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 be closed Sunday, February 16 and Monday, February 17 for Presidents’ Day Weekend.

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

A Gift of Many Colors : by Proscio, Tony
At the Hour Between Dog and Wolf : by Ison, Tara
Desires / by Dropkin, Celia
A Taytsh Manifesto : by Zaritt, Saul Noam
A Reason to See You Again : by Attenberg, Jami
Occupied Words : by Pollin-Galay, Hannah
Sacred Places Tell Tales : by Meital, Yoram
Journey Through the Spanish Civil War : by Shneiderman, S. L
The Shochet : by Goldenshteyn, Pinkhes-Dov
Mixed-Up Mooncakes / by Matula, Christina
Stories My Father Told Me : by Treisman, Dvora
The Prison Minyan / by Stone, Jonathan
Goyhood : by Fenton, Reuven
For Times Such As These : by Katz, Ariana
Olive Days : by Emerson, Jessica Elisheva
The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern : by Loigman, Lynda Cohen
Hugging My Father
Gitty and Kvetch / by Pritchard, Caroline Kusin
The Singer Sisters / by Seltzer, Sarah
Fire In the Canyon : by Gumbiner, Daniel
Goodbye, Eastern Europe : by Mikanowski, Jacob
Between Borders : by Brinkmann, Tobias
Blessings Beyond the Binary :
Displaced Persons : by Leegant, Joan
My Father
O
Globetrotter : by Jacob, Mark
The Radical Isaac : by Mahalel, Adi
The Light of Seven Days : by Adams, River
Tablets Shattered : by Leifer, Joshua
The Place of All Possibility : by Allen, Adina
Daughter of History : by Suleiman, Susan Rubin
Between Paradise & Earth : by Stone, Nomi & Hankins, Luke
Jezebel / by Barnard, Megan
A Place to Hide / by Balson, Ronald H
Songs for the Brokenhearted : by Tsabari, Ayelet
Jews Under Tsars and Communists : by Weinberg, Robert
On A Chariot of Fire : by Lyons, Erica
What Jewish Looks Like / by Kleinrock, Liz
Ain

Upcoming Events

Yiddish San Francisco, with Howard FreedmanVirtual

Click here to register for this free virtual program made possible by the support of the Workers Circle / Arbeter Ring of Northern California and co-presented by the Jewish Folk Chorus of San Francisco, Klezcalifornia and New Lehrhaus. The history of San Francisco Jewry tends to be told in terms dominated by the experience of […] ...
Thu, Feb 13
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom

Book Launch: And They Arose Early to Do Sexual Violence, with Ethan Daniel Davidson, in conversation with Rabbi Zac KamenetzIn-Person

To register for this free in-person program co-presented by Reboot, 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.  Refreshments will be provided, and copies of the book will be available free of charge. “Ethan Davidson’s And They Arose Early […] ...
Wed, Feb 19
6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
Jewish Community Library
1835 Ellis Street, San Francisco, CA 94115

Revisiting the Leo Frank Case, with Steve OneyVirtual

Click here to register for this free virtual program. In 1913, 13-year-old Mary Phagan was found brutally murdered in the basement of the Atlanta pencil factory where she worked. The factory manager, a college-educated Jew named Leo Frank, was arrested, tried, and convicted in a trial that seized national headlines. When the governor commuted his […] ...
Wed, Feb 26
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom

​​The Triumph of Life: A Narrative Theology of Judaism, with Rabbi Irving Greenberg (VIRTUAL)Virtual

Click here to register for this free virtual program. “A culmination of a lifetime of theological reflection from the visionary thinker Rabbi Irving Greenberg, The Triumph of Life offers us a stunning portrait of the Jewish tradition as a grand drama in which God and the Jewish people dream together of a perfect world and […] ...
Sun, Mar 02
11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom

