A survivor?
Neal Gottlieb of Sausalito is a survivor — that is, he’s one of the contestants on “Survivor,” the long-running TV reality show. But if you want to know if he’s the “sole survivor” and the winner of the $1 million prize, you’ll have to watch the show when it premieres on Wednesday, Feb. 17 on CBS. Gottlieb, 38, the founder of Three Twins Ice Cream, was among 18 competitors who wangled their way through various feats in Cambodia, filmed last spring. While he’s not allowed to talk about the show until it airs, according to his online bio, he’s been a “Survivor” fan for years, understands the game and was “absolutely determined to win.”
“Much of my life has prepared me to be a great contestant,” he wrote. “Being a fan has shown me some brilliant moves and perhaps more importantly, stupid ones to avoid. More than anything, I believe that I will be the sole survivor because I want to and I usually get what I want, no matter how hard I have to work for it.” And that’s confidence!
Studying racism
Bryan Stevenson, the author of the New York Times best-seller “Just Mercy,” drew a standing-room-only crowd at Congregation Rodef Sholom on Jan. 26. Stevenson is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, an Alabama-based nonprofit that provides legal representation to indigent defendants and prisoners. The event capped off the fall session of New Jim Crow, a working group studying racism, power and privilege, and prison reform, led by the congregation’s Rabbi Michael Lezak. Introducing the speaker, Lezak recalled sitting in a shopping-center parking lot two days earlier with his daughters. They had just finished listening to a TED talk by Stevenson on the car radio. Nordstrom — their destination — was in front of them and they could see San Quentin in the near distance. Racism, mass incarceration and criminalization aren’t happening in a far-off place or time, he reminded the audience. It’s “alive and well and happening right here in our town, on our clock and on our dime.”
Kudos
Kehillah High School junior Natalia Spritzer was a member of Brazil’s silver-award soccer team at the Maccabi Games, held in Chile Dec. 26-Jan. 5. And seniors Roee Landesman and Tomer Shlomovich won the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association’s Stock Market Game for California, realizing a whopping 105 percent gain in their simulated portfolio … Writer Renata Polt of Berkeley won a second-place Simon Rockower Award for excellence for her story “Utopia: Visions and Evolution,” which appeared in Hadassah magazine in 2014.
Short shorts
Don Schlesinger has joined Jewish National Fund as its Northern California and Pacific Northwest executive director. He has worked in the Bay Area for AIPAC and the Anti-Defamation League and most recently was the senior director of community partnerships for the Jewish Federation of San Diego County … Judith L. Bloom of Berkeley has been named executive producer of “The New Jewish: The Fromers, ’60s Berkeley, and Beyond,” a film focusing on the life and work of the late Seymour Fromer, founder of the Judah L. Magnes Museum (forerunner of the Magnes Collection). Co-producer-writer Ava Kahn seeks stories and videos about Fromer, as well as financial support for the production. Contact her at [email protected].
This columnist can be reached at [email protected].