Sharon Silberg comes to the job with impressive credentials. She served for six years as director of Events and Corporate Partners at the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago.

"It was a great job. I loved it and I had a wonderful time there," she said in a recent phone conversation. "But it was a very intense experience, and knowing I was going to have my son, I wanted to make sure I could still do good and fund-raise for the community at a slightly less hectic pace. Besides, I love kids and knew I would be fund-raising for a good purpose."

Silberg started at Schechter in September and gave birth to Max at the end of October. She took a few months off and is now back full time.

And if the name and face seem familiar, you might have seen a story about the family in one of the local daily newspapers around the time of Max's birth. Silberg and her husband, Jed, were the first Chicago parents to donate their child's cord blood to a blood bank.

"It's a kind of back-in way to help stem-cell research," she says. "It wasn't being offered to parents until recently, and still not enough doctors are explaining the options to their patients." She was pleased to get the publicity because she hoped it would convince other parents to donate their baby's cord blood, which could benefit many people with medical needs.

Meanwhile, helping with needs at the Schechter schools is Silberg's focus now, and there's a bit of a shift in the way the school will go about it: Instead of raising money at a series of events scattered throughout the year, Silberg and colleagues will seek to raise funds through an annual campaign, complete with "giving societies" of various levels.

"We are trying to make it a one-time comprehensive approach to support a general campaign rather than event by event," she says. The events will still take place-such as a festive nightclub-themed evening on Feb. 25 at Congregation Beth Shalom in Northbrook marking the school's 44th anniversary-and Silberg hopes to attract corporate sponsorship for many of them.

The Schechter community may need a little time to adjust to what is basically a new concept of giving, says Silberg, who grew up on the East Coast, earned a master's degree in public administration from the University of Southern California and originally came to Chicago to work as an advisor to fraternities at Northwestern University.

"It's a unique concept for people who pay for schooling already," she says of the new Schechter program. "But it really does benefit the school in the amount of scholarships we can provide and the additional curriculum."

The goal of the campaign, she says, is "100 percent community giving, which includes parents, grandparents and alumni. We're going to target the general community but would like to have the commitment from the school community first. That would make it easier to ask the outside community to join us."

She admits that for some in the Schechter community the additional giving might seem like a stretch, but "sometimes it is evident they see the need. These are your kids and (giving to the school) is a first-hand benefit. On that end it's not so hard a sell."

Silberg says she is excited about the new opportunities and about doing "a little more direct fund-raising, working with donors more than I had the opportunity to do at the Federation."

Fund-raising, in fact, is hardly a nine-to-five proposition for Silberg. Her husband also works for the Federation as the director of the Trades, Industries and Professions group. "We have a lot of fund-raising conversations around the house," she says with a chuckle. "We're urging our son to go into for-profit."

SOUTHERN COMFORT...
"Bagels and Grits: Exploring Jewish Life in the Deep South," a traveling photo exhibit, will be on display at Beth Emet The Free Synagogue, 1224 Dempster, Evanston, from Sunday, Feb. 11 to Sunday, Feb. 25. It is free and open to the public.

The exhibit is an essay on contemporary Southern Jewish life in colorful pictures. It is presented by Greater Midwest Young Judaea and consists of photos that explore Jewish home and community life, traditions, sacred spaces and livelihood as well as the South's changing character.

"The South's rich and diverse Jewish history is brought into the spotlight in these images by acclaimed photographer ," says Daniel Schnitzer, director of Camp Young Judaea Midwest. "This exhibit is for children and adults to see how Jews live in other parts of the United States and explore what it means in context of their own Jewish life. The exhibit will present the challenges as well as the comfort of Jewish Southern life."

A short educational curriculum will accompany the photographs.

The exhibit is open Mondays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Fridays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Sundays 9:30 a.m. to noon. For further information, contact the synagogue at (847) 869-4230.

ON A WING AND A PRAYER...
The stories of the lives of brave men and stalwart women during World War II are told in a new book about 1940s America, "Thanks for the Memories: Love, Sex and World War II" by Evanston author Jane Mersky Leder.

With 100 in-depth interviews of soldiers and their wives, Leder tells the stories of how these men and women responded to the passions of war and how their lives and the relationships between the sexes were forever changed. She had heard her mother's stories about her year on the road as a service wife during the war and her father's tales of life as an Army Air Corps pilot. With those stories as her base, she began to speak to other men and women who came of age during the war years.

Following is a quote from the late Seymour Simon used in the book:

"Spending long time periods with men only, as much as two years for some, living far from the comforts of home, creates a passionate desire for female company; to see women, hear women talk, share thoughts with women, hold, touch, feel, kiss, smell women, eat with women ... even argue with women."

Some other portions of the book delve into the attitudes of women who had to work during and after the war; the trials and tribulations of traveling service wives who chose to follow their husbands; and how the war helped set the stage for the civil rights movement, gay liberation and the Second Wave of the women's liberation movement.

Leder is an award-winning author, journalist and public speaker. She has written several non-fiction books, numerous feature articles for the Chicago Sun-Times and magazines such as Good Housekeeping, McCalls and Woman's Day. She also has served as a researcher and field producer for WLS-TV, Channel 7 in Chicago.

"Thanks for the Memories: Love, Sex and World War II" is available at major bookstores in the area as well as at www.amazon.com.

A DAY FOR TEACHERS...
Associated Talmud Torahs of Chicago will host its annual Teachers' Educational Conference Monday, Feb. 19 at the Educational Center, 2828 W. Pratt Blvd., Chicago. The conference will feature workshops for religious and general studies teachers from preschool to 12th grade. There will be specialized workshops for special education/resource teachers, a librarian/media specialist networking session, and an administrative workshop for principals, assistant principals and program coordinators.

Co-chairpersons for this event are Rabbi Dov Leibenstein, Chani Friedman and Elizabeth Shapiro.

For further information, call (773) 973-2828.

A SPECIAL HEART...
Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem will present its annual "Heart of Gold" award to Kathy Posner, one of Chicago's most generous and active volunteers, at a luncheon on Wednesday, Feb. 14 at the Hilton Chicago, 720 S. Michigan Ave.

Master of Ceremonies will be Art Norman of NBC-5 Chicago. The luncheon is hosted by the Midwest Region of the American Committee for Shaare Zedek. All proceeds will benefit the Weinstock Family Department of Emergency Medicine at the hospital.

Posner, a veteran public relations and advertising executive, sold her business Comm2 Inc., in 2002 to devote her energy to philanthropy and the volunteer sector. She sits on the Advisory Council on Women for the Chicago Commission on Human Relations.

She has chaired major events for the Anti-Defamation League and Little City Foundation and has co-chaired the "Healing With A Heart" Award dinner benefiting Share Zedek.