Ain’t No Grave: A Novel, with Mary GlickmanVirtualExpired
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 […] ...
The Jewish King and Queen Lear: Immigration, Care for Elders, and the American Yiddish Stage, with Gabriella SafranIn-PersonExpired
Click here to register for this free in-person program co-presented by Workers Circle / Arbeter Ring of Northern California, the Jewish Folk Chorus of San Francisco, and KlezCalifornia. The Library is located at 1835 Ellis Street in San Francisco, with free garage parking at 1227 Pierce Street between Ellis and Eddy. The large wave of […] ...
Goyhood: A Novel, with Reuven FentonVirtualExpired
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. […] ...
A Different Picture of Jewish Civil Rights Leadership, with Marc DollingerIn-PersonExpired
To register for this free in-person program co-presented by New Lehrhaus, 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. Marc Dollinger will explore the famous image of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. marching, and […] ...
Jewish Arts & Bookfest at the MagnesIn-PersonExpired
Join us at the first annual Jewish Arts & Bookfest at the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life. To register or learn more, click here. The Magnes is located at 2121 Allston Way in Berkeley. It will be an extraordinary day, featuring keynote speaker Daniel Handler and a wide array of talks and workshops, […] ...
Drop-In Book Discussion: Goyhood by Reuven FentonIn-PersonExpired
Join us for an in-person discussion at the Jewish Community Library of one of this year’s One Bay One Book selections, 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 […] ...
The Jewish South: An American History, with Shari RabinVirtualExpired
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 […] ...
Immigrant Jews on the Silent ScreenIn-PersonExpired
To register for this free in-person program co-presented by New Lehrhaus, 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. Howard Freedman will share a variety of short film clips that demonstrate how immigrant Jews were represented in films of […] ...
The Barry Sisters: America’s Yiddish Swingsters, with Andy MuchinVirtualExpired
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 […] ...
Jewish Refugee Scholars at Black Colleges, with Dr. Lillie EdwardsVirtualExpired
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 […] ...
The Book of Izzy: A Novel, with Ben GonshorIn-PersonExpired
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; […] ...
Forbidden: A 3,000-Year History of Jews and the Pig, with Jordan RosenblumVirtualExpired
Click here to register for this free virtual program. Jews do not eat pig. This (not always true) observation has been made by both Jews and non-Jews for more than three thousand years and is rooted in biblical law. Though the Torah prohibits eating pig meat, it is not singled out more than other food […] ...
Kugels & Collards: Stories of Food, Family, and Tradition in Jewish South Carolina, with Rachel Gordin Barnett and Lyssa Kligman HarveyVirtualExpired
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 […] ...
Drop-In Book Discussion: The Ladies Auxiliary by Tova MirvisIn-PersonExpired
Join us for an in-person discussion at the Jewish Community Library, facilitated by Jim Van Burkirk. 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 Ladies Auxiliary at no charge as a […] ...
How to Read the Book of Genesis, with Ronald HendelVirtualExpired
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 […] ...
A Nation of Refugees: Russia’s Jews in World War I, with Polly ZavadivkerVirtualExpired
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 […] ...
The Bipolar Therapist, with Marcia Naomi BergerVirtualExpired
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 […] ...
The Triumph of Life: A Narrative Theology of Judaism, with Rabbi Irving GreenbergVirtualExpired
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 […] ...
Revisiting the Leo Frank Case, with Steve OneyVirtualExpired
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 […] ...
Book Launch: And They Arose Early to Do Sexual Violence, with Ethan Daniel Davidson, in conversation with Rabbi Zac KamenetzIn-PersonExpired
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 […] ...
Yiddish San Francisco, with Howard FreedmanVirtualExpired
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 […] ...
