Here temporarily from Down Under, Sarah Silbiger could be living the life of Riley. Sight-seeing. Working out at the health club. Enjoying leisurely lunches. Indulging herself in frivolous pursuits.
Instead, she’s spending several days a week doing volunteer work for various Jewish community organizations and loving every minute.
A native Australian, Silbiger relocated to San Francisco in the fall with her husband, Richard, because of his job transfer. He has a three-year visa, and she’s awaiting hers — a process that has already dragged on well beyond the three months it was supposed to take. And although she has a job lined up with PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Silbiger can’t start work without her visa.
But she can volunteer. So, shortly after getting settled in San Francisco, the energetic 27-year-old conducted an online search of volunteer opportunities. That led her to Gail Green, the director of Jewish Community Information & Referral, a program of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation.
“I said I wanted to work four days a week, basically, just to keep myself sane,” recalls Silbiger. She’s almost up to speed.
Silbiger works an eight-hour shift at JCI&R, puts in another full day working for Yossi Offenberg at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, and spends Friday mornings shepherding 2- and 3-year-olds at Parents Place, a family resource center run by the S.F.-based Jewish Family and Children’s Services.
In fact, JCI&R officials say they are so happy with Silbiger’s volunteer efforts that they hope, in jest, that her green card will never come through.
“She’s definitely getting put to work in a significant way,” says Green. “What was interesting to me, in talking to her…was that she really wanted to develop more of a Jewish community.”
In the city of Brisbane, where she and her German-born husband last lived, there is no such network, Silbiger says. So when she learned, through JCI&R, of all the opportunities available to Bay Area Jews, Silbiger was blown away. “We have no resources where I came from. No JCC…only three synagogues, and that’s it.
“I was working full time, we had a house and everything, but I didn’t have the time to volunteer anywhere or do anything like this. Now I’ve just settled down into this lovely routine.”
Sometimes, in fact, she gets miffed thinking about the rich opportunity that many Bay Area Jews either don’t know of or don’t care about. “It makes me so unhappy to see people not use it,” she says. “You don’t appreciate it until you live without it for some time.”
Like other committed volunteers, Silbiger, who was employed as a “strategic change consultant” for Australian nonprofit and government organizations, insists that she gets a huge amount of satisfaction from volunteering.
And those who oversee her volunteer work are effusive in their praise.
“She’s great,” says Green. Though Silbiger was initially trained to answer the phones at JCI&R, she quickly picked up more complicated responsibilities. “She’s been helping me with data entry and managing the database,” notes Green. She has also assisted with the agency’s Web site, and applies her technical talent to other projects as well. “She’s really been amazing,”
Offenberg, Jewish program manager and director of SpeedDating for the JCC, first offered Silbiger some relatively minor tasks for SpeedDating. But in a very short time, “she ended up doing more and more stuff. She would handle every task deftly and wonderfully — we’re thinking there’s no end to what she can do!
“And then finally we found out she’s very humble as well.”
Silbiger now assists Offenberg with an array of administrative tasks. “With her skills set and her time, that is unusual,” he says.
At Parents Place, Silbiger switches hats entirely, using her social skills to help very young children feel comfortable in settings without their mothers or fathers. “It’s their first step away from their parents,” explains Lee Ann Slaton, one of her supervisors, “so they need a little reassurance.”
Silbiger organizes activities, plays with the children and “makes sure they’re safe,” says Slaton.
The versatile volunteer admits that her work at Parents Place “was a bit difficult” at first, because her young charges “didn’t know me.” But that was resolved quickly enough. “As soon as you get to know them, the level of responsiveness increases,” she says. And even though she had no prior work experience with children, Silbiger felt quite comfortable. “I have 21 cousins, if that counts!”
Through her various contacts at the Jewish agencies for which she volunteers, Silbiger has learned more and more about the local Jewish community. She’s a great fan of Rabbi Ted Alexander at Congregation B’nai Emunah, and is in the process of joining the Conservative San Francisco synagogue.
Through the synagogue, the Jewish communal agencies and some classes she has taken at the JCC, Silbiger has steadily made inroads into her new community. “I love living in the city,” she says. “You can walk everywhere, it’s beautiful, there are lovely coffee shops…”
But perhaps most importantly, she enjoys keeping busy as a volunteer. “It’s good for me. It saves me from daytime TV,” she quips.