Courses by region: San Francisco

Add to cart A Taste of Hebrew

L100-SJ Instructors: Sach Peri Starting: 10/05/2010 Location: JCCSF

In this introductory course, students with little or no prior knowledge of Hebrew establish a basic foundation. Study the Hebrew alphabet, fundamental grammar and basic vocabulary. Learn to speak, understand and read in only 10 ...

Add to cart Advanced Hebrew

L400-SJ Instructors: Sach Peri Starting: 10/07/2010 Location: JCCSF

Created for students with high-level speaking and writing skills, this course offers an in-depth Hebrew reading and discussion forum on topics ranging from current events to Israeli culture. All courses are taught Israeli Ulpan style, ...

Adventurers: Pioneer Jews in the Gold Rush

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 ...

American Jewish Life On The Edge (of the continent): Jewish History and Identity in California and the West

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 ...

An Emigrant's Visual Discovery of A New World: John Gutmann in Film and Photography

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, ...

Add to cart Beginning Hebrew

L200-SJ Instructors: Sach Peri Starting: 10/05/2010 Location: JCCSF

Advance from the basics to the next level with a program full of conversation, letter recognition, reading proficiency and basic grammar. Build your vocabulary and learn more of the basic skills for living, including numbers ...

Add to cart Bernard Zakheim: The Man Behind The Murals

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 ...

Add to cart Bernard Zakheim: The Man Behind The Murals

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 ...

Celebrating a Century of Secular Jewish Education: The Hidden History of American Yiddish Shuln

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 ...

God's Others: Non-Israelites' Encounters With God in the Hebrew Bible — "Women of Valor"

T100-SI Instructors: Perlstein Starting: 10/12/2010 Location: Congregation Sherith Israel

We'll read stories of Hagar, Rahab, the Queen of Sheba and Ruth from the Tanakh plus commentary from the book God's Others, available for purchase at the first class. Books in softcover will be sold ...

Add to cart Intermediate Hebrew

L300-SJ Instructors: Sach Peri Starting: 10/06/2010 Location: JCCSF

Designed to build on previous knowledge, students improve their ability to read with understanding, increase vocabulary and practice everyday conversations. All courses are taught Israeli Ulpan style, with Hebrew being the language of instruction.

Add to cart Introduction to Judaism

I100-SJ Instructors: Baugh Starting: 10/06/2010 Location: JCCSF

Designed for Jews who seek a deeper connection with their heritage and for non-Jews wanting a greater understanding of Judaism, this course offers an opportunity to study texts, try Jewish practices, socialize and gain insights ...

Kosher Nation: Why More and More of America's Food Answers to a Higher Authority

P200-JCL Instructors: Fishkoff Starting: 12/09/2010 Location: BJE Jewish Community Library

Fishkoff offers a compelling overview of the phenomenon of kashrut and the kosher food industry in today’s world. She explains why 85 percent of the 11 million Americans who regularly buy kosher food are not ...

Musar: Discovering More Joy in Our Daily Lives

P150-BE Instructors: Melamut Starting: 11/28/2010 Location: Congregation B'nai Emunah

We will begin with a brief introduction to the discipline of Musar, and then dive into the practice, reflection, and discussion of some of the values that can help guide our daily lives. These will ...

Add to cart Out on a Ledge

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 ...

Pictures Worth a Thousand Words: Images of Jewish Reinvention on America’s Pacific Edge

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 ...

Add to cart The Birth of God: Legacies of Egypt and Israel

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 ...

The Chosen Peoples: America, Israel and the Ordeals of Divine Election

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 ...

Add to cart The Fabulous Fillmore

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 ...

The New Yiddish Literature: How it Transformed Jewish Courtship, Marriage and Sex

T200-JCL Instructors: Seidman Starting: 10/14/2010 Location: BJE Jewish Community Library

How did modern Jewish literature modernize Jewish sexual practices, marital structures, and erotic experiences? Modernity brought with it a host of changes that included the transformations of gender roles and erotic practices, from arranged marriages ...

Add to cart The WPA at 75: Social Art Then and Now

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 ...

The Wisdom Books: Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes: A Translation With Commentary

T250-JCL Instructors: Alter Starting: 10/19/2010 Location: BJE Jewish Community Library

Robert Alter’s translations of the Torah, the Psalms, and Samuel I and II have deepened the English reader’s encounter with the Hebrew Bible, offering tremendous insight into the Hebrew text and restoring the poetic voice ...

Add to cart Zakheim: Prophetic Justice in the Modern World

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. ...