He made Aliyah, then what?

Aliyah – immigrating to Israel, starting a new life – are you thinking about it? What happens next, after the Ulpan (Hebrew studies)? What options are available for you there?

The Israel Center’s Aliyah department invites you to meet Rabbi Marc Rosenstein, hear his personal Aliyah story and about his work in Israel today promoting Pluralism and Tolerence. Rabbi Rosenstein and his family made aliyah in 1990, to Moshav Shorashim, a small community in the Galilee founded by North Americans and affiliated with the Conservative Movement. Today, he is the director of the Galilee Foundation for Value Education which engages in programs that foster Jewish-Arab cooperation, Jewish pluralism, and Israel-Diaspora relations.  Among the projects that the foundation operates are leadership training programs, teacher in-service courses, educational tourism projects, local Jewish cultural events in the Galilee, and a Jewish-Arab youth circus.

Adi Farjon, Aliyah Emmisary, will be there as well, to answer your questions about Aliyah and short term programs available Israel.

• Wednesday, November 5 @ 7:00 pm
  - Congregation Beth David – Saratoga – map
• Thursday, November 6 @ 12:00 pm
  - Congregation Sinai – San Jose (Lunch and Learn) – map
• Thursday, November 6 @ 7:30 pm
  - Congregation Ner Tamid – San Francisco – map

Fierce, funny, full of energy and insight

“Etgar Keret’s short stories are fierce, funny, full of energy and insight, and at the same time they are often deep, tragic, and very moving.”
- Amos Oz, author

Tel Aviv native Etgar Keret, one of the most popular writers among youth around the world today, will be in the Bay Area this coming weekend to lecture on his works and show his new film.  Keret is the guest of the Israel Center, JCCSF and Stanford Author Series.  Salman Rushdie once wrote, “Keret is a brilliant writer, unlike anyone I’ve read. He is the voice of the next generation.”

In Palo Alto, Saturday, Nov 1, 8 PM – Lecture
In San Francisco, Sunday, Nov 2, 5:15 PM – Lecture and movie screening
In Berkeley, Monday, Nov 3, 4:30 PM – Lecture
www.israelinthebay.org/keret.htm

In San Francisco, Keret will be available for Q&A before and after the screening of the beautiful and unique movie  Jellyfish, which he co-wrote and co-directed with his wife Shira Gefen.

Storytime with David Grossman

The popular Author Series hosted by Israel Center, JCCSF, and Stanford is back! The year starts with one of Israel’s most acclaimed authors David Grossman.  He will be the keynote speaker at the upcoming Jewish Bookfest in the JCCSF. Author of six internationally acclaimed novels including The Yellow Wind, Her Body Knows, Be My Knife, See Under: LOVE and dozens of essays, Grossman is considered one of Israel’s most respected and best loved voice for peace. We will have a rare opportunity to listen his unique, humanistic and critical voice.

In San Francisco, David Grossman will engage in conversation with Prof. Robert Alter from UC Berkeley.
JCCSF, Sunday, Nov 2, 11 AM
www.jccsf.org/bookfest

In Stanford David Grossman will be speaking with Prof. Michael Gluzman from Tel Aviv University.
Stanford, Sunday, Nov 2, 7:30 PM
www.israelinthebay.org/grossman.htm

David Grossman will sign books immediately following the programs.

We’re hiring!

With unemployment rates hovering around 7.7% in California, and the economy taking a downturn, it might be particularly tough to land a new job these days.  That begin said, the Federation and its beneficiary organizations are still hiring and working to assist those in need.

The Federation is currently looking for a Business Leadership Council Associate, Director of Gift Planning, Leadership Development Administrative Assistant, Public Relations Associate, Senior Accountant, and Young Adult Division (YAD) Associate to join our ranks. The Federation offers great benefits (medical, dental, vision, retirement) and competitive pay. If you or someone you know would be interested in one of those jobs, please stop by http://www.sfjcf.org/aboutjcf/jobs/ for the 411.

One of our beneficary agencies, Jewish Vocational Services (JVS), also keeps job listings on their website at http://www.jvs.org/jobs/jobSearchAll.asp.  JVS is an incredible organization that provides career coaching and advising, job training, and a Technology Access Center.  In just the past four months, they have seen a 100% increase in calls to the agency and a 50% increase in actual client intake.  If you would like to look into their services, or make a donation to them so that they can keep up with this increased demand, please visit http://www.jvs.org/.

Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra — 2-for-1 tickets

The Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra—one of Israel’s oldest and most important musical institutions—will visit Berkeley this Sunday with a special program honoring the 60th Anniversaries of both the Orchestra and the founding of the State of Israel. Under the dynamic creative vision of music director Leon Botstein, the program will spotlight music by three contemporary Jewish composers, including Aaron Copland’s stirring Third Symphony with its thunderous conclusion based on his Fanfare for the Common Man, as well as Ernst Toch’s tour de force Big Ben Variations. Grammy nominated violinist Robert McDuffie will appear with the orchestra.

Thanks to the co-sponsorship of our Israel Center, half-price tickets are available to all Federation blog readers.  The promotion code is JSOSO241, and instructions for using it can be found here.

Sunday, October 26, 7 pm
Zellerbach Hall B, UC Berkeley

YAD lends a hand

Last week, the Federation’s Young Adults Division and the Jewish Study Network partnered up once again to participate in Habitat for Jewmanity, a social action project that builds sukkahs for older Jewish couples that wish to celebrate sukkot, but are no longer able to construct their own booths.

The efforts of the volunteers did not go unnoticed during this Zman Simchateinu (season of our rejoicing).  The j. weekly ran an article this week on project, which is available at http://tinyurl.com/jewmanity

You can watch a video from last year’s sukkah building session below:

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

This Sunday, October 19, 2008, San Francisco is hosting two great fun, cheap, and Sukkot-themed events.

Numero uno:
FREE admission to the Contemporary Jewish Museum

Stop by the museum from 11 AM – 4 PM to experience five different exhibitions, celebrate Sukkot and other harvest traditions, create harvest-inspired artwork, and enjoy live performances.  If you have energy left after exploring the CJM, you can visit the other museums in the area for free as well, thanks to Target Family Day.

Click picture to download walking map

Numero dos:
Spook’ot at Dolores Park

For three decades in the late 1800s, Dolores Park served as the cemetery for Temple Emanu-El.  Today, Dolores Park serves as venue for the annual Spook’ot event.  You are invited to watch Keeping the Faith, enjoy goods from the farmers market inside the sukka, make an arts and crafts project with your kids, and learn more about Prop 8.  The event starts at 5 PM.  There is a $5 suggested donation.  Be sure to wear layers!

Last chance to apply for the Jewish Community Teen Foundations

Imagine that you have $100,000 to use to help repair the world.  What do you spend it on?  Do you buy bed nets to help prevent malaria in Africa?  Do you use it to help feed and educate under privileged children in your community?  Or do you fund an interfaith program in Israel?  These are all real choices the members of the Jewish Community Teen Foundations have faced.  Together, they have donated over $650,000 to dozens of organizations during the past few years.

If this sounds like an interesting project that you would like to get involved with, please consider applying to join one of the Teen Foundations, or providing financial assistant to sustain the Teen Foundations in years to come.

For more information on the Teen Foundations, please visit http://www.jewishteenfoundation.org/

Lastly, over the summer, Kohn Intern Alexandra Greenfield produced two Teen Foundation videos.  The following is the second in the installment:

PJ Library Family of the Month

Lisa Pavlovsky and Jay Schulman are parents of Adam, 6, and Ezra, 4, and live in San Rafael. They have been receiving PJ Library books for over a year.

We caught up with Lisa, and here’s what she had to say about this wonderful program that gives books to children ages 6 months to five and a half years old for free for the first two years.

“It’s just so amazing to have a book appear in the mail each month. It’s exciting for the whole family. We read the books over and over again. It keeps the holidays alive for more than one day…they become part of their daily lives. Ezra loves “I have a Little Driedel,” and he reads it with his brother all the time. They love Hanukkah because of the books we read to them. They talk about Judah Maccabee being strong and it’s nice that their role models are part of our heritage.

The books are beautiful and kid-friendly. Some are books we can read to them and some they can read or look at themselves. By having the books in our library, they can read a Passover book in October. By the time the holiday comes, the story is so familiar. As parents, that is what we want, to have Judaism intergrated into the fabric of their lives not just by going to synagogue. The PJ Library gives more depth for us to teach our children about leading a Jewish life.”

Here at the Jewish Community Federation, we are so pleased to offer this wonderful program to you and your family. Created by the Harold Grinspoon Foundation and thanks to generous funding from the Jim Joseph Foundation and the Jewish Community Endowment Fund of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties, we are able to offer these books to many more families in our area. Please visit www.pjlibrary.org to sign-up today, or e-mail Vivien Braly at VivienB@sfjcf.org with any questions! We look forward to welcoming you into The PJ Library community.