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 PM
Tues. 11 AM-5 PM
Thurs. 11 AM-5 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’s main branch will be closed Thursday, April 9 for the end of Passover. The Palo Alto Pushcart will be closed Wednesday, but will open instead on Friday, April 10.
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
On theatre dybbuk’s Dracula (Annotated), with Aaron HenneVirtual
Please register for this free online program, in conjunction with the Library’s One Bay One Book program. How do long-held prejudicial beliefs show up in a popular novel from England written at the turn of the twentieth century, and in what ways do those beliefs still operate today? To what extent can perceptions of antisemitism, […]
From Lezbitzens to Nice Jewish Gays: Queering Jewish Language, with Eden MoyalIn-Person
Please register to attend this free in-person program., co-presented by Congregation Sha’ar Zahav and Keshet. The Library is located at 1835 Ellis Street in San Francisco, with free garage parking at 1227 Pierce Street between Ellis and Eddy. Jewish people and LGBTQ+ people are accustomed to having a language all their own that isn’t always understood […]
Fagin’s World: Jewish Charity, Community, and Religion in 19th Century British Cities, with Alysa LeveneVirtual
Please register for this free online program, in conjunction with the Library’s One Bay One Book program. Dickens’ Fagin lived in a precarious world. As an East End Jew he was subject to all of the suspicion and stereotyping suffered both by those of his religion, and also those who lived in the ‘underclass’ of crime […]
Opening a Confiscated Archive, with Elissa SampsonVirtual
Please register for this free online program, co-sponsored by the Workers Circle/Arbeter Ring of Northern California. Cornell University’s archive of the International Workers Order (IWO) and the Jewish People’s Fraternal Order includes a huge body of materials seized by the State of New York in 1954. As she discusses the organization’s history, Dr. Elissa Sampson […]
Drop-In Book Discussion: The Life Before Us, by Emile Ajar (Romain Gary)In-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 The Life Before Us at no charge. Contact us […]
The Story of Ladino, with Nesi AltarasIn-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. How did Ladino, the language of Sephardic Jews, develop from its Iberian origins its flowering literary life in the Eastern Mediterranean? Through an interactive workshop, […]
Fragments: Yoni Avi Battat in ConcertIn-Person
Please register to attend this free musical program, co-presented by JIMENA: Jewish Indigenous to North Africa and the Middle East. The Library is located at 1835 Ellis Street in San Francisco, with free garage parking at 1227 Pierce Street between Ellis and Eddy. Yoni Avi Battat brings Arab music into the soundscape of American Jewish life […]
UNVEILED: New Works for Klezmer Clarinet, with Nat SeelenIn-Person
Please register to attend this free musical program, co-presented by KlezCalifornia. The Library is located at 1835 Ellis Street in San Francisco, with free garage parking at 1227 Pierce Street between Ellis and Eddy. Join Nat Seelen, artistic director of the Boston Festival of New Jewish Music and clarinetist with Ezekiel’s Wheels Klezmer Band, for […]
Yetzirah Jewish Poetry Open MicIn-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. Refreshments will be served. Yetzirah is a national nonprofit literary organization dedicated to supporting Jewish poets, nourishing writers and readers of Jewish poetry now and for […]
Fagin the Thief, with Allison EpsteinVirtual
Please register for this free online program, in conjunction with the Library’s One Bay One Book program. In her novel reexamining Charles Dickens’s hateful portrayal of Fagin in Oliver Twist, Allison Epstein fashions a compassionate Jewish origin story for the notorious pickpocket. The novel reveals the world of those struggling at the lowest rung of Victorian […]
Jewish Things: The Lives of Jewish Objects, with Rachel B. GrossIn-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. What kind of objects are meaningful in our lives? How do they connect us to our families and our sacred communities? How do the objects […]
The Wanderers: A Story of Exile, Survival, and Unexpected Love in the Shadow of World War II, with Daniela GersonVirtual
Please register for this free online program. Daniela Gerson and her wife, Talia Inlender, met at a picnic in Los Angeles, not knowing that 75 years earlier, their grandparents had left homes only blocks away from each other in a small Polish town, and fled east to Ukraine. The Gersons and the Inlenders would go […]
Drop-In Book Discussion: Fagin the Thief, by Allison EpsteinIn-Person
Join us for an in-person discussion at the Jewish Community Library of this year’s One Bay One Book selection, 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 […]
The Plot Against Harry: A Screening and DiscussionIn-Person
Click here to register for 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. Harry Plotnick, the unlikely protagonist of this unusual cult film that sat on the shelf for two decades after its completion, is a […]
Who Is American? Belonging and the Question of Jewish Citizenship, with Lila Corwin BermanVirtual
Please register for this free online program. The history of Jews in the United States is often told as if they immigrated, gained citizenship, and almost immediately achieved full legal rights. Yet this story fundamentally misses how citizenship rights worked for Jews and countless others who arrived on American shores. In Who Is American? Lila […]
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Main Branch
Location
1835 Ellis Street
San Francisco, CA 94115
Hours
Sundays noon to 4 PM
Mondays 11 AM to 5 PM
Tuesdays 11 AM to 5 PM
Thursdays 11 AM to 5 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