An Evening in Gay Paris!

Professional networking, going to tres-gay parties, chasing movies and cute movie goers at Frameline and San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, AIDS Walking and schmoozing have dominated my queer Jewish summer thus far but don’t worry – plenty more options are already on the calendar that will further entice you into this incredible Bay Area Jewish community I work and live in. Just in case you missed it here are a few of the highlights I promoted recently at work…

A Great day-time opportunity: This coming fall the LGBT Alliance is inviting all Bay Area Jewish community professionals to a LGBT Networking Lunch series. Each of the five lunches will take place at the San Francisco Federation and Endowment building (learn more).

Not to be missed next week: An Evening in Gay Paris a party at SFMOMA and the Contemporary Jewish Museum. To get $4 off the entrance you can enter the promo code “JCFLGBT” when you purchase your tickets online. Also, don’t worry, the Jewish Film Festival still has one more screening of Tomer Heymann’s documentary The Queen Has No Crown as well as this summer’s Jewish Film Festival popular musical hit, Mary Lou will return to the Castro Theater in September.

Shabbat Shalom and here are some Related articles

• The Bay Citizen: A Film Festival Revisits an Audience’s Outcry (nytimes.com)
• Frameline Opens Tonight with a host of LGBT Queer Jewish filmmakers to support! (qjew.wordpress.com)
• ‘Between Two Worlds’: Jewish identity turf wars (sfgate.com)
• Frameline festival celebrates 35th year (sfgate.com)
• Jewish Film Festival lauds Kirk Douglas at Castro (sfgate.com)
• PHOTOS: Oscar-Winning Heartthrob Takes The Stage At Castro Theatre (huffingtonpost.com)
• After Anti-Gay Incident, Let’s All Hold Hands At SF Museum (lezgetreal.com)
• Volunteers are my personal hero’s and further, they are serious superstars! Thank you for your help. (qjew.wordpress.com)
• After Anti-Gay Incident, Let’s All Hold Hands At SF Museum (lezgetreal.com)

 

Providing a Jewish community weekend for LGBTQ parents & their children to learn, explore, & play in the beauty of the Sierra Mountains!

During one incredible weekend each summer dozens of families from across the globe gather together at Camp Tawonga for what is called, Keshet LGBTQ Family Camp. Keshet, meaning rainbow in Hebrew, provides an opportunity for families that somewhat resemble each other to have fun hiking, creating arts and crafts, and partaking in workshops (learn more).

Single-headed families, blended-families, co-parenting families, interfaith families that identify somewhere along the of Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Trans spectrum find themselves returning each summer.  Last summer at Keshet I brought my own model of queer family to Keshet. I brought my god-niece because I want to be sure that she grows up experiencing the joy and normalcy of other queer families like ours.

This year’s Keshet LGBTQ Weekend is August 25-28 and due to the generosity of the donors to our Jewish Community Federation’s LGBT Alliance, Camp Tawonga is able to offer 10% off every families Keshet program fees to those who register by June 30. This discount will not affect any additional financial assistance applications or decisions. Additionally, our Jewish Community Federation provides needs-based scholarships for Jewish children who live in the San Francisco Bay Area to attend a qualified family specialty camp (learn more). Please help me spread the word about these great financial assistance programs and I look forward to seeing each of you and yours along the river this summer at Keshet!

Related articles

• What our Jewish community looks like (qjew.wordpress.com)
• Shalom! Sasha T. Goldberg! Shalom! (qjew.wordpress.com)
• Rabbi Andrea Myers: It Gets Beautiful: One Rabbi’s Perspective on Being Jewish and LGBTQ (huffingtonpost.com)
• Defending the Rights of the LGBTQ Community (whitehouse.gov)
• Expanding the Rainbow Jewish LGBT Group opens Bay Area Office (J Weekly)
• Camp Tawonga to offer first family camp for Gays and Lesbian Families (J Weekly)

 

be here or there or there rain or shine

I doubt that Gertrude Stein was thinking about Shabbat when she wrote, “generally speaking, everyone is more interesting doing nothing than doing anything,” but I might be wrong. Tomorrow at SFMOMA I will take a bit of time to think about that possibility while participating in a replication of the queer literary salons that Gertrude and her family once hosted in the 1920’s in their Paris apartment (details). Rain or shine there will be more of something on Sunday at Israel in the Gardens (details) with music, dancing, art, and general fabulous people watching. find me i will be signing folks up to participate in the AIDS Walk (details) before heading off to my “hip pop hapa japa” besties wedding at the Fairmont that night.

What a weekend and it is only the first of many during San Francisco’s Pride month! Shabbat Shalom, friends. Take a look at the myriad of ways you and yours can participate Jewishly in the many of the fabulous festivities of Pride (details).

Related articles

• Gertrude Stein gets her due in ‘Five Stories’ (sfgate.com)
• Jewish museum offers insight into Gertrude Stein (sfgate.com)
• Secrets of Gertrude Stein: CJM exhibit spotlights life and legacy of bohemian writer (j . the Jewish news weekly of Northern California)
• wayne koestenbaum takes on the stein’s as a queer historian (qjew.wordpress.com)
• Israel in the Gardens set for Sunday! (j . the Jewish news weekly of Northern California)

 

Ronald P. Wilmot Scholarship for Jewish kids of LGBT Parents in the San Francisco Bay Area

Ronald P.Wilmot z”l, a gay real estate magnate and active member of Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, established a scholarship fund at the San Francisco based Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund specifically for the sons and daughters of queer parents before he succumbed to AIDS in 1997 at the age of 46. Although he had no children of his own, according to an article in the J. News Weekly, his friends said he was very concerned that smart kids in alternative families have less access to higher education than their traditionally raised peers.

The Ronald P. Wilmot Scholarship is intended for Jewish students from the Federation Service Area (San Francisco, Sonoma and Marin Counties as well as the areas north of Sunnyvale on the Peninsula) to supplement student and family contributions, as well as other financial aid, grants and awards. The scholarship is based on a combination of need and merit. The application deadline for this scholarship is generally listed in the late spring so please help spread the word that this unique scholarship exists in our community.

Questions? Students off to attend undergraduate or graduate programs at accredited, non-profit colleges or universities in the San Francisco Bay Area with LGBT identified parents should apply. For questions including how to receive additional information regarding the scholarship program contact Federation’s College Scholarship Program Manager at 415-512-6264.