Condi and Chabad
On July 4, 1964, two days after President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law, Condoleezza Rice and her parents ate at a “whites only” restaurant in her hometown of Birmingham, Ala. “She vividly remembers the feeling of the white patrons glaring as her family entered, and knew that even though their feelings hadn’t changed, the law had changed,” reports Rabbi Dov Greenberg, executive director of Chabad of Stanford. Greenberg, his wife, Rachel, and the Rohr Chabad House at Stanford hosted the former secretary of state for Shabbat dinner on April 19. She spent three hours — a half-hour had been planned — interacting with a crowd of 150 students and alumni, answering their questions and posing her own about Judaism and Jewish culture. “The camaraderie of the students and the feeling of community were heartwarming for her,” Greenberg said. Rice, who teaches at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, gave the students a bit of advice: “Life is full of surprises and serendipity. Being open to unexpected turns in the road is an important part of success.”
B’tayavon … bon appétit!
If you’ve been craving chicken schnitzel — the Israeli way — get down to the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. Chef Michele Fawcett went on the JCCSF’s annual staff trip to Israel in January and came back with a number of new dishes, now on the menu at Community Table, the JCC café. Besides the schnitzel (it comes with fries and curry pickled veggies), there’s Israeli lamb kabobs (served with couscous), the Taste of Israel (hummus, falafel, baba ghanoush, etc.) and, of course, falafel. Fawcett’s travel to Israel was sponsored by Linda and Sanford Gallanter as part of an ongoing gift to send JCCSF staff members to the Jewish state.
A visible reminder
A young Israeli soldier who lost an arm during Operation Cast Lead told audiences at Contra Costa and Tri-Valley Chabads and U.C. Santa Cruz that he looked at the loss as an important, tangible reminder of his love for Judaism and Israel, writes Rabbi Raleigh Resnick of Chabad of the Tri-Valley. After being hit by a mortar shell, Izzy Ezagui, 24, who made aliyah from Florida a year before the December 2008 incursion began, recovered and insisted on returning to battle. The audience was a mix of teens and college students, including a young woman who was considering joining the Israeli army and was looking to be inspired and moved — and she was, said Resnick.
Short shorts
Rabbi Barnett Brickner will work for tips. On Monday, May 6, he’ll be behind the bar at Angela’s Bistro and Bar in Alameda shaking and stirring drinks for his Temple Israel congregants — and anyone else who drops in. You pay for your drink and thus support a local business. And then you tip the rabbi-bartender, who promises to turn 100 percent of his tips over to the congregation. P.S. Brickner says he’s got a degree in bartending from Harvard (really!). He took a two-week course in 1978 and then spent the summer bartending at private parties on Martha’s Vineyard … Oakland artist Rita Sklar has been granted the Award of Distinction by the National Museum of Women in the Arts for her painting “Winged Migration in Black and White.” Sklar’s winning painting will be featured in an exhibit at Farley’s East café in Oakland throughout May. You can meet the artist there on Saturday, May 4 as part of Oakland’s Art Murmur’s Saturday Stroll.
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