Cancel the movie, throw away the Chinese take-out menu…and get to where the party is.  You don’t want to miss this year’s Latke Ball 2009  at Ruby Skye, San Francisco’s premier special event venue.

Get down with more than 1,000 young Jewish adults for the sweetest mega music mixes, dancing, and the hippest crowd.   

Hang out with the A-list and celebrate in style by registering for the VIP Reception. Get exclusive access to the Ruby Skye Balcony where you’ll enjoy dessert, champagne, and a bird’s eye view of the dance floor from 8:30 – 10:00 pm.

Not only is YAD’s Latke Ball the hottest X-mas eve spot in the city, but the club itself is a main attraction.  The turn of the century restored Victorian playhouse has art nouveau architecture and is considered an historical landmark.  It’s been retrofitted with a technologically advanced sound system and plush modern furnishings. 

General admission is $30 in advance, $40 at the door; VIP is $50, $60 at the door. Ben Gurion Society donors pay general admission prices and get VIP access. Register online for advance tickets. Young adults 21+.

Thursday, December 24, 8:30 p.m. – 2:00 a.m. Ruby Skye, 420 Mason Street, San Francisco (map)

Want to check out some of the party-goers at last year’s event? Click here to see the photos!

After enjoying a bagel brunch at the Jewish Home and learning about the services it provides to Jewish Home residents, 40 YAD members decorated seven common areas of the Home, covering them with brightly colored menorahs, dreidels, and colored posters with “Happy Hanukkah” written in English, Hebrew and Russian. The young adults then visited with residents and passed out handmade Hanukkah cards that YAD members had made.

Residents were thrilled to receive a visit and a Hanukkah card and many couldn’t stop smiling; some even cried tears of joy! “I could hardly keep from crying myself,” said one participant. “Such a little thing as handing them a card and talking with them for a few minutes made them so happy!”

The December 6 event was the YAD board’s Hanukkah party, but 15 additional YAD constituents signed up to attend. As a result, the 25 original participants grew to 40 for this heartwarming service project, and YAD is planning to make this collaboration with the Jewish Home an annual mitzvah.

See more photos from the event.

Jane is a single Jewish woman (SJW) in her late 20s who grew up in Los Altos, went away to college and moved back to the area for grad school. When she returned, she began looking for a “Jewish community” and attended a local synagogue. She didn’t find it particularly satisfying and has been looking for an informal minyan of other Jews her age with whom to observe Shabbat and holidays.

Brian is a 23-year-old graduate student at Stanford. He was very involved in Israeli politics as an undergrad back East, but has little time to get involved in Israel activities here. He’s not interested in religion or study and isn’t sure what “getting involved” would look like. He occasionally goes to Chabad and is looking for more social events to attend because he finds it hard to meet people.

What do they have in common? Jane and Brian are just two of the 15,000+ Jewish young adults in the South Peninsula that a coalition of agency and synagogue leaders and young adults are seeking to engage in Jewish life.

What do you have in common with them?
Led by JCF’s South Peninsula Regional Council, this planning group wants to know: Who are the Jews of the next generation? What are their interests? Passions? Concerns? Hopes? Expectations? What do they want out of their Jewish lives in the South Peninsula? The group launched an online survey to answer these sorts of questions (the survey remains open through the end of November), and will utilize this information as part of an ongoing planning effort targeted at ensuring our community is offering opportunities compelling to young adults.

If you know any young Jewish adults, please encourage them to respond. Thank you!

For questions contact. Wendy Verba, Regional Council Planner. 415.512.6424 wendyv@sfjcf.org.

Jordan Sills

We need your VOTE! Jewish Community Heroes – a new UJC interactive user generated content project celebrates the volunteer heroes in our Community. YAD’s Immediate Past President Jordan Sills has been nominated for his volunteer work within the San Francisco Jewish Community.

The winner of Jewish Community Hero project will receive $25,000 to be used as an investment in their community project or non-profit effort via his or her local Jewish Federation, or another recognized 501(c)3 charitable entity. Let’s vote for Jordan and help him bring the prize to San Francisco!

VOTE NOW (and every day until October 8 – don’t worry it is allowed by the rules) and remember to tell all your friends.

Kevin Waldman, the YAD president from 2005-2007, has earned this year’s Lloyd W. Dinkelspiel Award for Young Leadership! Waldman is a valued and active Federation lay leader, and is well respected by fellow volunteers and Federation Board members.

To learn more about Waldman and the Dinkelspiel Award, please visit: http://sfjcf.wordpress.com/2009/05/21/honorees/#waldman

Dear Friends,

Most of you are acquainted with me through some of YAD’s events such as Latke Ball, Club Fed and Blue Monday. And although socializing plays a part in YAD’s role in our community, there’s an even larger and more meaningful purpose in our involvement.  YAD is part of the Jewish Community Federation (JCF) —a fundraising organization helping people in need with basic social services — from providing refuge for a victim of domestic abuse to offering seniors transportation to their doctor.

