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

Kantika : by Graver, Elizabeth
Loving Our Own Bones : by Belser, Julia Watts
A Ukrainian Chapter : by Gumener, Eli
The Lost Ryu / by Cohen, Emi Watanabe
Lost and Found / by Biale, Rachel
Stockholm : by Yedlin, Noa
Two Tribes / by Bowen Cohen, Emily
Queer Judaism : by Avishai, Orit
The Fatherland and the Jews : by Wiener, Alfred
Clara Lemlich / by Heiligman, Deborah
Jews Across the Americas :
A Provincial Newspaper and Other Stories / by Karpilove, Miriam
Amos Oz : by Alter, Robert
The Boy Who Followed His Father Into Auschwitz : by Dronfield, Jeremy
The Cost of Free Land : by Clarren, Rebecca
The Mexican Dreidel / by Marshall, Linda Elovitz
Jewish Sunday Schools : by Yares, Laura
Exile & Ecstasy : by Margolin, Madison
The Enemy Beside Me : by Ragen, Naomi
Jews In the Soviet Union :
Inseparable : by Cassell, Faris
The Forgotten Singer : by Carr, Maurice
The Golem of Brooklyn : by Mansbach, Adam
Don
Measuring A Year : by Marshall, Linda Elovitz
Yiddish Revolutionaries In Migration : by Wolff, Frank
Passover, Here I Come! / by Steinberg, David
White Bird : by Palacio, R. J
Zhen Yu and the Snake / by Lyons, Erica
Jewish Space Lasers : by Rothschild, Mike
A Revolution In Type : by Brinn, Ayelet
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store / by McBride, James
The Wind Knows My Name : by Allende, Isabel
Matzo Ball-Wonton Thanksgiving / by Liu, Amelie Suskind
Jews In the Garden : by Rakowsky, Judy
The Book of Paradise / by Manger, Itzik
The Little Liar : by Albom, Mitch
China and Ashkenazic Jewry :
Dwell Time : by Lowinger, Rosa
Simple Gimpl = by Singer, Isaac Bashevis

Upcoming Events

The Soviet Jewish Bookshelf: Jewish Culture and Identity Between the LinesVirtual

Presented by Marat Grinberg To register for this free virtual event, click here. In an environment where Judaism had been all but destroyed, and a public Jewish presence routinely delegitimized, reading provided many Soviet Jews with an entry to communal memory and identity. The bookshelf was both a depository of selective Jewish knowledge and often […] ...
Wed, Dec 06
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom

The Dissident: A Novel with Paul GoldbergVirtual

Click here to register for this free virtual event. On his wedding day in 1976, Viktor Moroz stumbles upon a murder scene: two gay men, one of them a U.S. official, have been axed to death in Moscow. Viktor, a Jewish refusenik, is stuck in the Soviet Union because the government has denied his application […] ...
Sun, Dec 10
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom

George Prochnik on Strangers in Strange Lands: Sigmund Freud, Gershom Scholem, and the Dream of BelongingIn-Person

Join us at Congregation Emanu-El‘s annual Rabbi Joseph Asher Memorial Lecture, held this year at the Jewish Community Library. The Library is located at 1835 Ellis Street in San Francisco, with free garage parking at 1227 Pierce Street between Ellis and Eddy. To register for this free program, click here. Refreshments will be served. Sigmund Freud—whose psychological theories […] ...
Thu, Dec 14
6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
Jewish Community Library
1835 Ellis Street, San Francisco, CA 94115

Two Tribes, with Emily Bowen CohenVirtual

Click here to register for this free virtual event, co-presented by the Cartoon Art Museum.  In her poignant debut graphic novel inspired by her own life, Emily Bowen Cohen embraces the complexity, meaning, and deep love that comes from being part of two vibrant tribes. Mia is still getting used to living with her mom […] ...
Sun, Jan 07
2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
Virtual via Zoom

Jewish Languages Today: Endangered, Surviving, and ThrivingVirtual

Presented by Sarah Bunin Benor Click here to register for this free virtual event, co-presented by KlezCalifornia. Over the past two centuries, migrations and other historical events have led to major changes in the linguistic profile of Jewish communities around the world. Yiddish is thriving in Hasidic communities, even as its use is diminishing elsewhere. […] ...
Wed, Jan 10
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom

Demystifying Sephardic Song with Judith CohenVirtual

Click here to register for this free virtual event. As Sephardic songs in Ladino/Judeo-Spanish thrive,  several myths about them still persist. Canadian Ethnomusicologist Dr Judith Cohen, a longtime scholar and performer of this repertoire, explains “medieval,” “flamenco,” and other often romantic notions about the tradition. Recorded and also live – sung by Cohen – examples will be […] ...
Wed, Jan 17
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom

Ladino in the Twenty-First Century, with Bryan KirschenVirtual

Click here to register for this free virtual event. Ladino (also known as Judeo-Spanish or Judezmo) refers to the variety of Spanish that developed among Jews who were expelled from Spain in 1492 and subsequently settled primarily in the Ottoman Empire. In this presentation Bryan Kirschen will provide an overview of the development of Ladino […] ...
Sun, Jan 28
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom

A Revolution in Type: Gender and the Making of the American Yiddish PressVirtual

Presented by Ayelet Brinn Click here to register for this free virtual event, which is co-sponsored by the Workers Circle / Arbeter Ring of Northern California and co-presented by KlezCalifornia. Between the 1880s and 1920s, Yiddish-language newspapers rose from obscurity to become successful institutions integral to American Jewish life. During this period, Yiddish-speaking immigrants came to […] ...
Sun, Feb 04
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom

A Sephardic Journey through the Twentieth CenturyVirtual

Presented by Sarah Abrevaya Stein Click here to register for this free virtual event co-presented by New Lehrhaus. For centuries, the bustling port city of Salonica was home to the sprawling Levy family. As leading publishers and editors, they helped chronicle modernity as it was experienced by Sephardic Jews across the Ottoman Empire. The wars […] ...
Wed, Feb 07
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom

Temptation Transformed: The Story of How the Forbidden Fruit Became an Apple, with Azzan Yadin-IsraelVirtual

Click here to register for this free virtual event with Azzan Yadin-Israel, co-presented by New Lehrhaus. Although the apple is one of the most widely-recognized biblical symbols, the Book of Genesis does not identify the species of the Forbidden Fruit, nor do the earliest translations of the Hebrew Bible, not to mention that there were […] ...
Sun, Mar 10
2:00 pm - 3:00 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 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

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