It’s not spam — it’s kosher
Much to the consternation of his Internet service provider, Harry Gluckman keeps 600 people abreast of the latest happenings in Israel via his personal e-mail service. The Alameda retiree, who met his wife, Doris, online, gathers his news from all over, especially from “friends and relatives galore,” who live in Israel, he tells Faces. In his working days, Harry raised funds and directed Jewish organizations, including State of Israel Bonds, Women’s American ORT (“in the days when men were directors of women’s organizations”), Jewish National Fund and Shaare Tzedek Medical Center.
Besides serious stuff, Harry delivers humor. His Web site Harry’s Humble House of Humor on the Hinternet (www.gluckman.com/harry/harry.htm) lists dozens of jokes by categories. Harry welcomes new subscribers to his e-mail list, but he warns, let him know if you’re interested in news or jokes. “I don’t want people who want news from Israel to get dirty jokes,” he muses.
Marrakech express
A dozen members of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation’s top leadership traveled through Jewish communities in Morocco in December. Peter Sloss, Marcia Smolens, Sue Wollack, Nanette Wollack, Eve Bernstein and Alex Gersnowicz, Suzanne Felson, Jan Reicher, Mel Wasserman, Joan Eichler, and Susan and Jay Mall visited Casablanca, Fez and Marrakech. They lit candles on the first night of Chanukah in Marrakech and “ate divine sufganiot,” Susan Mall reports.
Though Morocco’s Jewish community has been reduced to just 5,000, due to economic reasons as well as immigration to Israel and elsewhere, the travelers noted that they were amazed at how comfortably Jews live among the Muslim majority. Jewish Journeys (open to major JCF donors) has visited eight different countries. The next trip, slated for April, will be to Israel.
Nepotism can be good
Public relations maven Lawrence Helman says that the “haimish connection” is just one reason that he’s talking up “The Serpent,” an upcoming production by the new Berkeley-based theatrical company, The Ragged Wing Ensemble. The other is that it’s a creative, avant-garde retelling of the Creation story. Founding member Anna Shneiderman is “my first cousin’s kid — I’m so proud of her,” he says.
This isn’t Anna’s first time in the spotlight. She and her mother, Nancy Shneiderman, of Chevy Chase, Md., were among the mother-daughter pairs featured in the coffee table photography book “The Jewish Mother” several years ago. “The Serpent” opens Jan. 28 at Berkeley’s Eighth Street Studios.
Short shorts …
Palo Alto resident Naphtali Knox has received the Distinguished Leadership Award for a professional planner from the American Planning Association. A city planner, Naphtali in the 1980s was a member of the JCF’s then-Project Renewal committee, chaired by Annette Dobbs and Alan Rothenberg. They helped to develop a number of projects including a park and an airfield in Kiryat Shmona, which was the JCF’s sister city … Fay Zenoff Ginzburg has joined Brandeis Hillel Day School as director of institutional advancement in charge of development … Congregation B’nai Shalom in Walnut Creek has joined the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism’s Framework for Excellence Program.
Suzan Berns, a freelance writer, was associate director of communications for the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation. She can be reached at [email protected].