Theodore Seixas Solomons: The Jewish San Franciscan Who Inspired North America’s Most Famous FootpathIn-PersonExpired
Click here to register for this free in-person program co-presented by New Lehrhaus. The Library is located at 1835 Ellis Street in San Francisco, with free garage parking at 1227 Pierce Street between Ellis and Eddy. The John Muir Trail runs 212 miles along the crest of California’s High Sierra, from Yosemite to Mt. Whitney. […] ...
Stolpersteine: A Sacred Homage to my Ancestors and a Gift of Repair, with Ben WoodVirtualExpired
Click here to register for this free virtual event, co-presented by the JFCS Holocaust Center. Visual artist Ben Wood will discuss his family’s Stolpersteine journey, which took place in March 2024, during which they visited Berlin and nearby towns Seelow and Strausberg to lay Stolpersteine for his grandparents’ families who were victims of the Holocaust. […] ...
Between the Bridge and the Barricade: Jewish Translation in Early Modern Europe, with Iris Idelson-SheinVirtualExpired
Click here to register for this free virtual event. Between the Bridge and the Barricade explores how translations of non-Jewish texts into Jewish languages impacted Jewish culture, literature, and history from the sixteenth century into modern times. Offering a comprehensive view of early modern Jewish translation, Iris Idelson-Shein charts major paths of textual migration from […] ...
The Chief Rabbi’s Funeral: The Untold Story of America’s Largest Antisemitic Riot, with Scott D. SeligmanVirtualExpired
Click here to register for this free virtual program, co-presented by New Lehrhaus. On July 30, 1902, tens of thousands of mourners lined the streets of New York’s Lower East Side to bid farewell to the city’s chief rabbi, the eminent Talmudist Jacob Joseph. All went well until the procession crossed Sheriff Street, where the […] ...
Translating Hebrew, Translating Israel with Jessica CohenVirtualExpired
Click here to register for this free virtual event. Jessica Cohen has translated the work of many major Israeli writers, including Amos Oz, Dorit Rabinyan, Ronit Matalon, and Etgar Keret. In 2017 she shared the prestigious Man Booker International Prize with David Grossman for her translation of the novel A Horse Walks Into a Bar. […] ...
Jewish Calcutta Through Music and Memory, with Rahel MusleahVirtualExpired
Click here to register for this free virtual program co-presented by New Lehrhaus. Although very few Jews remain there today, Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta, was the site of a thriving Jewish community. Jewish merchants and traders from present-day Iraq and Syria came to the city during the period of the British Raj, beginning in […] ...
Tasting Flight: Merging the Wisdom of Eve and Lilith — A Book Launch Celebration with Yiskah RosenfeldIn-PersonExpired
Join award-winning poet and scholar Yiskah Rosenfeld in celebrating her new book of poems, Tasting Flight, runner-up for the Arthur Smith Prize and a top five finalist for the Wheelbarrow Books Prize. To register for this free in-person program, click here. The Library is located at 1835 Ellis Street in San Francisco, with free garage […] ...
Book Launch: From OY to JOY, with Shulamit SofiaIn-PersonExpired
To register for this free in-person program, 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. “From Oy to Joy is a heartwarming companion offering practical wisdom and a dose of laughter for life’s challenging journey into the next […] ...
Soviet-Born: The Afterlives of Migration in Jewish American Fiction, with Karolina KrasuskaVirtualExpired
Click here to register for this free virtual event. In 2010, when The New Yorker published a list of twenty writers under the age of forty who were “key to their generation,” it included five Jewish-identified writers, two of whom—American Gary Shteyngart and Canadian David Bezmozgis—were Soviet-born. This publicity came after nearly a decade of […] ...
Drop-In Book Discussion: Living with Our Dead by Delphine Horvilleur, Facilitated by Jim Van BuskirkIn-PersonExpired
Join us for an in-person discussion at the Jewish Community Library. The Library is located at 1835 Ellis Street in San Francisco, with free garage parking on Pierce between Ellis and Eddy. This event is co-sponsored by Sinai Memorial Chapel. To register, click here. You may borrow a copy of Living with Our Dead at […] ...
