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-4 PM
Thurs., 11 AM-4 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

Jewish Priorities :
Jewels :
The Breakaway : by Weiner, Jennifer
Whistleblowers : by Medoff, Rafael
Ladies
All-Night Pharmacy : by Madievsky, Ruth
Kibbitz & Nosh : by Halperin, Marcia Bricker
Across So Many Seas / by Behar, Ruth
The Land of Hope and Fear : by Kershner, Isabel
How the Talmud Can Change Your Life : by Leibovitz, Liel
Christian Supremacy : by Teter, Magda
To Be A Jew Today : by Feldman, Noah
Kantika : by Graver, Elizabeth
Wages of Empire / by Cooper, Michael J
Courage to Dream : by Shusterman, Neal
Why the Bible Began : by Wright, Jacob L
Jews and Science / by Gilman, Sander L
Babylon : by Cameron, Michelle
Resisters : by Gruner, Wolf
Mistress of Life and Death : by Eischeid, Susan J
Candle, Feather, Wooden Spoon : by Klein, Zoe
The Necessity of Exile : by Magid, Shaul
And None Shall Make Them Afraid : by Richman, Rick
Soloveitchik
Hope : by Ridker, Andrew
When We Collide : by Epstein-Levi, Rebecca J
Time
Doppelganger : by Klein, Naomi
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store / by McBride, James
The Diaries / by Kafka, Franz
After Camus : by Neugeboren, Jay
A Small Sacrifice for An Enormous Happiness : by Chakrabarti, Jai
The Dressmakers of Prospect Heights : by Zeldis, Kitty
18 :
West Jerusalem Noir /
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow : by Zevin, Gabrielle
Dream Big, Laugh Often : by Piven, Hanoch
The Dybbuk Century :
Subculture Vulture : by Kasher, Moshe
Halakhic Man / by Soloveitchik, Joseph Dov

Upcoming Events

Stranger in the Desert: A Family Story, with Jordan SalamaVirtual

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 […] ...
Wed, Mar 20
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom

The Kennicott Bible: A Masterpiece of Jewish Book Art, with Katrin Kogman-AppelVirtual

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 […] ...
Sun, Mar 31
11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom

Temptation Transformed: The Story of How the Forbidden Fruit Became an Apple, with Azzan Yadin-IsraelVirtual

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 […] ...
Sun, Apr 07
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom

Drop-In Book Discussion: Kantika by Elizabeth Graver, Facilitated by Jim Van BuskirkIn-Person

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 […] ...
Sun, Apr 07
2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
Jewish Community Library
1835 Ellis Street, San Francisco, CA 94115

Moses: Provocations from a Disabled Prophet, with Rabbi Julia Watts Belser Virtual

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 […] ...
Sun, Apr 14
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom

Pathways to Preserving Family Histories, with Basya PetnickVirtual

Click here to register for this free virtual event, co-presented by the 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 are available? […] ...
Wed, Apr 17
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom

The Hebrew Teacher, with Maya AradIn-Person

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.  Three Israeli women, their lives altered by immigration to the United States, seek to overcome crises. […] ...
Thu, May 02
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Jewish Community Library
1835 Ellis Street, San Francisco, CA 94115

Elizabeth Graver on KantikaVirtual

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 […] ...
Sun, May 05
3:00 pm - 4:30 pm
Virtual via Zoom

Sephardi Jewry and the Rise and Fall of Ladino, with Aron Rodrigue (in person in Palo Alto)In-Person

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 […] ...
Thu, May 09
7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Oshman Family JCC
3921 Fabian Way, Palo Alto, CA 94303

Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor’s Unlikely Adventure, with Mimi ZiemanIn-Person

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 […] ...
Sun, May 12
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Jewish Community Library
1835 Ellis Street, San Francisco, CA 94115

Under the Hood: Using Jewish Archival Materials to Create New Music and Arrangements, presented by Cookie Segelstein with live examples by Veretski PassIn-Person

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 […] ...
Thu, May 16
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Jewish Community Library
1835 Ellis Street, San Francisco, CA 94115

Israel’s Black Panthers, with Asaf Elia-ShalevVirtual

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 […] ...
Wed, May 29
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom

Walkers in the City: Jewish Street Photographers of Midcentury New York, with Deborah Dash MooreVirtual

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 […] ...
Sun, Jun 09
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom

Drop-In Book Discussion: The Loves of Judith by Meir Shalev, Facilitated by Jim Van BuskirkIn-Person

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.  […] ...
Sun, Jun 23
2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
Jewish Community Library
1835 Ellis Street, San Francisco, CA 94115

Carrying a Big Schtick: Jewish Acculturation and Masculinity in the Twentieth Century, with Miriam Eve MoraVirtual

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 […] ...
Wed, Jun 26
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Virtual via Zoom
No event found!

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

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

Palo Alto Pushcart

Location
Oshman Family JCC
3921 Fabian Way
Palo Alto, CA 94303

Hours
Wednesdays 8:30 AM to 1 PM