Happenings
Congregation Emanu-El’s young adult cohort honored Martin Luther King Jr. Day with a day of service, uniting with Third Baptist Church in San Francisco for the 39th annual pulpit exchange and community celebration. The event was supported by Repair the World, an organization that gives microgrants to Jewish groups to host service projects.
In other Repair the World news, the nonprofit partnered with Camp Newman and other organizations for a service event at Newman for over 200 teen volunteers. They created 1,500 cards and care packages, including hygiene kits for unhoused neighbors and snack packs and birthday cards for those who are sick and vulnerable.
UC Berkeley seniors Penelope Venturini, student president of Berkeley Hillel, and Joshua Gould, who is studying theater and Jewish studies, are stage manager and director, respectively, of Elaine May’s “Adaptation,” being presented on Feb. 26-27 at Zellerbach Hall. Admission is free.
Jewish day school leaders gathered in Houston in early February for a retreat hosted by Prizmah, the network for Jewish day schools. Peg Sandel, head of school at Brandeis Marin, Adam Eilath, head of school at Ronald C. Wornick Jewish Day School, and Aviva Greenberg, principal of Yavneh Day School, were in attendance. The retreat included workshops and lectures about the future of AI in education, decision-making, navigating tension in school communities and more.
Lunar Collective, an organization for Asian Jews, has chosen its Bay Area Leading Light fellows for 2026: Delaney Bantillo, a mixed-medium and multidisciplinary artist, scientist and educator exploring themes of identity, culture and belonging; Eleni Baskin, an educator and community leader and returnee fellow; and Levi Meir Clancy, a photographer who splits his time between Oakland and the Sierra Nevada, where he co-owns Genessee Farm.
The fellowship cultivates connection and belonging through community programming and storytelling. Lunar Collective has also worked with The Braid on the theater piece “What Do I Do With All This Heritage?” and a film series featuring candid interviews called “Lunar: The Jewish-Asian Film Project.”
Miranda Meyerson of Oakland has been named one of Hadassah’s Evolve Leadership Fellows, a cohort of 11 women from around the country who participate in workshops and work with a leadership mentor. Meyerson founded and runs Meyerson Education Services, a Bay Area academic coaching service.
Gabriela “Gaby” Yeshua has been selected for the fourth cohort of JCC Association’s Martin Pear Israel Fellowship, an 18-month professional development and leadership program that includes a nine-day seminar in Israel. Yeshua is the executive assistant to Zack Bodner, president and CEO of the Oshman Family JCC.
JFCS’ Impact Year Fellowship Teens hosted the Bay Area Teen Antisemitism Summit on Feb. 1, welcoming local youth to learn about resisting antisemitism and expressing Jewish pride. Guest speakers included state Sen. Josh Becker, Rebecca Goodman from JCRC Bay Area, Maya Bronicki from the Bay Area Jewish Coalition, Valerie Rutenberg from StandWithUs and Beth Cohen from the JFCS Holocaust Center.
“My biggest takeaway is just how powerful our community is and despite us just being teens, how much we can do to counter antisemitism,” said Nathan Feldman, a sophomore at Carlmont High School in Belmont. “It was really inspiring.” Over 100 teenagers participated in the event in Menlo Park.
LABA Bay Area has a new cohort of fellows under the theme “Name”: Molly Almeida, a visual artist focusing on drawing and working with paper; Rabbi Camille Shira Angel, the first rabbi-in-residence at the University of San Francisco who archives the stories of queer elders in S.F. and is currently writing “Field Notes from a Lesbian Rabbi: Queering Religion at a Catholic University”; Annalisa Chasan, a sculptor, maker and mind/body movement educator whose work is inspired by nature and organic shapes; Alex Asher Daniel, a multidisciplinary artist and composer whose work includes sound installation, painting, film, video, 3D objects and new media; Emily Cohen Ibañez, a Colombian American filmmaker and screenwriter who centers women in front and behind the camera; Amy Kurzweil, a New Yorker cartoonist and graphic memoirist who focuses on family history and technology; Tai Lum, a dancer who studied at the S.F. Ballet School before receiving a BFA at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts; Kevin Smokler, an author of four books about pop culture and a documentarian; Maia Webel, a writer and dancer who explores human relationships with nature and storytelling; and Dan Wolf, a hip-hop artist who works with rap, theater, personal narrative and history.
Awards
Jewtina y Co., a national nonprofit that aims to nurture Latin Jewish community and identity, was awarded Global Jewry’s inaugural prize for collaboration with other Jewish organizations.
The Global Jewry Prize for Emerging Collaboration, which includes a $10,000 cash award, was presented in January to the organization for its partnership with Lazos Internacional on the Rootas Chile trip, a program connecting Latin Jewish young adults from the U.S. with peers in Lazos’ young adult network in Chile Feb. 16-22.
Analucía Lopezrevoredo, who founded Jewtina in San Francisco in 2019, told J. that the Rootas Chile trip will bring together 15 young adults from L.A to learn about and engage directly with Chile’s culture, history and diverse Jewish community. It will be Jewtina’s first trip to the country with a cohort for a heritage trip and will include visits to Jewish community sites in Santiago and the port city of Valparaíso, where Jewish immigrants arrived by boat beginning in the mid-19th century.
“There are really Jews living in every Latin American country, so for us, it’s important that people have true access to learn about those distinct Jewish communities in the different places that we operate as a Latin American organization,” said Lopezrevoredo.
Opportunities
Jewish Family and Children’s Services is accepting applications for its Canine Corps program. Volunteers and their dogs visit seniors and people with disabilities in San Francisco and the Peninsula to bring comfort and companionship. Session begins Feb. 25. Visit tinyurl.com/canine-corps for more information.
The Jewish Film Institute is accepting applications for grants to filmmakers at the rough cut stage. Projects in any form, length or genre are eligible for consideration. Applications accepted until March 8. Visit tinyurl.com/sfjff-grants for more information.
Comings and Goings
Davina Drabkin is the new chief operating officer of Divorce & Discovery, an organization founded by Rabbi Deborah Newbrun (also a J. board member) that supports families and individuals navigating divorce and life transitions. In addition to over a decade of leadership experience across nonprofit, educational and community-based organizations, Drabkin participated in the inaugural Divorce & Discovery Jewish Healing Retreat. “Attending the inaugural Divorce and Discovery retreat in 2022 was the first time that Judaism offered me healing around my divorce experience,” she said. “That’s what we are doing with Divorce and Discovery, creating a sea change in the contemporary Jewish community’s ability to respond to divorce with compassion as well as spiritual and ritual healing.”
Rabbi Jason Gwasdoff and his wife, cantorial soloist Lindy Passer, are set to retire this year after 33 years of service to Temple Israel in Stockton. “They have guided generations of families through life’s most meaningful moments,” said member Roz López, “and have helped shape not just our congregation, but the broader community as well.”