In My Ancestors’ Shoes: Getting Dressed in the Tenements, 1881, with ViIn-PersonExpired
Click here to register for this free in-person program, co-presented by New Lehrhaus. The Library is located at 1835 Ellis Street in San Francisco, with free garage parking at 1227 Pierce Street between Ellis and Eddy. Vi of the YouTube channel SnappyDragon will offer a hands-on demonstration of how a working-class Jewish immigrant woman would […] ...
Whistleblowers: Four Who Fought to Expose the Holocaust to America, with Rafael Medoff and Ruth LandyVirtualExpired
Click here to register for this free virtual event, co-presented by New Lehrhaus and the JFCS Holocaust Center. A compelling nonfiction graphic novel written by Rafael Medoff and illustrated by Dean Motter, Whistleblowers is the true story of courageous individuals who risked their careers—or their lives—to confront the unfolding Holocaust. Figures include future U.S. Senator Alan […] ...
Commemorating the 85th Year of the KindertransportsIn-PersonExpired
Click here to register for this free in-person program, co-presented by the Kindertransport Association and the JFCS Holocaust Center. The Library is located at 1835 Ellis Street in San Francisco, with free garage parking at 1227 Pierce Street between Ellis and Eddy. It has become more important than ever to find meaningful ways to commemorate and […] ...
Redeemed: A Memoir of a Stolen Childhood, with Penny LaneVirtualExpired
Click here to register for this free virtual event. Penny Lane’s Redeemed: A Memoir of a Stolen Childhood is an inspiring rise-from-the-ashes story of overcoming abuse and trauma, of being waylaid by both family and religion’s promise of love, and harnessing the resilience to find the way home When she is abruptly snatched away from her […] ...
Sabor Judío: The Jewish Mexican Cookbook, with Ilan Stavans and Margaret E. BoyleVirtualExpired
Click here to register for this free virtual event, co-presented by Jewtina y Co. “An instant classic and more than a cookbook—it is a critical portrait of a community. An absolutely new and stellar contribution.”—Michael W. Twitty, author of Koshersoul Sabor Judío celebrates the delicious fusion of two culinary traditions: Jewish and Mexican. Written with […] ...
Hebrew Storytelling at the Library with HadarIn-PersonExpired
We hope you’ll join us! To register for this free in-person program, 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. Come enjoy storytelling with Hadar Aviram, and meet other families that speak Hebrew. The Library also has many […] ...
The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum, with Margalit FoxVirtualExpired
Click here to register for this free virtual event. In 1850, an impoverished twenty-five-year-old named Fredericka Mandelbaum came to New York in steerage and worked as a peddler on the streets of Lower Manhattan. By the 1870s she was a fixture of high society and an admired philanthropist. How was she able to ascend from […] ...
From Moses to Moisesville: A Journey through the Jewish World, with Ariel GoldsteinIn-PersonExpired
Click here to register for 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. “When Moses led us from slavery to freedom, he would not have imagined that after three thousand years the Jews of the world […] ...
Drop-In Book Discussion: One Hundred Saturdays by Michael Frank, Facilitated by Jim Van BuskirkIn-PersonExpired
Join us for an in-person discussion at the Jewish Community Library. 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 One Hundred Saturdays: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World at […] ...
Liberty Street: A Savannah Family, Its Golden Boy, and the Civil War, with Jason K. FriedmanIn-PersonExpired
To register for this free in-person program, 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. As Jason K. Friedman renovated his flat in a grand 1875 town house in his hometown of Savannah, he discovered a portal to […] ...
A Mystical Journey into the Aleph-Bet, with Mira Z AmirasIn-PersonExpired
Click here to register for this free in-person program co-presented by New Lehrhaus. The Library is located at 1835 Ellis Street in San Francisco, with free garage parking at 1227 Pierce Street between Ellis and Eddy. Malkah is an inquisitive girl, and her father’s attempts to teach her to read Torah result in more questions […] ...
