligman-Kennard represented the Jewish community at “Pilgrimage to Angel Island,” an event commemorating immigration to the U.S. sponsored by Interfaith Coalition on Immigration Rights.
Known primarily as an immigration station for Asians, Angel Island was also the port of entrance for Jews fleeing from the czarist regime in the early 20th century as well as from the Nazis 30 years later, Seligman-Kennard said.
A decade of dedication
The Jewish Coalition for Literacy has an amazing group of volunteers — among them, 41 people who have given their time to teach reading to children in the public schools for 10 years, since the inception of the organization. There are too many to list here, unfortunately, but they were honored for their remarkable dedication and tenacity at the JCL’s 10th anniversary celebration last month. The group members received the Peter F. Sloss Volunteer Appreciation Award, named after the late Sloss who chaired JCL from 2001 to 2007. Mark Reisbaum, chief executive of the Jewish Community Endowment Fund, a key funder, spoke on behalf of the JCEF and other founding funders. According to Roberta Rothman, JCL’s executive director, 135 people joined in the celebration of the program’s first decade.
Speaking out in Washington
Martina Knee of San Francisco reports that during a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C., about U.S. efforts to end the genocide in Darfur, New Jersey Congressman Donald Payne mentioned visiting Marin several years ago to speak at an event organized by Dear Sudan, Love Marin. Knee, a leader in the Bay Area advocacy movement to end the tragedy, met with Rep. Lynn Woolsey’s staff in Washington last month, just before the congresswoman joined Payne on the floor. For information about the local efforts, visit www.darfursf.org.
Short shorts
David Drabkin of San Francisco and his college roommate Elliot Singer of Pepper Pike, Ohio, biked the 4,262-mile TransAmerica Trail (from Astoria, Ore., to Yorktown, Va.) to raise awareness about hunger in the U.S. “This cross country bicycle odyssey is a young, modern expression of my Jewish ideals … of tikkun olam and tzedakah,” he writes. The two raised nearly $3,400, or 30,342 pounds of food and grocery products for men, women and children facing hunger in the USA, he adds… Max Moore and Ben Krausz, both of Portola Valley, attained the Eagle rank in the Boy Scouts of America, writes Peggy Isaak Gluck, who was recently appointed chair of the Committee on Jewish Scouting. She is also Eagle adviser and advancement chair for the Redwood District of Boy Scouts of America … San Francisco metal sculptor Rebecca Fox’s “Sculpture No. 149” is part of the set for the new TV show 7Live, airing locally from 3 to 4 p.m. on ABC … David Sasson of Orinda and Morris Alper of Palo Alto were among 20 high school juniors and seniors from five countries conducting research with world-renown scientists at the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology for three weeks last summer as part of the SciTech program … And finally, mazel tov and belated birthday wishes to Irv Tapper of San Francisco on reaching the century mark!