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
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
Behind Ancient Bars: Narratives of Incarceration in the Hebrew Bible, with Hadar AviramIn-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. In Behind Ancient Bars, law professor and rabbinical student Hadar Aviram challenges the conventional assumption that incarceration is an artifact of modernity by looking back […]
The Empty Envelope: Family Secrets and a Grandfather’s Legacy, with Rhona S. Weinstein and Harvey M. WeinsteinVirtual
Please register for this free online program, co-presented by the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society. In 1921 Vienna, Eisig Lubetzky—a gifted Jewish writer, critic, and former child prodigy—died by suicide, leaving behind a wife, three children, and a silence so profound it shaped generations. Nearly a century later, his psychologist granddaughter and her […]
Film Screening: Overture to Glory (Der Vilner Shtot Khazn)In-Person
Please register to attend this free in-person film screening, followed by a discussion. The Library is located at 1835 Ellis Street in San Francisco, with free garage parking at 1227 Pierce Street between Ellis and Eddy. Based on a true story from the nineteenth century, Max Nosseck’s 1940 Yiddish musical drama stars the great Moishe […]
Language and Identity in Contemporary Israeli Poetry, with Merav RozenblumIn-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. As Hebrew became the dominant, and later the official, language of the Jews in the land of Israel and later the State of Israel, many […]
Songs of Sukkot with the Jewish Music CollectiveIn-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. The Jewish Music Collective will celebrate Sukkot with an eclectic program of klezmer, Yiddish, Ladino, Israeli, jazz, folk, musical theatre, and contemporary music. Inspired by […]
Reviving the Artist Who Fought Hitler: My Life with Arthur Szyk, with Irvin UngarIn-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. During World War II, the Polish-Jewish immigrant Arthur Szyk became America’s leading anti-Nazi artist. His art was so effective that Adolf Hitler reportedly put a […]
Yiddish in the Land of Sunshine: Race, Labor, and Jewish Radicalism in Los Angeles, with Caroline LuceVirtual
Please register for this free online program, offered in partnership with the Workers Circle / Arbeter Ring of Northern California and KlezCalifornia. Yiddish in the Land of Sunshine (New York University Press, 2026) offers a novel account of Eastern European Jewish immigration and Yiddish public culture in Southern California. It traces the journeys of a cohort of young […]
Radiant as the Stars: A Novel, with Elaine ElinsonIn-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. This program is in partnership with the Workers Circle / Arbeter Ring of Northern California. As thousands of Jews flee the violence of Tsarist […]
Black, Jewish, and Beautiful: Contemporary Blewish Voices, with Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell, Sara Feldman, and Brett Ashley KaplanVirtual
Please register for this free online program. Black, Jewish, and Beautiful (Syracuse University Press, 2026) brings together powerful perspectives and showcases the vastly divergent ways people come to inhabit a shared Blewish, or Black Jewish identity. These voices demonstrate that Black Jewishness is just one dimension of their multifaceted lives as they explore how they […]
Drop-In Book Discussion: Disobedience: A Novel, by Naomi AldermanIn-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 Disobedience at no charge. Contact us at info@jewishcommunitylibrary.org. […]
Mississippi: A Yiddish Play about the Scottsboro Affair, with Alyssa QuintVirtual
Please register for this free online program, offered in partnership with the Workers Circle / Arbeter Ring of Northern California and KlezCalifornia. In their English translation of the Yiddish play Mississippi, Ellen Perecman and Alyssa Quint have undertaken a work of cultural salvage. Penned in 1935 by Polish-Jewish playwright Leib Malach, the play was performed on the Warsaw […]
Recipes for the Melting Pot: The Lives of The Settlement Cook Book, with Nora RubelVirtual
Please register for this free online program. In 1901, Lizzie Black Kander put together a cookbook based on the classes she taught at the Milwaukee Jewish Mission. “I was trying to teach a group of young foreign girls in a crowded neighborhood how to cook simple and nutritious food, yet have it attractive and inexpensive […]
Where The Wild Books Are: How Jewish Authors and Illustrators Revolutionized Children’s Picture Books, with Lisa Brown and Dashka SlaterIn-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 do Frog and Toad, Curious George, Shrek, and the Wild Things have in common? They were all written and illustrated by Jews. Join children’s […]
Translation as a Jewish Issue, with Aviya KushnerVirtual
Please register for this free online program. From the Septuagint to AI, translation has always been a Jewish issue, with a profound effect on Jewish culture–and the fate of the Jewish people. Aviya Kushner will explore different dimensions of translation and the Jewish experience. Aviya Kushner grew up in a Hebrew-speaking home in New York. […]
Why Was Spinoza Excommunicated? with Steven NadlerVirtual
Please register for this free online program. In July 1656, Bento (Baruch) de Spinoza was given the harshest herem (ban or ostracism) ever issued by the Amsterdam Portuguese-Jewish community. The text of the ban rains curses down upon the young man, for his “abominable heresies and monstrous deeds”. Unlike other bans issued by the community […]
Able to Be American: Disability in US Immigration Policy and the American Jewish Response, with Hannah Zaves-GreeneVirtual
Please register for this free online program. Epilepsy. Heart disease. Varicose veins. “Feeble-mindedness.” In 1891, Congress unambiguously codified the popular sentiment that “defects” like these should preclude admission to the United States. Expanding the eugenics-rooted restrictions of the 1882 Immigration Act, the new law conflated illness, poverty, and disability with criminality and “moral turpitude,” starkly […]
Along the Silk Roads to Jerusalem: A Voyage Into Bukharian Jewish History and Culture with Ruben ShimonovVirtual
Please register for this free online program. Embark on an exploration of the eclectic and multilayered story of Central Asia’s ancient Jewish community—Bukharian Jews. Uzbekistan-born Ruben Shimonov will share the ways in which Bukharian Jews have developed their rich cultural heritage against the backdrop of their changing surroundings—including Iranian, Arab, Turkic and Russian empires. Through […]
The Ravine of Memory: Babyn Yar Between the Holocaust and the Great Patriotic War, with Shay PilnikVirtual
Please register for this free online program. Babyn Yar, or Babi Yar, is the ravine on the northwestern outskirts of Kyiv, where the Nazis and their collaborators murdered and buried over 100,000 primarily Jewish victims in 1941. Professor Shay Plinik will lead a dark journey through the story of the ravine’s forgetting and remembrance in […]
Jews of the Richmond District, with Howard FreedmanVirtual
Please register for this free online program. The Richmond District is home to more synagogues than any neighborhood in San Francisco. Howard Freedman will draw on historical materials to trace the story of Jewish life north of Golden Gate Park. Howard Freedman has served since 2009 as director of the Jewish Community Library. He has […]
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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