Not standing idly by
“We are not standing idly by,” Gabe Ferrick, 14, of Santa Rosa told a crowd of more than 100 gathered for “A Walk for Darfur — A Walk to End Genocide” in Santa Rosa on June 7.
Gabe teamed with the social action committee at Santa Rosa’s Congregation Shomrei Torah to organize the three-mile walk, which raised $9,000 for the L.A.-based Jewish World Watch. He was inspired to arrange the walk after Holocaust survivors Lilian Judd and Hans Angress, who spoke at Sonoma Country Day School, told him that to stop genocide, one cannot turn away and run, but must get involved “when we see intolerance,” he explained.
Gabe thanked Shomrei Torah Rabbi George Gittleman and congregation leaders Melissa Kort, Jeremy Olsan and Marcy Marrin for their support, and his grandma Feige Boxerman “for baking the desserts we’ll have after the walk.” According to Nancy Ferrick, Gabe’s proud mom who reported on the happening, Reed Ferrick (Gabe’s dad), kept the energy going with chants along the walk route.
This was the teen’s second fundraising event to combat genocide. For his bar mitzvah, he raised more than $16,000 to purchase backpacks for Darfur kids in refugee camps.
Women helping women
Some 100 local women went “shopping” in their closets and donated 170 outfits, complete with accessories, to female residents of the Delancey Street housing complex in San Francisco.
“We wanted to do something that would be very meaningful for women in need” that didn’t include donating money, explained Judy Sobel.
Sobel, her daughters Kim Morrow and Brooke Schell, plus Gayle Blum, Suzy Stolowitz and daughter Katie Stolowitz, Nancie Garfinkel, Linda Zweig and Joannie Liss composed the planning committee. Among the donors were Barbara Rosenberg, Nancy Grand, Varda Rabin, Lee Pollak, Lynn Ganz, Sue Wollack, Susan Mall and Lori Horne.
Jewish humor
In her Kung Pao Kosher Comedy newsletter, Lisa Geduldig says she’ll be organizing an artisan tour to Michoacan, Mexico for September or October, “depending on when the treyf flu hysteria dies down.”… And when Paul Frommherz donated funds to Temple Beth El in Aptos, he included the notes “in memory of my mis-spent youth” and for a “Speedy recovery to the local economy.”
Short shorts …
Rabbi Avi Schulman of Fremont’s Temple Beth Torah was awarded the Doctor of Divinity degree from Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in honor of 25 years service … Rabbi Steven Chester was honored by the Alameda County Community Food Bank with the group’s Hope Not Hunger award for his longtime efforts to fight hunger in the county. Oakland’s Temple Sinai, his congregation, has collected 59,291 pounds of food in the past five years and donated thousands of dollars, notes the Food Bank’s Brian Higgins … Irene Schlesinger of Belmont writes that her son Jason Reinin is among 19 members of the Israel Government Fellows Program, which (according to the Web site) “offers aspiring young policymakers and future leaders an entry into the corridors of government in Israel” … U.C. Berkeley doctoral student Sarah Anne Minkin is a recipient of the American Israel Cooperative Enterprise’s Schusterman Israel Scholar Awards … And Julie Bernstein, who was recently promoted to director of Campus and Community Programs at the Jewish Community Relations Council, is one of only 30 people (ages 25 to 35) from around the world selected to participate in the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Diplomatic Seminar for Young Jewish Leaders.