Journey through the Spanish Civil War, with Deborah A. GreenVirtualExpired
Click here to register for this free virtual event, co-presented by the Workers Circle / Arbeter Ring of Northern California. Despite the possibility of imprisonment or death, around 40,000 people from 54 different countries left their homes and families and volunteered to fight fascism in Spain during the 1930s. They became known as the International […] ...
Hugging My Father’s Ghost, with Zack RogowIn-PersonExpired
To register for this free in-person program, 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. In this memoir, Zack Rogow tries to solve the mystery of the father he never knew. Lee Rogow was a widely published fiction […] ...
Millennial Jewish Stars: Navigating Racial Antisemitism, Masculinity, and White Supremacy, with Jonathan BranfmanIn-PersonExpired
Click here to register for this free in-person program co-presented by New Lehrhaus. 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 served. Come learn how popular culture can help us challenge antisemitism. For this talk, Jonathan Branfman […] ...
Carrying a Big Schtick: Jewish Acculturation and Masculinity in the Twentieth Century, with Miriam Eve MoraVirtualExpired
Click here to register for this free virtual event. For twentieth-century Jewish immigrants and their children attempting to gain full access to American society, performative masculinity was a tool of acculturation. However, as scholar Miriam Eve Mora demonstrates, this performance is consistently challenged by American mainstream society that holds Jewish men outside of the American […] ...
Hebrew Storytelling at the LibraryIn-PersonExpired
To register for this free in-person program, 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. Come enjoy storytelling with Hadar Aviram, and meet other families that speak Hebrew. The Library also has many Hebrew books for children and […] ...
Drop-In Book Discussion: The Loves of Judith by Meir Shalev, Facilitated by Jim Van BuskirkIn-PersonExpired
Join us for a lively in-person discussion at the Jewish Community Library. 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 Loves of Judith at no charge by contacting us at info@jewishcommunitylibrary.org. […] ...
Your Presence Is Mandatory, with Sasha VasilyukVirtualExpired
Click here to register for this free virtual event. “Wonderfully written, elegiac and necessary, Sasha Vasilyuk uncovers the history behind the recent headlines with great skill and grace.” — Gary Shteyngart Based on real events, Sasha Vasilyuk’s riveting debut novel begins in Ukraine in 2007. Yefim Shulman was beloved by his family and his coworkers. […] ...
Walkers in the City: Jewish Street Photographers of Midcentury New York, with Deborah Dash MooreVirtualExpired
Click here to register for this free virtual event. In the middle of the twentieth century, good cameras became smaller and lighter, enabling street photographers to roam alleyways, ride elevated trains and subways, and stroll beaches in summertime to capture daily life with urgency and intimacy. Deborah Dash Moore’s Walkers in the City, which received […] ...
Israel’s Black Panthers, with Asaf Elia-ShalevVirtualExpired
Click here to register for this free virtual event, co-presented by New Lehrhaus. Inspired by the American group of the same name, Israel’s Black Panthers were young and impoverished Israelis, primarily from a Moroccan background, who mounted protests and a yearslong political campaign in the 1970s for the rights of Mizrahim, or Jews of Middle […] ...
Under the Hood: Using Jewish Archival Materials to Create New Music and Arrangements, presented by Cookie Segelstein with live examples by Veretski PassIn-PersonExpired
To register for this free in-person program, 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. In this presentation Cookie Segelstein will explore ways that traditional musicians balance old-school research and learning with digital resources. How does Veretski Pass […] ...
Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor’s Unlikely Adventure, with Mimi ZiemanIn-PersonExpired
To register for this free in-person program, 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. Raised by immigrant parents, one a Holocaust survivor, in an Orthodox Jewish community in New York, Mimi Zeiman blazed an unexpected path. As a […] ...
