San Francisco Chronicle - April 9, 2009As the dawn light seeped into the skies Wednesday morning, roughly 200 Jews stood at the edge of a small peninsula jutting into San Francisco Bay and looked toward the Berkeley hills for a glimmer of the sun. They wanted to bless it. And they wanted to honor the moment that, they believe, God made it many millennia ago. The event atop the solar calendar at Cesar Chavez Park in the Berkeley Marina was mirrored by similar blessings around the region, including the Baylands Nature Preserve near East Palo Alto, Howarth Park in Santa Rosa and the top of Twin Peaks in San Francisco.
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Berkeley Daily Planet - April 8, 2009Despite overcast skies, hundreds gathered at Cesar Chavez Park on April 8 to join in the local incarnation of Birkat HaChammah, the Blessing of the Sun ceremony that comes every 28 years in Jewish tradition. The sun did not quite cooperate, hiding behind a screen of low clouds and spatters of rain. But a crowd that was alternately enthusiastic, happy and contemplative still greeted the dawn at Berkeley's Cesar Chavez Park Wednesday, April 8, with singing, prayer and introspection in the local incarnation of Birkat HaChammah, the Blessing of the Sun ceremony that comes every 28 years in Jewish tradition.
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San Francisco Chronicle - April 5, 2009Mexican American labor leader Cesar Chavez made his name fighting for the rights of farmworkers. On Saturday, painters and tapers, glaziers and carpenters were among those who turned out for a parade and street fair in San Francisco's Mission District to honor Chavez's life. The workers said Chavez's fighting spirit carried added resonance in today's recessionary times.
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Berkeley Daily Planet - April 1, 2009"Determination" was the word of the day at Malcolm X Elementary School Monday, March 30, the eve of Cesar Chavez's 82nd birthday. First-graders raked and sifted compost in the school garden as part of Berkeley Unified School District's week-long celebration of the legacy of the Mexican civil rights activist.
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Berkeley Daily Planet - April 1, 2009As the sun rises above the Berkeley Hills on the morning of Wednesday, April 8, some local Jews will gather at the Berkeley Marina to greet it and carry out, atop Berkeley's newest piece of land, an ancient religious ritual held at 28 year intervals. The local "Blessing of the Sun" ceremony will take place at dawn on the 14th day of the month of Nissan in the Jewish calendar year, 5769, at the Cesar Chavez Memorial Solar Calendar site at Cesar Chavez Park in the Berkeley Marina.
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