All-American sports
Here’s a creative and fun kickoff to a political campaign: Bruce Raful, who’s running for assessor-recorder of Marin County, is officially filing for the office on Thursday, Feb. 18, the first day of the filing period, and coincidentally opening day of baseball’s spring training. “We’ve combined both of these two all-American events,” he writes. The festivities, beginning at 4 p.m. at McInnis Park in San Rafael, include a chance to hit some balls at the park’s batting cage. For info, visit www.raful2010.com.
Teen tikkun olam
Teens from the Bay Area’s two Emanu-Els — that’s Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco and Temple Emanu-El in San Jose — have been engaging in tikkun olam projects to help families overseas. In San Francisco, students planning to celebrate their b’nai mitzvah in Israel conducted a toy drive for children in Sderot, the small town on the border with Gaza that has been besieged by rockets. The toys were delivered to Sderot’s Parents Place, which like its model, the San Francisco Jewish Family and Children’s Services program, provides services for families. Now the Sderot children have cuddly new stuffed animals to keep them company, thanks to their S.F. friends.
In San Jose, Analise and Ariana Henry, Anna Levine, Cale Horeff, Isabel Haggerty and Alicia Blumstein, the temple’s teen mitzvah class, are baking “Challahs for Dallahs.” With help from teacher Lisa Sobel, the group sells palm-size challahs for a dollar and donates proceeds to a monthly charity of choice. When the earthquake hit Haiti, the teens doubled up their efforts, and are now making friendship bracelets and key chains to sell, too. The proceeds will go to the Red Cross for Haiti earthquake recovery.
Short shorts …
Sonoma County’s Bruce Cohn received the fifth annual Benny Friedman Community Recognition award last month at Congregation Beth Ami’s Friedman Center. Cohn, the owner of B.R. Cohn Winery and manager of the Doobie Brothers, was recognized for the millions of dollars he’s raised for a variety of educational, health, children’s and veterans nonprofits through annual big-name concerts at his winery … Attorney Cathy Ross-Perry of San Rafael, formerly with Fair Housing of Marin, has joined the staff of the San Francisco HUD office … Congregation Kol Shofar’s Howard Zack, Jared Polsky and Ron Brown are starring in a video that takes viewers on a tour of the Marin synagogue’s new building, six months into the construction project. David Elkind directed and Jeremy Brown (Ron’s son) did the music. Go to www.kolshofar.org to watch it.
Leland Faust of San Francisco was elected vice president of Maccabi USA/Sports for Israel (MUSA). Faust began his involvement with MUSA as a member of the 1965 gold medal water polo team and participated in several other Maccabiah games … San Francisco native Aaron Keyak, now a New Jersey resident, is the new communications director for the state’s Democratic congressman, Rep. Steve Rothman. Keyak notes that he’s following in the family footsteps: his grandfather, Bert Coffey, was a chair of the California Democratic Party and his mother helped found the Raoul Wallenberg Jewish Democratic Club … In the mention in the last Faces on filmmaker Tamara Rosenfeld, I forgot to note an important Jewish connection — she honed her skills as a member of the crew of the New Jewish Filmmaking Project, a collaboration of Citizen Film and the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, led by Sam Ball.
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