Sephardi Jewry and the Rise and Fall of Ladino, with Aron Rodrigue (in person in Palo Alto)In-PersonExpired
Register here for this free in-person program at the Oshman Family JCC co-presented by the Jewish Community Library, the Oshman Family JCC, and the Taube Center for Jewish Studies at Stanford University. Ladino was the vernacular Jewish language of the Sephardim in the Ottoman Empire, emerging after the expulsion from Spain in 1492. Initially closely […] ...
Elizabeth Graver on KantikaVirtualExpired
Click here to register for this free virtual event. Elizabeth Graver will speak and answer questions about her acclaimed novel Kantika, which is the One Bay One Book selection for 2023-2024. From Constantinople to Barcelona, Havana, and New York, Kantika sings of the joys, hopes, and devastation experienced by twentieth-century Sephardi emigres. Rebecca Cohen’s odyssey begins […] ...
The Hebrew Teacher, with Maya AradIn-PersonExpired
Please note new date for this event. To register for this free in-person program, 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. “One of the most talented Israeli novelists of her generation and who here offers profoundly moving […] ...
Pathways to Preserving Family Histories, with Basya PetnickVirtualExpired
Click here to register for this free virtual event, co-presented by the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society. The novel Kantika, based on Elizabeth Graver’s interviews with her grandmother, can be a stimulus to collect, organize, and preserve your own family history. This workshop will provide guidance for doing so. What photos and documents […] ...
Moses: Provocations from a Disabled Prophet, with Rabbi Julia Watts Belser VirtualExpired
Click here to register for this free virtual event, co-presented by New Lehrhaus. When God sends Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery, the prophet famously says no. Why? Moses describes himself as “slow of speech and slow of tongue”—in other words, a stutterer. While some commentators treat Moses’ speech disability as a spiritual […] ...
Drop-In Book Discussion: Kantika by Elizabeth Graver, Facilitated by Jim Van BuskirkIn-PersonExpired
Join us for a lively in-person discussion at the Jewish Community Library. 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 Kantika at no charge by contacting us at info@jewishcommunitylibrary.org. It can also […] ...
Temptation Transformed: The Story of How the Forbidden Fruit Became an Apple, with Azzan Yadin-IsraelVirtualExpired
Click here to register for this free virtual event with Azzan Yadin-Israel, co-presented by New Lehrhaus. Although the apple is one of the most widely-recognized biblical symbols, the Book of Genesis does not identify the species of the Forbidden Fruit, nor do the earliest translations of the Hebrew Bible, not to mention that there were […] ...
The Kennicott Bible: A Masterpiece of Jewish Book Art, with Katrin Kogman-AppelVirtualExpired
Click here to register for this free virtual event, co-presented by New Lehrhaus. The Kennicott Bible is one of the most celebrated illuminated Hebrew Bibles that survives today, delighting readers since its completion in 1476. Originating from La Coruña in northern Spain, it features lavish carpet pages, gold leaf silhouettes, and abundant marginal decorations. This […] ...
Stranger in the Desert: A Family Story, with Jordan SalamaVirtualExpired
Click here to register for this free virtual event, co-presented by the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society. One Thanksgiving afternoon at his grandparents’ house, Jordan Salama discovered a large binder stuffed with yellowing papers and old photographs—a five-hundred-year wandering history of his Arab-Jewish family, from Moorish Spain to Ottoman Syria to Argentina and […] ...
The Dybbuk Century: 100 Years of the Jewish Play that Possessed the World, with Debra CaplanVirtualExpired
Click here to register for this free virtual event, co-presented by New Lehrhaus, the Jewish Folk Chorus of San Francisco, KlezCalifornia, and Workers Circle / Arbeter Ring of Northern California . A little over 100 years ago, the first production of An-sky’s The Dybbuk, a play about the possession of a young woman by a dislocated […] ...
