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-5:30 PM
Tues. 11 AM-5:30 PM
Thurs. 11 AM-5:30 PM

Pushcart Branch at the OFJCC
3921 Fabian Way, Palo Alto
Wed. 8:30 AM-1 PM

Contact

415.567.3327
info@jewishcommunitylibrary.org

The Library will close at 4:00 on Monday, September 22 and will be closed Tuesday, September 23 for Rosh Hashanah.

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

Embracing Exile : by Kraemer, David Charles
100 Objects From the Collections of the Yivo Institute for Jewish Research
New Israeli Horror : by Gershenson, Olga
Family Romance : by Strouse, Jean
Hazel Says No : by Gross, Jessica Berger
Eat Jewish : by Strauss, Melinda
The Roots of the Guava Tree : by Daccarett, Sonia
Planting Seeds of the Divine : by Smith, Yiscah
The October 7 War : by Koren, Ziv
Cammy Sitting Shiva : by Gitter, Cary
The Righteous / by Balson, Ronald H
Fagin the Thief : by Epstein, Allison
Jews Vs. Rome : by Strauss, Barry S
Kaplan's Plot : by Diamond, Jason
Cursed : by Tokarska-Bakir, Joanna
The Ashes Know Her Name / by Nussbaum, Denise
The Night Sparrow : by Sanders, Shelly
The Art of the Ketubbah : by Sabar, Shalom
Mother's Milk : by Aranoff, Deena
The Maiden and Her Monster / by Martinez, Maddie
A Flower Traveled In My Blood : by Cohen Gilliland, Haley
Bad, Bad Seymour Brown / by Isaacs, Susan
Boy From the North Country : by Sussman, Sam Evan
Dear Mr. Dickens / by Churnin, Nancy
In That Sleep of Death : by Dunsky, Jonathan
Leon Bibel : by Haw, Richard
Displays of Belonging : by Zarrow, Sarah
Jewish Childhood In Kraków : by Sliwa, Joanna
Hidden In Plain Sight : by Brill, Julie
Last Twilight In Paris / by Jenoff, Pam
Britain's Jews : by Freedman, Harry
While Israel Slept : by Katz, Yaakov
The First Fifty Years :
Lev Ra'Ev / by Nevo, Eshkol
The Courtyard : by Parket, Benjamin and Morris, Alexa
Revolution, Civil War, and New Ways of Life : by Bemporad, Elissa
Woven Roots : by Cohen, Deatra
Russ & Daughters : by Federman, Niki Russ
Jewish Marital Captivity : by Magnus, Shulamit S
The Tourist's Guide to Lost Yiddish New York City / by Sapoznik, Henry

Upcoming Events

The Rabbi’s Suitcase, with Robert Kehlmann and Carole JoffeIn-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.   Author Robert Kehlmann will be in conversation with Dr. Carole Joffe about his new novel, The Rabbi’s Suitcase, and its exploration of the enduring […]
Sun, Sep 28
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Jewish Community Library
1835 Ellis Street, San Francisco, CA 94115

Together in Manzanar, with Tracy SlaterVirtual

Click here to register for this free online program, co-presented by the Workers Circle/Arbeter Ring of Northern California and the San Francisco chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League. On a late March morning in the spring of 1942, Elaine Yoneda awoke to a series of terrible choices: between her family and freedom, her country […]
Mon, Sep 29
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom

The Courtyard, with Alexa Morris and Benjamin ParketVirtual

Please register to receive the Zoom link for this free online program, as Alexa Morris and Benjamin Parket present Parket’s memoir, The Courtyard. It’s 1937, the eve of World War II, and young Bernard lives with his Polish-immigrant family in a working-class courtyard in Paris. While there aren’t many other Jews in the courtyard – […]
Sun, Oct 05
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom

Drop-In Book Discussion: Your Presence Is Mandatory, by Sasha VasilyukIn-Person

Join us for an in-person discussion at the Jewish Community Library, facilitated by Jim Van Buskirk. 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 Your Presence Is Mandatory at no charge as […]
Sun, Oct 12
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Jewish Community Library
1835 Ellis Street, San Francisco, CA 94115

Notes from Exile, with Sabina BaralIn-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.   “Moving, truthful, and wise account of exile from Poland in 1968.” —Olga Tokarczuk, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature In 1968, the Communist […]
Sun, Oct 19
2:30 pm - 4:00 pm
Jewish Community Library
1835 Ellis Street, San Francisco, CA 94115

Closing the Door: The 1924 Immigration Act and Its Impact on Jewish and Asian Communities, with Hasia Diner and Bill Ong HingVirtual

Click here to register for this free virtual program, co-presented by the Workers Circle / Arbeter Ring of Northern California. Jewish Americans have long known how the 1924 Johnson-Reed Immigration Act prevented many of their ancestors from escaping death during the Holocaust. Less well-known and understood in the Jewish community is the role this Act […]
Sun, Oct 26
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom

Carole King: She Made the Earth Move, with Jane EisnerVirtual

Click here to register for this free virtual program, co-presented by New Lehrhaus. Carole King’s extraordinary career has defined American popular music for more than half a century. Born in New York City in 1942, she shaped the soundtrack of 1960s teen culture with such songs as “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” one of many […]
Sun, Nov 02
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom

PROTOCOLS: An Erasure, with Daniela Naomi MolnarIn-Person

Please register for this free in-person program co-presented by New Lehrhaus. The Library is located at 1835 Ellis Street in San Francisco, with free garage parking at 1227 Pierce Street between Ellis and Eddy.   PROTOCOLS: An Erasure transforms the world’s most influential antisemitic document, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, into an erasure poem exploring essential […]
Mon, Nov 10
6:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Jewish Community Library
1835 Ellis Street, San Francisco, CA 94115

Imagining Early American Jews, with Michael HobermanVirtual

Click here to register for this free online program, co-presented by New Lehrhaus. Michael Hoberman examines how the Jewish experiences of the American Revolution, slaveholding in the early republic and antebellum period, and westward migration have been imagined, commemorated, and frequently mythologized. Focusing on how historical relationships between Jews and Native Americans and Jews and […]
Wed, Nov 19
6:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Virtual via Zoom

Philip Roth: Stung by Life, with Steve Zipperstein, in Conversation with Sue FishkoffIn-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 groundbreaking literary biography, Steven J. Zipperstein captures the complex life and astonishing work of Philip Roth (1933–2018), one of America’s most celebrated […]
Sun, Nov 23
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Jewish Community Library
1835 Ellis Street, San Francisco, CA 94115

Buber and Gandhi: Dialogue and Disappointment, with Howard SimonIn-Person

Please register to attend this free in-person program. The Library is located at 1835 Ellis Street in San Francisco, with free garage parking at 1227 Pierce Street between Ellis and Eddy.   In 1938, shortly after Kristallnacht, Jewish and Zionist leaders Martin Buber, Judah Magnes and Hayyim Greenberg engaged in spirited correspondence with Mahatma Gandhi regarding the […]
Tue, Dec 02
6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
Jewish Community Library
1835 Ellis Street, San Francisco, CA 94115

The Tourist’s Guide to Lost Yiddish New York City, with Henry SapoznikVirtual

Click here to register for this free online program, co-presented by KlezCalifornia and the Workers Circle / Arbeter Ring of Northern California. The Tourist’s Guide to Lost Yiddish New York City (State University of New York Press, 2025) offers a new look at over a century of New York’s Yiddish popular culture. Henry Sapoznik tells the story in chapters […]
Sun, Dec 07
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom

The Lady Who Changed Dickens’s Mind on the Jews, with Liz IsonVirtual

Please register to receive the Zoom link for this free online program. In 1863 Eliza Davis, a London Jewish housewife and mother of ten, wrote to Charles Dickens accusing him of prejudice against Jewish people for his derogatory portrayal of Fagin in Oliver Twist. Correspondence between the two persuaded Dickens to rethink his relationship with […]
Sun, Dec 14
11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom

Dog: A Novel, with Yishay Ishi Ron and Yardenne GreenspanVirtual

Click here to register for this free online program, with author Yishay Ishi Ron and translator Yardenne Greenspan in conversation. Dog is a haunting, unflinching exploration of PTSD, addiction, and redemption, told through the lens of an Israeli officer returning from Gaza. Struggling with his trauma, he descends into heroin addiction and finds himself among […]
Sun, Jan 04
11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom

East End Jews, with Vivi LachsVirtual

Click here to register for this free online program, co-presented by KlezCalifornia and the Workers Circle / Arbeter Ring of Northern California. Vivi Lachs will introduce her new book with a lively presentation with performed readings and a couple of Cockney Yiddish songs. East End Jews is a book of sketches from the London Yiddish press. It offers an unparalleled […]
Sun, Jan 11
11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom

Kavkazi “Mountain Jews,” with Valeriya NakshunVirtual

Please register for this free online program. The Jewish community of the Caucasus, the mountainous region between the Black and Caspian Seas, is known by many names. The term “Kavkazi,” derived from the Russian word for Caucasus, and “Mountain Jews” have been used interchangeably. Traditionally, however, this community has called themselves “Juhuro,” meaning “Jews” in […]
Sun, Jan 25
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom

Reviewing Fagin, 1948-2005, with Charles DrazinVirtual

Click here to register for this free online program. David Lean’s 1948 adaptation of Oliver Twist provoked so many protests against perceived antisemitism in Alec Guinness’s portrayal of Fagin that the film was withheld from release in the United States until cuts had been made. Yet twenty years later, in Carol Reed’s musical version of […]
Sun, Feb 01
11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom
No event found!

Main Branch

Location
1835 Ellis Street
San Francisco, CA 94115

Hours
Sundays noon to 4 PM
Mondays 11 AM to 5:30 PM
Tuesdays 11 AM to 5:30 PM
Thursdays 11 AM to 5:30 PM

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

Palo Alto Pushcart

Location
Oshman Family JCC
3921 Fabian Way
Palo Alto, CA 94303

Hours
Wednesdays 8:30 AM to 1 PM