My pen is my harp and my lyre;
My library is my garden and my orchard.
–Yehuda Halevi, c. 1075–1141
Hours
Main Branch
1835 Ellis Street, San Francisco
Sun., noon-4 PM
Mon., 11 AM-4 PM
Thurs., 11 AM-4 PM
Pushcart Branch at the OFJCC
3921 Fabian Way, Palo Alto
Wed., 8:30 AM-1 PM
Contact
415.567.3327
info@jewishcommunitylibrary.org
For more than seventy years, the Jewish Community Library has offered the Bay Area a place to discover and engage with the riches of Jewish thought, culture, and history.
New Arrivals
Upcoming Events
Pathways to Preserving Family Histories, with Basya PetnickVirtual
Click here to register for this free virtual event, co-presented by the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society. The novel Kantika, based on Elizabeth Graver’s interviews with her grandmother, can be a stimulus to collect, organize, and preserve your own family history. This workshop will provide guidance for doing so. What photos and documents […] ...
The Hebrew Teacher, with Maya AradIn-Person
Please note new date for this event. To register for this free in-person program, click here. The Library is located at 1835 Ellis Street in San Francisco, with free garage parking at 1227 Pierce Street between Ellis and Eddy. Three Israeli women, their lives altered by immigration to the United States, seek to overcome crises. […] ...
Elizabeth Graver on KantikaVirtual
Click here to register for this free virtual event. Elizabeth Graver will speak and answer questions about her acclaimed novel Kantika, which is the One Bay One Book selection for 2023-2024. From Constantinople to Barcelona, Havana, and New York, Kantika sings of the joys, hopes, and devastation experienced by twentieth-century Sephardi emigres. Rebecca Cohen’s odyssey begins […] ...
Sephardi Jewry and the Rise and Fall of Ladino, with Aron Rodrigue (in person in Palo Alto)In-Person
Register here for this free in-person program at the Oshman Family JCC co-presented by the Jewish Community Library, the Oshman Family JCC, and the Taube Center for Jewish Studies at Stanford University. Ladino was the vernacular Jewish language of the Sephardim in the Ottoman Empire, emerging after the expulsion from Spain in 1492. Initially closely […] ...
Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor’s Unlikely Adventure, with Mimi ZiemanIn-Person
To register for this free in-person program, click here. The Library is located at 1835 Ellis Street in San Francisco, with free garage parking at 1227 Pierce Street between Ellis and Eddy. Raised by immigrant parents, one a Holocaust survivor, in an Orthodox Jewish community in New York, Mimi Zeiman blazed an unexpected path. As a […] ...
Under the Hood: Using Jewish Archival Materials to Create New Music and Arrangements, presented by Cookie Segelstein with live examples by Veretski PassIn-Person
To register for this free in-person program, click here. The Library is located at 1835 Ellis Street in San Francisco, with free garage parking at 1227 Pierce Street between Ellis and Eddy. In this presentation Cookie Segelstein will explore ways that traditional musicians balance old-school research and learning with digital resources. How does Veretski Pass […] ...
Israel’s Black Panthers, with Asaf Elia-ShalevVirtual
Click here to register for this free virtual event, co-presented by New Lehrhaus. Inspired by the American group of the same name, Israel’s Black Panthers were young and impoverished Israelis, primarily from a Moroccan background, who mounted protests and a yearslong political campaign in the 1970s for the rights of Mizrahim, or Jews of Middle […] ...
Walkers in the City: Jewish Street Photographers of Midcentury New York, with Deborah Dash MooreVirtual
Click here to register for this free virtual event. In the middle of the twentieth century, good cameras became smaller and lighter, enabling street photographers to roam alleyways, ride elevated trains and subways, and stroll beaches in summertime to capture daily life with urgency and intimacy. Deborah Dash Moore’s Walkers in the City, which received […] ...
Your Presence Is Mandatory, with Sasha VasilyukVirtual
Click here to register for this free virtual event. “Wonderfully written, elegiac and necessary, Sasha Vasilyuk uncovers the history behind the recent headlines with great skill and grace.” — Gary Shteyngart Based on real events, Sasha Vasilyuk’s riveting debut novel begins in Ukraine in 2007. Yefim Shulman was beloved by his family and his coworkers. […] ...
Drop-In Book Discussion: The Loves of Judith by Meir Shalev, Facilitated by Jim Van BuskirkIn-Person
Join us for a lively in-person discussion at the Jewish Community Library. The Library is located at 1835 Ellis Street in San Francisco, with free garage parking on Pierce between Ellis and Eddy. To register, click here. You may borrow a copy of The Loves of Judith at no charge by contacting us at info@jewishcommunitylibrary.org. […] ...
Carrying a Big Schtick: Jewish Acculturation and Masculinity in the Twentieth Century, with Miriam Eve MoraVirtual
Click here to register for this free virtual event. For twentieth-century Jewish immigrants and their children attempting to gain full access to American society, performative masculinity was a tool of acculturation. However, as scholar Miriam Eve Mora demonstrates, this performance is consistently challenged by American mainstream society that holds Jewish men outside of the American […] ...
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Main Branch
Location
1835 Ellis Street
San Francisco, CA 94115
Hours
Sundays noon to 4 PM
Mondays 11 AM to 4 PM
Thursdays 11 AM to 4 PM
Phone
415-567-3327
Palo Alto Pushcart
Location
Oshman Family JCC
3921 Fabian Way
Palo Alto, CA 94303
Hours
Wednesdays 8:30 AM to 1 PM
Main Branch
Location
1835 Ellis Street
San Francisco, CA 94115
Hours
Sundays noon to 4 PM
Mondays 11 AM to 4 PM
Thursdays 11 AM to 4 PM
Phone
415-567-3327
Palo Alto Pushcart
Location
Oshman Family JCC
3921 Fabian Way
Palo Alto, CA 94303
Hours
Wednesdays 8:30 AM to 1 PM