The Bipolar Therapist, with Marcia Naomi BergerVirtual

Click here to register for this free virtual program. When a sudden onset of manic episodes lands her in a psychiatric ward, what is an established, respected psychotherapist to do? With an otherwise firm sense of self and an openness to new insights, Marcia Naomi Berger confronts the stumbling blocks of shame and stigma. A […] ...
Tue, Mar 04
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom

A Nation of Refugees: Russia’s Jews in World War I, with Polly ZavadivkerVirtual

Click here to register for this free virtual program co-presented by New Lehrhaus. When the Great War began, the Russian Empire was home to more than five million Jews, the most densely settled Jewish population anywhere in the world. Thirty years later, only remnants of this civilization remained. The years of war from 1914 to […] ...
Sun, Mar 09
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom

How to Read the Book of Genesis, with Ronald HendelVirtual

Click here to register for this free virtual program, co-presented by New Lehrhaus. It can be a challenge to read an ancient book that still makes claims on us in the modern world. How does a reader sort out the differences between the worldview of ancient Israel and that of our era, and how to […] ...
Wed, Mar 12
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom

Kugels & Collards: Stories of Food, Family, and Tradition in Jewish South Carolina, with Rachel Gordin Barnett and Lyssa Kligman Harvey (VIRTUAL)Virtual

Click here to register for this free virtual program. Where people go, so goes their food. In Kugels & Collards: Stories of Food, Family, and Tradition in Jewish South Carolina (University of South Carolina Press, 2024), Rachel Gordin Barnett and Lyssa Kligman Harvey celebrate the unique and diverse food history of Jewish South Carolina. They gather […] ...
Sun, Mar 23
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom

The Book of Izzy: A Novel, with Ben GonshorIn-Person

To register for this free in-person program with author Ben Gonshor and moderator Anna Fishman Gonshor, 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.   Izzy is a writer who has found himself in a series of downward spirals; […] ...
Sun, Mar 30
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Jewish Community Library
1835 Ellis Street, San Francisco, CA 94115

Jewish Refugee Scholars at Black Colleges, with Dr. Lillie EdwardsVirtual

Click here to register for this free virtual program. In 1933, the Nazi German government passed legislation excluding Jews from working as university professors. No longer able to work in their own country, they found difficulty finding a welcome at academic institutions abroad, owing largely to xenophobia and antisemitism. Unexpectedly, a significant number of these […] ...
Sun, Apr 06
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom

­The Barry Sisters: America’s Yiddish Swingsters, with Andy MuchinVirtual

Click here to register for this free virtual program, co-presented by the Jewish Folk Chorus of San Francisco, Klezcalifornia, New Lehrhaus, and the Workers Circle / Arbeter Ring of Northern California. Claire and Merna Barry—born Clara and Minnie Bagelman in New York City—were a popular singing duo who performed on radio, television, records, and in […] ...
Tue, Apr 08
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom

The Jewish South: An American History, with Shari RabinVirtual

Click here to register for this free virtual program. In 1669, the Carolina colony issued the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, which offered freedom of worship to “Jews, heathens, and other dissenters,” ushering in an era that would see Jews settle in cities and towns throughout what would become the Confederate States. The Jewish South tells […] ...
Sun, Apr 27
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom

Goyhood: A Novel, with Reuven FentonVirtual

Click here to register for this free virtual event with the author of one of this year’s One Bay One Book selections. When Mayer (née Marty) Belkin fled small-town Georgia for Brooklyn nearly thirty years ago, he thought he’d left his wasted youth behind. Now he’s a Talmud scholar married into a great rabbinical family. […] ...
Thu, May 08
6:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Virtual via Zoom

Ain’t No Grave: A Novel, with Mary GlickmanVirtual

Click here to register for this free virtual event with the author of one of this year’s One Bay One Book selections. Nine-year-olds Max Sassaport and Ruby Johnson are best friends who can’t imagine a world where they aren’t together. Unfortunately, no one—not their families, nor anyone else in rural Georgia in 1906—wants to see […] ...
Sun, May 18
3:00 pm - 4:00 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