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 will be closed Sunday, February 15 and Monday, February 16 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
Upcoming Events
West of the Ghetto: Jewish Women, Old San Francisco, and American Literary Culture, with Lori Harrison-KahanVirtual
Please register to receive the Zoom link for this free online program. Blending history, collective biography, and literary criticism, Lori Harrison-Kahan repositions the American West as a generative space for turn-of-the-twentieth-century Jewish women’s literature. West of the Ghetto portrays how California-based writers Emma Wolf, Bettie Lowenberg, Harriet Lane Levy, Miriam Michelson, and Anna Strunsky played […]
Always Carry Salt: A Memoir of Preserving Language and Culture, with Samantha EllisVirtual
Please register to receive the Zoom link for this free online program, co-presented by JIMENA: Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa. Samantha Ellis’s mother tongue is dying out. The daughter of Iraqi Jewish refugees, Ellis grew up surrounded by the noisy, vivid, hot sounds of Judeo-Iraqi Arabic. A language that’s now on […]
Charlotte Salomon Paints Her Life, with Pamela ReitmanIn-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. Inspired by the life and work of Charlotte Salomon, Pamela Reitman’s novel shows an artist intent on pursuing her art against all odds. As a […]
Playmakers: The Jewish Entrepreneurs Who Created the Toy Industry in America, with Michael KimmelVirtual
Please register to receive the Zoom link for this free online program. In 1902, Morris and Rose Michtom invented the Teddy Bear—bound by clothing scraps, stuffed with sawdust, and given button eyes with a sad, longing expression—in the back room of their Brooklyn candy store. Together they launched the Ideal Toy Corporation, joining a set […]
The Politics of Yiddish’s Origins, with Kalman WeiserVirtual
Click here to register for this free online program, presented in partnership with KlezCalifornia and the Workers Circle/Arbeter Ring of Northern California. When, where, why, and how did Yiddish come into being? Since at least the 19th century, linguists and historians have debated where Yiddish comes from and what that tells us about the origins […]
Jewish Heritage Words: Connecting to Our Ancestors and CommunitiesIn-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. 6:00 Refreshments and opportunity to tour the Jewish Languages: A Cultural Dialogue exhibit 6:30 Presentation by Dr. Sarah Benor Most Jews today do not speak […]
Drop-In Book Discussion: Always Carry Salt, by Samantha EllisIn-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 Always Carry Salt at no charge. Contact us […]
Sefardi Herbalism, with Naomi SpectorVirtual
Please register to receive the Zoom link for this free online program. Sefardi Herbalism: An Introduction to Earth, Water and Plant-Based Folk Traditions of the Sefardim explores the earth-based folk culture and healing tradition of the Jews of Spain and Portugal. Weaving together diverse sources, such as Judeo-Spanish medical texts, memoirs, interviews, testimony from inquisition […]
American Jewish Activists, with Elaine LeederIn-Person
Please register to attend this free in-person program, in partnership with the Workers Circle/Arbeter Ring of Northern California. The Library is located at 1835 Ellis Street in San Francisco, with free garage parking at 1227 Pierce Street between Ellis and Eddy. American Jewish activists have long been at the forefront of major social change efforts. […]
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, […]
Queering Jewish Languages, with Eden MoyalIn-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. Jewish people and LGBTQ+ people are accustomed to having a language all their own that isn’t always understood outside the community. In this talk, […]
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, […]
Drop-In Book Discussion: Fagin the Thief, by Allison EpsteinIn-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 Fagin the Thief at no charge. Contact us […]
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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