Bill Graham presents

Bill Graham

“I think I saw Bob Weir when I came in,” remarked A.J. Kallet of Marin, who with his wife, Diane Kallet, was among 900 Contemporary Jewish Museum members who showed up to celebrate the opening of “Bill Graham and the Rock & Roll Revolution.” He was right. The Grateful Dead band founder Weir, along with nine drummer friends — all of whom were surprise performers at the event — got the multiage house rocking. The exhibit, organized by Los Angeles’ Skirball Cultural Center in association with the Bill Graham Memorial Foundation, “has come home,” David Graham, Bill’s son, told guests at an earlier preopening reception for music industry folks and museum trustees. They snacked on latkes and mini corned beef, egg salad and chopped liver sandwiches — “my dad’s favorite foods,” David remarked. Brother Alex Graham concurred. Having the exhibit at the CJM, in the city his father called home, “is, on a spiritual level, incredibly important for our family,” he said. Bill Graham, who escaped Germany as a young child, “kept an archive as part of his heredity as a survivor,” his son said. In the crowd were museum trustees Joyce Linker and Marilyn Waldman and Al Levitt, with spouses Murry Waldman and Rosanne Levitt; Mark Reisbaum with husband Michael Case; and Carol and Frank Leidman.

Kudos

Hadar Harris

T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights will present Hadar Harris with its prestigious Raphael Lemkin Human Rights Award at its annual gala on May 9 in New York City. Harris, who grew up on the Peninsula, is a human rights attorney and is currently executive director of the Northern California Innocence Project, which works to promote a fair, effective and compassionate criminal justice system. Prior posts include 13 years as executive director of the Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Law at American University Washington College of Law in Washington, D.C., and executive director of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, a bipartisan legislative service organization of the House of Representatives.

David Jeffries

David Jeffries, a language-arts teacher at the Brandeis School of San Francisco, has been named a Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth Sarah D. Barder Fellow. Jeffries has taught at the school since 1981. He was nominated by his student, 12-year-old Alex Nealey, who said (among other compliments), “Before middle school, I had always liked math but did not like writing at all … This year I and a lot of my friends cheer when we see that writing is next. I credit this to Mr. Jeffries. He has shown me that writing can be fun.”

Short shorts

Rabbi Josh Ladon

Rabbi Josh Ladon has been named Bay Area city manager of the Shalom Hartman Institute. He has served most recently as dean of student life and Jewish life at San Francisco’s Jewish Community High School of the Bay … Proud grandma Fae Melmon of Los Altos reports that her grandson Eli Melmon of San Carlos is appearing in “The Diner on Washington Street,” an independent production at the Dragon Theatre in Redwood City on April 22-23. Eli, 16, whose parents are Nancy and Paul Melmon, writes that he has been in productions with the Hillbarn Theatre, Broadway by the Bay, Starting Arts and San Carlos Children’s Theater … Friends of the San Francisco Public Library honored Roselyne “Cissie” Swig at the Library Laureates Gala on March 18. Swig, a former library commissioner, was recognized for championing library branches in underserved neighborhoods.

This columnist can be reached at [email protected].