Current courses by topic: Modern History

H200-TS Instructors: Chester Starting: 09/14/2010 Location: Temple Sinai

From biblical times to modern day, we will survey the history of Jews and Judaism throughout the world. Ancient- Rabbi Steven Chester: September 14 - October 26 Medieval- Rabbi Andrea Berlin: November 2 - January ...

H170-JCL Instructors: Warburg Starting: 10/28/2010 Location: BJE Jewish Community Library

Sue and Felix Warburg will share their extensive research into the history and personalities of the Jewish pioneers who settled in Northern California in the 1840s and 1850s. Who were they, and what did they ...

H250-JCL Instructors: Dollinger Starting: 10/12/2010 Location: BJE Jewish Community Library

The discovery of gold in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas inspired a massive immigration to California and an exciting new chapter in American Jewish history. Unlike cities to the east, San Francisco offered its ...

A200-JCL Instructors: Stein Starting: 10/21/2010 Location: BJE Jewish Community Library

When he exited Nazi Germany in 1933, the young German Jewish artist John Gutmann was determined to remake his life anew. Instead of aiming to resettle like the rest of his family in New York, ...

A500-SI Instructors: Strimling Starting: 10/05/2010 Location: Congregation Sherith Israel

The lecture will provide an overview of the exhibition of Bernard Baruch Zakheim, a Jewish immigrant from Poland who came to San Francisco in 1920 and whose painting was of a social realism inclination. He ...

A500-PJ Instructors: Strimling Starting: 11/14/2010 Location: Jazz Heritage Center

The lecture will provide an overview of the exhibition of Bernard Baruch Zakheim, a Jewish immigrant from Poland who came to San Francisco in 1920 and whose painting was of a social realism inclination. He ...

H270-JCL Instructors: Krow-Local Starting: 12/12/2010 Location: BJE Jewish Community Library

This year marks the centennial of the first “yidish natsyonale shule” — National (ethnic) Jewish School — which opened for weekend instruction on December 10, 1910, on Madison Street in the heart of New York’s ...

H250-TI Instructors: Gambert Starting: 11/17/2010 Location: Temple Isaiah

From Hill 24 Doesn't Answer to Sallah Shabati to more contemporary films like Lebanon and Eyes Wide Open, Israeli filmmakers have approached serious topics with bold insight. Using clips of feature films, shorts and documentaries, ...

H350-TI Instructors: Bramlett Starting: 01/26/2011 Location: Temple Isaiah

To understand the transcendent and troubling bond these three faiths feel for the Holy Land today, you need to dig into the past. This course will take you to the formative period of early Jewish ...

H150-OFJ Instructors: Heller Starting: 11/04/2010 Location: Oshman Family JCC

What was it like to be a young Jew in Poland between the first and second world wars? Using the interviews and images compiled by Centropa's Library of Rescued Memories, as well as autobiographies written ...

A200-ECH Instructors: Jugend Starting: 10/13/2010 Location: Congregation Etz Chayim

Music composed by Jews living in Nazi Ghettos provides both personal and historical testimonies. The presentations include an overview of various forms of music-making such as partisan, Yiddish, lullaby, cabaret and classical music. We will ...

H300-SJ Instructors: Rosenbaum Starting: 10/14/2010 Location: JCCSF

Out on a Ledge is the compelling memoir of Eva Libitzky, co-authored by award-winning historian Fred Rosenbaum. It tells the rarely examined story of a Hasidic girl in the Holocaust, a dutiful daughter who survived ...

H300-TS Instructors: Rosenbaum Starting: 11/09/2010 Location: Temple Sinai

Out on a Ledge is the compelling memoir of Eva Libitzky, co-authored by award-winning historian Fred Rosenbaum. It tells the rarely examined story of a Hasidic girl in the Holocaust, a dutiful daughter who survived ...

H150-JCL Instructors: Kahn Starting: 10/07/2010 Location: BJE Jewish Community Library

From the California Gold Rush of 1849 to the explosion of population centers in the Southwest in the 1980s, Jews have played a significant role in shaping the Pacific West. In the process, they have ...

H400-OFJ Instructors: Zipperstein Starting: 11/19/2010 Location: Oshman Family JCC

Steven Zipperstein, Koshland Professor in Jewish Culture and History at Stanford, has published widely on the history of Russian Jewry and has taught at universities in Russia, England, France and elsewhere. His lecture will explore ...

H300-TI Instructors: Grist Starting: 10/13/2010 Location: Temple Isaiah

This series offers a Jewish perspective on winemaking and wine culture, as well as the uniquely Jewish spiritual and ritual values associated with wine. In our first session, we'll explore the origins of wine culture ...

H300-CBE Instructors: Grist Starting: 10/21/2010 Location: Congregation Beth El

This series offers a Jewish perspective on winemaking and wine culture, as well as the uniquely Jewish spiritual and ritual values associated with wine. In our first session, we'll explore the origins of wine culture ...

H350-SJ Instructors: Grist Starting: 09/21/2010 Location: JCCSF

The belief in one God is Judaism's gift to Christianity and Islam. But did it all start with Judaism? In fact, the ancient Near East produced two monotheistic faiths, one from Egypt, and one from ...

H230-JCL Instructors: Gitlin Starting: 12/01/2010 Location: BJE Jewish Community Library

Gitlin and Leibovitz argue that what unites the United States and Israel as allies in a “special friendship” is less common strategic interests than the deep-seated belief that they were chosen by God. In Chosen ...

H200-JCL Instructors: Rosenbaum Starting: 11/18/2010 Location: BJE Jewish Community Library

San Francisco's largest and most vibrant Jewish neighborhood was dense with synagogues, schools, mutual aid societies, kosher butchers and restaurants, cultural centers, and much more from the earthquake to the mid-1960s and especially during the ...

H250-ST Instructors: Kohn Starting: 10/12/2010 Location: Congregation Shomrei Torah

Join Rabbi Daniel Kohn for a fast-paced survey of Jewish history beginning over 4,000 years ago with the Torah through the Talmud, including Greco-Roman times and more. We'll blast through Medieval times in Europe and ...

A300-CJM Instructors: Rosenbaum Starting: 10/21/2010 Location: Contemporary Jewish Museum

The CJM presents a panel discussion on public art, social responsibility and ethnic identity, in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the WPA (Works Progress Administration). Panelists include: Fred Rosenbaum, founding director of Lehrhaus Judaica ...

A500-JHC Instructors: Rosenbaum Starting: 10/20/2010 Location: Jazz Heritage Center

In the 1930s, Bernard Baruch Zakheim (1896-1985) was one of the leading artists in the Bay Area and one of the foremost Jewish artists in the country. He was also one of the most controversial. ...