Main Street

Local K-5 school devoted to Jewish studies

By Mary Ann Cook

ANNIVERSARY GALA: Yavneh Day School will celebrate its 20th year with a gala called The Magic of Yavneh on May 6, at 6 p.m. at the Opera House. Tickets are $150 and the school's number is 408.358.3413. Special honorees for the occasion are longtime teachers Shula Raz and Amalia Arndt.

Raz has taught kindergarten at the school since its founding and Arndt has taught Hebrew and Jewish studies for 19 of the 20 years of its existence. She has also taught in most grade levels in the regular academic classroom. Raz is one of the founding parents of the school, as well as a founding teacher.

Former Yavneh students are now graduating from college, including Raz's daughter, Vered, now in graduate school. "I'm waiting for their children to come and be our students at Yavneh," Raz says about the next generation. Yavneh's enrollment includes 131 students in grades K-5.

Forty percent of class time is devoted to Jewish studies. Each year by Hanukkah, Yavneh first-graders are reading printed Hebrew and writing it in manuscript. They are also taught oral Hebrew.

Andrea Levy is chairman of the gala, which will include auctions, entertainment and gourmet dinner.

DOCUMENTING PETROGLYPHS: Jim Eggerino has always had his heart set on hiking and backpacking in remote areas. He told his wife when they married that that would be his m.o. But family responsibilities took precedence and he postponed such adventures for years--until his retirement.

Last year was the first time he took to the hills on his own--he went to the Trinity Alps by himself, north of Weaverville, and hiked. He lives in the Santa Cruz Mountains and practiced hiking with a backpack to get used to the 40-pound load. This year he was planning to go to the Mojave Desert by himself.

Then, two weeks before his departure, he heard from a friend that a trip to Mojave to document petroglyphs was underway, and he signed on as part of that nine-member group. The leader is a steward of the Sweeney Granite Mountain Desert Research Center for the University of California.

The work of painstakingly recording each petroglyph over a one-mile area was strenuous, sometimes precarious and mind-numbingly repetitive, but Eggerino wouldn't have missed it for the world. They catalogued 287 panels, while enduring extremes of weather--rain, hail, lightning and nightly freezing temperatures.

Plus, they needed the agility of a mountain goat to navigate the rocky terrain. But the rewards were vast. "The stark and savage beauty of the desert is unimaginable unless you are in it and experience it with all your senses," Eggerino says. "It's like being on sensory overload." To donate to the center, write to David Lee, PO Box 101, Kelso, CA. 92351.

HONORED: Ari Dubin, a junior at Menlo College Prep High School and a Los Gatos resident, was recently honored by the Rotary Club of Menlo Park for his scholastic achievements in biology. Faculty members of Menlo make the recommendations. Dubin intends to conduct clinical research in the medical field after college.

WINNING COOK: Jasmine LeDoux, 17, won a $14,000 four-year scholarship to the College of Culinary Arts at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island. LeDoux' winning recipe at the competition at the U. was sesame-crusted seared tuna, pesto mashed potatoes and sautéed baby carrots and snow peas.

LeDoux is a culinary arts student at the Central County Occupation Center at Leigh High School. Instructor Michelle Ramos accompanied her to the contest. LeDoux wants to join the army reserves and attend a community college here, before heading for the J & W campus in Denver.

TYPO: In "Driving Denny," Betty Auchard's contribution to Chocolate for a Woman's Blessings, an anthology, there is a serious typo in the last line. "Denny" was supposed to be the last word in the last line, but was omitted. That omission is crucial, Auchard says, because it's the point of the whole story.

Consequently the author corrects every book she can get her hands on, in any bookstore she visits. "I do it when no one is looking. I've corrected hundreds of books and have it down to a science, and haven't yet been arrested for making marks on public property.

"The error is now corrected in the second printing, but it hasn't arrived in bookstores yet. So my work is not yet done."

FLOWING IN: Rivers of Chocolate, the major fundraiser for Social Advocates for Youth, an umbrella organization for at-risk youngsters, set some records recently. Held at the Mountain Winery, the event brought in a capacity crowd of 600, and raised $90,000 for the nonprofit.

In the live auction some $9,000 was raised to add to the $15,000 the organization received from the Silicon Valley Charity Ball. That money will be used to buy a van to transport youngsters from shelters to classes. Auction bids were treated as pledges, and Phillips Semiconductor pledging $5,000, with the organization's board member, Judee Williams, representing Phillips.

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