Happenings
Ronald C. Wornick Jewish Day School held a groundbreaking ceremony on June 4 to start renovations on its Foster City campus. About 150 people attended the event, including Mayor Stacy Jimenez, representatives from the Koum Family Foundation and Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund, along with numerous local supporters, alumni and parents. “This groundbreaking represents a critical moment for Jewish education on the North Peninsula…. In a time of rising antisemitism and global uncertainty, this project stands as a powerful act of defiance against despair, an affirmation that the Jewish people will continue to build, thrive, and lead with compassion and creativity,” head of school Adam Eilath said.
Named North Peninsula Jewish Community Day School upon its founding in 1986, it moved to its current Foster City location in 2004 and was renamed in honor of Ronald C. Wornick. He was a philanthropist, community leader and businessman who regularly visited his namesake school and engaged with students until his passing in 2021.
The $24.2 million fundraising goal for Wornick’s “Reconstructing Our Future” campaign is already over 95% funded, said Eilath.
Renovations to the campus will include construction of an “Innovation Center” that will feature library space, classrooms, learning pods and offices, and a new outdoor gathering space will seat up to 300 people. “This campaign is our promise to the next generation. We should all feel proud to belong to a community that invests in itself in this way — in students, professionals and families and in the broader Jewish community,” said Mina Bressler, president of the Wornick board of trustees. Construction is starting this summer and will be completed in summer 2026.
Cantor Martin Feldman, Congregation Sherith Israel’s cantor emeritus, was honored for his 97th birthday and his 43 years of service on May 30. Feldman was cantor at the San Francisco Reform synagogue from 1960 to 2003. He officiated at innumerable weddings and funerals and trained more than 1,500 bar and bat mitzvah students. His wife, Nancy, was also celebrated at Sherith Israel in advance of her 97th birthday.
Honors
“The Lonely Child,” a documentary in progress by J. columnist Alix Wall and her co-producer and director, Marc Smolowitz, has received a $10,000 grant from Jewish Story Partners, an L.A.-based nonprofit that supports independent films that tell Jewish stories. It was one of 26 films out of 220 applicants to receive grants this year. “Knowing that the competition was that fierce, it’s a huge honor,” said Wall. “It shows they feel this is a film worth supporting.”
The film tells the story of a Yiddish lullaby written in the Vilna Ghetto during WWII for Wall’s late mother; she’s spent nine years following the song all over the world, interviewing those who have kept it alive. The film received an initial $20,000 grant from the Claims Conference in 2016, and Wall was invited to introduce a performance of the lullaby at Carnegie Center in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day 2023. Wall, writer and co-producer of the film, says she needs to raise $80,000 more to complete it.
The Stanford Taube Center for Jewish Studies presented honors to students enrolled in its programs: Chana Lanter for her honors thesis “The Yoetzet and Her Halakha: Discursive Practices of Female Experts in Jewish Law,” Levi Lebowitz for his essay “Messianic Mysticism and the Myth of Eternal Return in A.M. Klein’s the Second Scroll,” and Honor Skye Warburg for her paper in Holocaust studies “Of Loss and the Lost: Children of the Holocaust.”
Graduating scholars were recognized for their dissertations, including Alin Constantin for “Communism and Jewish Intellectuals in Romania,” Eric Kim for “Talking the Talk, Trotting the Trot: Talking Horses in Russian and Yiddish Prose,” Rafa Kern for “To Belong as Individuals: Making Meaning – Personal and Shared – in Liberal Jewish Talmud Study,” and Ron Reichman for “Picasso and the Subversion of Heterosexual Masculinity, 1906-1914.” Ariel Horowitz, Ph.D. candidate in comparative literature, was awarded the American Academy for Jewish Research dissertation grant for 2025.
The Stanford Short Story Contest, which awards prizes for stories about Jewish life, recognized John Rigsby Aldredge Shelburn with the grand prize for “Moyshe Kapoyer,” while Ilan Arias won second place for “Somewhere in Antigua,” and Sarah Lewis won third place for “The Wilis on West 79th.”
Comings and Goings
Jessie Austin is the new director of operations at Chochmat HaLev in Berkeley. She is a Bay Area native and brings experience in education and Jewish nonprofit sectors, including roles at Jewish Vocational Service, the Hamlin School and Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards. She holds a degree in modern Jewish studies from San Francisco State. In other Chochmat news, the Renewal congregation will receive a proclamation from the City of Berkeley on the occasion of its 30th anniversary, to be presented at Shabbat services on Aug. 1.