This year’s Annual Campaign is quickly coming to a close on June 30th and the JCF goal has not been reached. Raising money has never been easy, and the added pressure from a changing economic climate has led many Federations to curtail or eliminate programs and staff at a time when the needs for emergency financial aid and loans, job services and scholarships have more than doubled.

This year, YAD has raised $165,000, which is approximately half of last year’s YAD total of $300,000.  That leaves an additional 55% gap in funding needed to continue running vital programs.

It’s not just about money.  Those dollars translate into a resume workshop for an unemployed father, a hot kosher lunch for a senior on a fixed income, providing comfort to a mother mourning the death of her own parent, keeping a child enrolled in their Jewish school – all supported by your gift.

For those of you who have attended our events in the past but have yet to make a contribution to the Annual Campaign, I urge you to do it now.   We have a short window of time to make a huge impact.

This year your gift counts more, literally.  Each increased donation of an existing gift or any new gift will be matched dollar-for-dollar.

That’s why I am personally asking for your help. I need you to join me in these last 6 weeks of the 2008-2009 Annual Campaign and make your contribution if you have not done so yet.

Your taking action today demonstrates the Jewish value of taking responsibility, both for our own community and the broader community in need.  If you can, please make your gift NOW.

Jordan Sills

http://www.sfjcf.org/go/2009

I am counting on you.

Sincerely,

Jordan Sills
President
Young Adults Division

I’m always up for trying new things, so when United Jewish Communities announced that they were trying something new for the 2009 National Young Leadership Mission, I knew that I had to be a part of it. Last month, 600 young Jewish professionals from across North American, including 49 from the Bay Area, came together for the TikkuNOLAm conference focused on rebuilding the broken city of New Orleans.

Part of the San Francisco delegation

The three-day event was a blur of dirt, shovels, ponchos, lumber and power tools. Our tikkun olam (Hebrew for “repairing the world”) project was to rebuild a community center in St. Bernard’s Parish which had been hard hit by Hurricane Katrina. Although the task seemed daunting at first, we came together and did some amazing work. Wearing ponchos to keep out the drizzle and 100% humidity, the San Francisco delegation dug holes and trenches as a foundation for new volleyball courts. Other communities planted flowers, mended fences or built benches. Together the UJC was the largest group of volunteers to visit St. Bernard’s Parish as a single entity.

Lisa, Abra and Adrienne

The participants in our San Francisco delegation gave of themselves and performed tikkun olam each and every day of the conference. I was proud to witness our strong group not only build a part of New Orleans, but also build the bonds for what could be a stronger San Francisco Jewish community. The conference gave many participants their first taste of types of programs that Federation supports and allowed them to view Federation through new eyes. So often we hear from the young adult community that they find it difficult to understand what Federation is.  Yet at this conference it was wonderful to not have to explain anything…the experience spoke to everyone more than any words ever could.

Abra Annes

In the coming months the participants of  the TikkuNOLAm conference will work together to bring more service projects to the YAD community. I look forward to carrying the momentum that began in New Orleans back to San Francisco. I look forward to engaging more young Jewish leaders, like myself, in building our own community THROUGH helping others.

Abra Annes
Program and Campaign Manager
Young Adults Division

One of our new regular features at Challah Back is Meet the Board, where you get to “meet” this year’s YAD Board. Find out why so many people get involved in YAD and what inspires them!

While I have been in the Bay Area for 12 years, I only recently became involved with YAD. After moving here, I became active in philanthropy work and in supporting the arts. I decided to change my focus as to how I was spending my time and where I giving back after my grandmother’s passing. It was at that time that I felt a strong need to get involved in the Jewish community and more importantly to stay connected to her in a meaningful way.

The question for me though was, “How?” That was when I saw the information posted for Club Fed, which looked like the right place for me to get my feet wet. And my instinct was right. Not having a lot of relationships in the Jewish community, Club Fed seemed like the right setting for me because it was more intimate. Walking into the first session was overwhelming, but within minutes I felt comfortable. In Club Fed, I learned so much about the Federation, giving me a new sense of appreciation and enthusiasm to get more involved. I also met some pretty cool people and thus began my new found interest in the Federation. Looking back, it’s hard to believe that I didn’t know about this amazing community until so recently!

This year I am proud to be serving on the Executive Committee as Co-Vice President of Community Building. Our events — including Blue Mondays, Latke Ball, Shabbat dinners and Summer Sizzle — are often the first face of YAD. With that in mind, it is critical that we put on successful, welcoming events that reach out to all types of people in our community. Being that gateway to someone’s first experience to YAD makes our role even more important as our impact is not only immediate, but also long term. If someone has a great experience with us, then they will be back, possibly bring a friend and continue supporting the Federation for many years to come.

It has been a tremendous year and we are only halfway there! Our Blue Mondays reign in an average of 200 attendees and have raised more than $4,000 thus far. Latke Ball beat all records this year with more than 1,000 guests and a 23.5 percent increase in net revenue. We also had an overwhelming response to our Shabbat dinners the last couple months. In addition to raising all kinds of cash for the community and making an impact, our events are the place to be and be seen!

