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

Simple Gimpl = by Singer, Isaac Bashevis
Passover, Here I Come! / by Steinberg, David
Dwell Time : by Lowinger, Rosa
Jews Across the Americas :
Soles of A Survivor : by Aronheim, Nhi
The Golem of Brooklyn : by Mansbach, Adam
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store / by McBride, James
The Boy Who Followed His Father Into Auschwitz : by Dronfield, Jeremy
Amos Oz : by Alter, Robert
The Wolf Hunt : by Gundar-Goshen, Ayelet
Lost and Found / by Biale, Rachel
Inseparable : by Cassell, Faris
Mother-Daughter Murder Night : by Simon, Nina
Naomi Teitelbaum Ends the World / by Shanker, Samara
Jews In the Garden : by Rakowsky, Judy
The Jake Show / by Levy, Joshua
The Enemy Beside Me : by Ragen, Naomi
Sarra Copia : by Ludmerer, Nancy
Jewish Life In Medieval Spain : by Ray, Jonathan
Jews In the Soviet Union : by Ėstraĭkh, G
Sculpting A Life : by Birnbaum, Paula
Clara Lemlich / by Heiligman, Deborah
A Provincial Newspaper and Other Stories / by Karpilove, Miriam
The Mexican Dreidel / by Marshall, Linda Elovitz
Kantika : by Graver, Elizabeth
The Photographer
Jewish Sunday Schools : by Yares, Laura
A Ukrainian Chapter : by Gumener, Eli
The Book of Paradise / by Manger, Itzik
The Fatherland and the Jews : by Wiener, Alfred
Stockholm : by Yedlin, Noa
Yiddish Revolutionaries In Migration : by Wolff, Frank
The Lost Ryu / by Cohen, Emi Watanabe
Places We Left Behind : by Lang, Jennifer
The Cost of Free Land : by Clarren, Rebecca
The Forgotten Singer : by Carr, Maurice
Isaac Bashevis Singer Writings On Yiddish and Yiddishkayt : by Singer, Isaac Bashevis
White Bird : by Palacio, R. J
Hanukkah, Here I Come! / by Steinberg, David
Portico : by Koenig, Leah

Upcoming Events

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

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

DUE TO UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES, GEORGE PROCHNIK IS UNABLE TO COME TO THE BAY AREA, AND THIS EVENT IS NO LONGER OCCURRING. WE HOPE TO BE ABLE TO RESCHEDULE AT SOME FUTURE POINT. 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 […] ...
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 and Be’chol Lashon. 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 […] ...
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