The Women’s Orchestra at Auschwitz-Birkenau with Susan J. Eischeid (in person)In-PersonExpired
To register for this free in-person program, 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. This event is co-presented by the JFCS Holocaust Center. The women’s orchestra at Auschwitz-Birkenau, composed entirely of prisoners, was the only one of its […] ...
Hebrew Storytelling and Puppet ShowIn-PersonExpired
To register for this free in-person program, 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. Come meet our storyteller, Koren Zuckerman of Treehouse Learning, and other families that speak Hebrew, and enjoy a Purim-themed puppet show. The Library […] ...
An Introduction to the Music of Bukharian Jews, with Evan RapportVirtualExpired
Click here to register for this free virtual event. Jews lived in Central Asian cities such as Bukhara and Samarkand for centuries, where they played an active role in musical life. Now generally referred to as Bukharian Jews, they were instrumental in developing and preserving the court music known as the Shashmakom (“six modes”), and […] ...
Drop-In Book Discussion: The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride, Facilitated by Jim Van BuskirkIn-PersonExpired
Join us at this free and lively in-person discussion at the Jewish Community Library. 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 Heaven & Earth Grocery Store at no charge through […] ...
Why the Bible Began: An Alternative History of Scripture and its Origins, with Jacob L. WrightVirtualExpired
Click here to register for this free virtual event. The Bible’s existence, according to Jacob Wright, is not only a testimony of survival, but an unparalleled achievement in human history. Forged during Babylonian exile after the shattering destruction of Jerusalem, the Bible places total humiliation at the foundation of a new idea of belonging. Lamenting […] ...
The Hebrew Letter: A Calligrapher’s Journey, with Izzy Pludwinski (virtual)VirtualExpired
Click here to register for this free virtual event. Izzy Pludwinski will offer a peek into a thousands-year-old scribal and mystical tradition through his own personal journey from traditional religious scribe to the world of modern calligraphy. The fascination of a single Hebrew letter led Pludwinski to become a Hebrew scribe (Sofer STaM). He eventually […] ...
The Cost of Free Land: Jews, Lakota, and an American Inheritance, with Rebecca ClarrenVirtualExpired
Click here to register for this free virtual event. Growing up, Rebecca Clarren only knew the major plot points of her tenacious immigrant family’s origins. Her great-great-grandparents, the Sinykins, and their six children fled antisemitism in Russia and arrived in the United States at the turn of the 20th century, ultimately settling on a 160-acre […] ...
A Sephardic Journey through the Twentieth CenturyVirtualExpired
Presented by Sarah Abrevaya Stein Click here to register for this free virtual event co-presented by New Lehrhaus. For centuries, the bustling port city of Salonica was home to the sprawling Levy family. As leading publishers and editors, they helped chronicle modernity as it was experienced by Sephardic Jews across the Ottoman Empire. The wars […] ...
Beyond Words and Borders: Poetry and Translation with Mireille Gansel (in person)In-PersonExpired
To register for this free program organized by the Center for the Art of Translation in partnership with the Jewish Community Library and World Poetry Books, 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. Acclaimed French poet, translator, […] ...
A Revolution in Type: Gender and the Making of the American Yiddish PressVirtualExpired
Presented by Ayelet Brinn Click here to register for this free virtual event, which is co-sponsored by the Workers Circle / Arbeter Ring of Northern California and co-presented by KlezCalifornia. Between the 1880s and 1920s, Yiddish-language newspapers rose from obscurity to become successful institutions integral to American Jewish life. During this period, Yiddish-speaking immigrants came to […] ...
Ladino in the Twenty-First Century, with Bryan KirschenVirtualExpired
Click here to register for this free virtual event. Ladino (also known as Judeo-Spanish or Judezmo) refers to the variety of Spanish that developed among Jews who were expelled from Spain in 1492 and subsequently settled primarily in the Ottoman Empire. In this presentation Bryan Kirschen will provide an overview of the development of Ladino […] ...