I couldn’t be prouder and more appreciative of the Community Building Team. A special thank you to all of you as well as to Jordan and Lory. My heart is full of happiness and contentment knowing that I have made a difference in the Jewish community in my own way. Mostly, I feel I’ve been able fulfill a commitment to my grandmother by expanding who I am and discovering the importance of my heritage. Thank you for the opportunity to serve on the board and for the lifelong friendships I have made.

Andrea Skor

Here’s to more amazing events and even more giving in 2009!

Andrea Skor
Co-Vice President for Community Building
Young Adults Division Board

More…

• Subscribe to Challah Back, the YAD blog
• Join the YAD mailing list
• Check out our upcoming events
• Get involved with YAD
• Join our Facebook group
• Meet the 2008-2009 YAD Board

You can also reach us by phone at 415.512.6280 or email yad@sfjcf.org.

Are you looking for something more or something slightly different in our Jewish community? Club Fed is an amazing opportunity for young professionals to actively participate in discussions about Judaism and being Jewish, as well as to expand their social network. It is an incredibly fun, interactive and educational journey into different facets of being Jewish.

Club Fed also offers a closer look at the inner workings of the San Francisco Jewish community, including the agencies and programs that the Jewish Community Federation funds through the annual campaign. Since it is held over the course of five sessions with the same group of 80 YAD individuals, it provides a wonderful opportunity to build lasting connections.

Club Fed sessions are held on Wednesday evenings, every other week from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. with an optional social hour afterward at a local bar. Each session explores a different topic ranging from Jewish Identity to Contemporary Jewish Issues, Israel and Tikkun Olam (repairing the world). The fifth session is a “mini-mission” (think fun adult field trip!) to local Jewish sites within our community.

As Club Fed Co-Chairs this year, we strongly encourage you to sign up for this amazing ride. We have some fantastic programming in the works. This year’s Club Fed is going to be great and we want you to be a part of it.

Club Fed is only open to 80 participants on a first-come, first-serve basis. There are only a few spots left! We hope you register and look forward to seeing you on Feb. 11 at our first session.

Register today! Click here to get started.

Gelena Grinberg

Rony Gerzberg

Gelena Grinberg
and Rony Gerzberg
Club Fed Co-Chairs
YAD Board

Did you know….

• Ten percent of Jews in the Bay Area live below the poverty line.
• More than 10,000 Jewish elderly in the Bay Area need home health care, assisted living or residential services, and one-third rely on a Jewish organization to provide it.
• One in every eight children has a disability or learning difference.
• The Jewish Community Federation funds a full range of social services including vocational training; assisting seniors, children with special needs and victims of domestic violence; and more.
• The Jewish Federation was one of the first responders to Hurricane Katrina and the natural disasters in Burma and China.
• The Federation focuses on addressing humanitarian emergencies, Jewish and non-Jewish throughout the world.
• YAD, the Young Adults Division of the Federation, raised more than $250,000 toward these programs last year.

If this is news to you, it wouldn’t surprise me. San Francisco’s YAD is known for its fabulous events and well subscribed leadership programs so sometimes the core mission of the parent organization, the Jewish Community Federation, gets lost in the shuffle. It certainly did for me.

Even as a member of the YAD Board last year, the Federation was a bit of an enigma. It wasn’t until I attended the national conference Washington 15 in the spring that I really understood the immensity of work the Federation does and the tremendous impact it has on our community — in San Francisco, nationally, in Israel and around the world.

Why go with this umbrella approach to tzedakah? Why not give to each organization directly and pick and choose? The short answer is that it would be impossible for any one of us to have the time or bandwidth to learn about all of the organizations needed to take care of the community as a whole. The Federation has teams of volunteers and staff who carefully pour through all of the information to optimize impact.

So what does this mean for YAD? Well, we still want to throw great parties, but we also want to give you the opportunity to have an impact on the world at large. To that end, the campaign team is working hard to create greater visibility of where the Federation funds go and the difference that they make. Basically connecting giving to mission.

That $18 you give to Federation instead of a bento box lunch can change the world. Literally.

• $7 pays for a college student to partake in a Shabbat dinner at a Hillel.
• $20 pays for a one-time resume-writing workshop for an unemployed Bay Area professional.
• $32 pays for a kosher Passover seder meal and service for a senior citizen.
• $80 pays for an emergency-call pendant enabling a senior to maintain independence while living at Menorah Park.
• $200 pays for 25 new books for a Jewish library in the Former Soviet Union.
• $365 pays for one month of pre-school for an at-risk Ethiopian-Israeli child.
• $5,000 pays for a teen to visit Israel.
• $15,435 pays for a child to attend a Jewish pre-school full-time at a JCC for a year.

So stay tuned for programming and information, and let us know what we can do to make the campaign more meaningful for you. You can reach me at [ sygoldstein AT yahoo DOT com]

Sharon Goldstein

Oh, and if you haven’t made your donation to Federation yet this year, please click here to do so.

As Jews, if we don’t take care of our own, who will?

Sharon Goldstein
Co-Vice President of Campaign
Young Adults Division Board