Local ADL restarts campaign for divestment bill
The Central Pacific Region of the Anti-Defamation League is seeking support for a bill that prohibits California’s two largest pension funds, CalPERS and CalSTRS, from investing public employee retirement funds in companies with business ties to Iran.
While the California Public Divest From Iran Act was passed in 2007, the local ADL said in a recent statement that it has not seen “any concrete movements toward divestment.”
The bill required the boards of CalPERS and CalSTRS to determine which companies were subject to divestment; established a timeframe under which the pension funds must stop investing; and required the boards to liquidate its investments in such companies.
The ADL is encouraging the public to contact their elected officials in an effort to promote the campaign. For more information, visit www.adl.org.
AJWS president to speak in Bay Area
American Jewish World Service president Ruth Messinger will address Stanford University graduates at their baccalaureate ceremony on the morning of June 13. The topic of her talk is “Justice as Spiritual Practice.”
Following her visit to the Stanford campus, Messinger will discuss “Fighting Hunger from the Ground Up” at Temple Beth Jacob, 1550 Alameda de las Pulgas, Redwood City. Her talk will follow 10 a.m. services at the synagogue. The public is invited to attend.
The nonprofit AJWS is dedicated to providing nonsectarian humanitarian assistance and emergency relief to disadvantaged people worldwide. Recent efforts have focused on the crisis in Sri Lanka, Darfur and addressing world hunger, among other causes.
Calling all bnai mitzvah photos
Shmaltz Brewing Company, maker of He’brew Beer, has launched a photo contest inviting people to send in their bar or bat mitzvah photos, the best (or worst) of which will appear on labels of Jewbelation Bar Mitzvah, a new beer available in September. The contest is in honor of the 13-year-old company having reached its own bar mitzvah year.
Photo categories include: Best Hair, Best Family Photo, Most Awkward Moment, Youngest-Looking Adult, Funniest Shot, Best Dressed, Best Braces and Best Dance Moves. The contest runs through July 4, though images can be submitted until Chanukah. All photos will be posted on the Shmaltz Web site. Winners receive a He’brew Bar Mitzvah Gift Set.
Images can be submitted to [email protected] or via Facebook by joining the group, the Jewbelation 13 Project. For more information, visit www.shmaltzbrewing.com.
correction
Last week j. incorrectly ran a photo of Shelley Berman labeled as Shecky Greene due to a misidentified Associated Press caption.