Jewish Things: The Lives of Jewish Objects, with Rachel B. Gross

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 around us shape our religious experiences? Professor Rachel B. Gross will explore how we can understand the power that objects can have in our lives and where we find American Jewish religion in the world around us.

Rachel B. Gross is Associate Professor and John and Marcia Goldman Chair in American Jewish Studies in the Department of Jewish Studies at San Francisco State University. She is a religious studies scholar who studies twentieth- and twenty-first-century American Jews. Her book, Beyond the Synagogue: Jewish Nostalgia as Religious Practice, was a 2021 National Jewish Book Award finalist. She is currently working on a book about the religious adventures of the twentieth-century American Jewish writer Mary Antin, under contract with New York University Press.