Jill Jacobs

Did my undergraduate at UCLA and loved it earning a BA in history. I spent my junior year at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and fell in love with Israel. I went back for more after graduating and taught in a kindergarten, led youth tours in the summers, and began my studies for my master's degree. After two years (three years in Israel total) I relocated stateside and finished up my Master's Degree in 1995. I got kind of an estoteric degree in Jewish education and amazingly enough, I've found ample and interesting work ever since graduation.

After graduation, I moved to Boston for a decade and LOVED the east coast. I loved the richness of culture, the public transportation and the change of seasons. I started out teaching and then moved into the Jewish Community Center world working as a Jewish educator. I loved the work and wrote on the side, eventually landing a job at a multimedia company and winning a book contract (Hebrew for Dummies; 2003; Wiley & Sons.)

After the book came out, I took another big leap, back to the San Francisco Bay Area where I thought I was home for good. I landed a great job at a JCC and continued to write on the side. I immersed myself in Bay Area life and then ... I met my fiance on a blind date. He's from Los Angeles (though he was born in Montreal and graduated from Cal, so he has some cache) and works as a sports writer for the LA Times.

After a year of long distance dating Bill Shaikin (that's the guy) put a ring on my finger and down to SoCal I went. We currently live a cozy life in Irvine and I teach middle school at the local Jewish day school, Tarbut V'Torah. We've been blessed with a healthy pregnancy and are expecting a baby in February 2010. I've been loving teaching, pregnancy and coupledom and am as happy as a clam.

In terms of NGHS connections, I saw Lisa Hamanaka a bit when I was in Boston, and have reconnected with Michele (Bockstein) Van Gelderen since being back in LA.