Demystifying Sephardic Song with Judith CohenVirtualExpired
Click here to register for this free virtual event. As Sephardic songs in Ladino/Judeo-Spanish thrive, several myths about them still persist. Canadian Ethnomusicologist Dr Judith Cohen, a longtime scholar and performer of this repertoire, explains “medieval,” “flamenco,” and other often romantic notions about the tradition. Recorded and also live – sung by Cohen – examples will be […] ...
Jewish Languages Today: Endangered, Surviving, and ThrivingVirtualExpired
Presented by Sarah Bunin Benor Click here to register for this free virtual event, co-presented by KlezCalifornia. Over the past two centuries, migrations and other historical events have led to major changes in the linguistic profile of Jewish communities around the world. Yiddish is thriving in Hasidic communities, even as its use is diminishing elsewhere. […] ...
Two Tribes, with Emily Bowen CohenVirtualExpired
Click here to register for this free virtual event, co-presented by the Cartoon Art Museum and Be’chol Lashon. In her poignant debut graphic novel inspired by her own life, Emily Bowen Cohen embraces the complexity, meaning, and deep love that comes from being part of two vibrant tribes. Mia is still getting used to living with […] ...
EVENT CANCELED: George Prochnik on Strangers in Strange Lands: Sigmund Freud, Gershom Scholem, and the Dream of BelongingIn-PersonExpired
DUE TO UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES, GEORGE PROCHNIK IS UNABLE TO COME TO THE BAY AREA, AND THIS EVENT IS NO LONGER OCCURRING. WE HOPE TO BE ABLE TO RESCHEDULE AT SOME FUTURE POINT. Join us at Congregation Emanu-El‘s annual Rabbi Joseph Asher Memorial Lecture, held this year at the Jewish Community Library. The Library is located at 1835 Ellis […] ...
The Dissident: A Novel with Paul GoldbergVirtualExpired
Click here to register for this free virtual event. On his wedding day in 1976, Viktor Moroz stumbles upon a murder scene: two gay men, one of them a U.S. official, have been axed to death in Moscow. Viktor, a Jewish refusenik, is stuck in the Soviet Union because the government has denied his application […] ...
The Soviet Jewish Bookshelf: Jewish Culture and Identity Between the LinesVirtualExpired
Presented by Marat Grinberg To register for this free virtual event, click here. In an environment where Judaism had been all but destroyed, and a public Jewish presence routinely delegitimized, reading provided many Soviet Jews with an entry to communal memory and identity. The bookshelf was both a depository of selective Jewish knowledge and often […] ...
Drop-In Book Discussion: The Postcard by Anne Berest, Facilitated by Jim Van BuskirkIn-PersonExpired
Join us at this free and lively in-person discussion at the Jewish Community Library. 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 Postcard at no charge through the Library’s Book Club […] ...
We Are Not Strangers: A Graphic Novel, with Josh TuiningaVirtualExpired
Click here to register for this free virtual event, co-presented by the Cartoon Art Museum. When Marco Calvo arrives at the synagogue to attend his grandfather’s funeral, he is caught off guard by something unexpected. Among his close family and friends there are some people he doesn’t recognize at all. Several Japanese American families have arrived, […] ...
Jewish Life in Medieval Spain: A Religious Minority during the Best and Worst of TimesVirtualExpired
Presented by Jonathan Ray To register for this free virtual event, click here. The great cultural legacy of Spanish Jews has long symbolized a “Golden Age” of Judaism and of interfaith relations. Yet, the Jewish experience in medieval Spain was actually quite complex. The intellectual achievements and general prosperity of Spanish Jews was marred by […] ...
A Ukrainian Chapter: A Jewish Aid Worker’s Memoir of Sorrow (Podolia, 1918-20)VirtualExpired
Presented by Michael Nutkiewicz To register for this free virtual event, co-presented by New Lehrhaus, click here. Eli Gumener’s 1921 Yiddish memoir, A Ukrainian Chapter: Two Years in Podolia (A Kapitl Ukraine. Tsvey Yor in Podolye), is set in a region in southwest Ukraine. The memoir depicts the fate of Jews caught in the middle of the […] ...
