The Library’s events are free of charge and open to all. Some are presented via Zoom, and some in person. Click on an event below for registration information. Events are also listed on the Library’s Facebook page and in our printed brochure.
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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. 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 psychiatrist husband set out to uncover the truth of who […]
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 […]
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