Jewish Sunday Schools: Teaching Religion in Nineteenth Century AmericaVirtualExpired
Presented by Laura Yares To register for this free virtual event, click here. Jewish Sunday Schools describes how nineteenth-century Jewish women laid the foundations of Jewish education in America. The Jewish Sunday school movement began with one school in Philadelphia in 1838 and quickly evolved into an entire system that educated vast numbers of Jewish […] ...
The Golem of Brooklyn, with Adam MansbachIn-PersonExpired
Join us at this free in-person event at the Jewish Community Library, co-presented by Reboot. 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. Books will be available for purchase and signing. Read about The Golem of Brooklyn in […] ...
Dwell Time: A Memoir of Art, Exile, and Repair with Rosa LowingerVirtualExpired
Click here to register for this free virtual event, co-presented by Jewtina y Co. Dwell Time is an illuminating debut memoir by one of the few prominent Latinas in the field of art and architectural conservation; a moving portrait of a Cuban Jewish family’s intergenerational trauma; and a story about repair and healing that will forever […] ...
Two Roads Home: Hitler, Stalin, and the Miraculous Survival of My FamilyVirtualExpired
Presented by Daniel Finkelstein Click here to register for this free virtual event co-presented by the JFCS Holocaust Center. Click here to order Two Roads Home from Afikomen Judaica. In Two Roads Home (Knopf, 2023) British journalist Daniel Finkelstein tells the extraordinary story of the years before his mother met his father—years of war and trials […] ...
Sculpting a Life: Chana Orloff between Paris and Tel Aviv, with Paula BirnbaumIn-PersonExpired
Join us at this free in-person event at the Jewish Community Library, co-presented by Congregation Sherith Israel. 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. Books will be available for purchase and signing. Sculpting a Life is the first book-length […] ...
By Accident: A Memoir of Letting Go, with Joanne GreeneVirtualExpired
Click here to register for this free virtual event. Joanne Greene grew up in Boston during the 1960s and ’70s, a turning point for women in the United States. Doors were opening wider, and Joanne walked through as many as she could. As a young woman, she dove headfirst into San Francisco radio and television, […] ...
The Bund: A Graphic History of Jewish Labour ResistanceVirtualExpired
Presented by Sharon Rudahl, Michael Kluckner, and Paul Buhle Click here to register for this free virtual event, co-sponsored by the Workers Circle / Arbeter Ring of Northern California and co-presented by the Cartoon Art Museum and KlezCalifornia. Told in an engaging graphic novel format, The Bund (Between the Lines, 2023) explains the oppressive origins of Jewish […] ...
Amos Oz: Writer, Activist, Icon, with Robert AlterIn-PersonExpired
Join us at this free in-person event with free garage parking at 1227 Pierce Street. To register, click here. Books will be available for purchase and signing. Amos Oz (1939–2018) was one of Israel’s most prolific and prominent writers, as well as a regular contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was the author […] ...
Places We Left Behind, with Jennifer Lang in conversation with Marc DollingerIn-PersonExpired
Join Jennifer Lang, author of Places We Left Behind: a memoir-in-miniature, and Marc Dollinger to discuss her new book about cross-cultural marriage, interdenominational relationships, making aliyah, and identity. Click here to register for this free in-person event, with free garage parking at 1227 Pierce Street. Books will be available for purchase and signing. About the […] ...
Ilan Vitemberg Memorial Program with Yair Qedar, Maya Arad, and Arthur SlepianIn-PersonExpired
Join us at this free in-person event at the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto co-presented by New Lehrhaus, the Oshman Family JCC, Congregation Beth Am, the Jewish Community Library, A Wider Bridge, and the East Bay International Film Festival. For details and registration links, click here. This event is held in memory of Ilan […] ...
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