Did we mention that garage parking is free and no RSVP is required?

This spring, the Library celebrates the 60th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel with a community art exhibit, dance programs, films, and a conversation with Israelis living in the Bay Area. In other offerings, poets explore Torah and Psalms, writers explore Jewish mothers, Iran, and Eastern Europe, and cultural historians discuss Jews in art, theatre, and dance.

For more information, contact Rose Katz at 415.567.3327 x 703.

Community Artists Look at Israel
Exhibit runs April 1 - July 31

Curated by Barbara Mortkowitz

In 2008, Israel celebrates its 60th anniversary. In this exhibit, community artists reflect, reminisce, and dream about this historic moment and about the land, its people, and their relationship to them. In their work, they express their hopes, their disappointments, their wishes, their visions, and their feelings of connection to or distance from Israel.

Family Program: Israeli Dance for the Whole Family with Bruce Bierman
Sunday, May 4, 1 pm

Kick off your shoes, circle up, join hands and celebrate Israel's 60th anniversary with fun and easy Israeli dances made just for children and kids at heart. For children, teens, and adults, age 6 years and up.

Bruce Bierman is the artistic director of the San Francisco based Jewish Dance Theatre, which offers traditional Jewish dance workshops for all ages around the Bay Area. Bruce holds his B.A. in Asian Theatre and Dance from U.C. Santa Cruz and has toured the country performing and teaching with the Aman Folk Dance Ensemble. Erased: Vanishing Traces of Jewish Galicia in Present-Day Ukraine
A Talk with Slides by Omer Bartov
Monday, May 5, 7:30 pm

Omer Bartov, a leading Holocaust scholar, journeys to the Western Ukrainian regions of the former Eastern Galicia to understand how centuries-old conflicts in the region contributed to the mass killings of the Holocaust and the complete erasure of Jews from public memory. Visiting twenty Ukrainian towns, he recreates the histories of the vibrant Jewish and Polish communities that once lived there and describes what remains today.

Omer Bartov is the John P. Birkelund Distinguished Professor of European History at Brown University. His books include Murder in our Midst: The Holocaust, Industrial Killing, and Representation and Hitler's Army: Soldiers, Nazis, and War in the Third Reich.

Co-sponsored by the Holocaust Center of Northern California and the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society The Jewish Film Class: Recent Films from Israel: Part III
The Syrian Bride (2004)
Tuesday, May 6, 7 pm

A Druze village in the Golan is readying a young woman to cross the Syrian border to marry a man she has never met. Once she marries, she will not be permitted to return, and her family will be unable to visit her. The preparations for the wedding reveal a family and village in disarray, with intolerance, sexism, and political loyalties tearing people apart. Things only get worse as the attempt to cross the border becomes an absurdist nightmare. Discussion follows screening. 97 minutes, in Arabic, French, Hebrew, and Russian with English subtitles. Yiddish Theatre of the Depression Era
A Talk with Film Clips by Joel Schechter
Thursday, May 15, 7:30 pm

Some of America's most innovative Yiddish stage productions opened under the auspices of the Federal Theatre Project between 1935 and 1939. The government-sponsored Yiddish theatre, which included a production of The Yiddish King Lear, satires by Jacob Bergreen, Moishe Nadir, and David Pinski, and a Yiddish stage version of Sinclair Lewis's It Can't Happen Here!, responded to the Great Depression with political humor and a resolve to overcome the nation's crises. This talk features a rare film clip from The Yiddish King Lear and previews Joel Schechter's essays on the Federal Theatre Project's Yiddish Unit from his new book, Messiahs of 1933.

Joel Schechter is professor of theatre arts at San Francisco State University, where he teaches theatre history and Jewish studies and occasionally directs a Yiddish play. With the illustrator Spain, he created a series of comic strips on theatre for the journal Jewish Currents.

Co-sponsored by The Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring of Northern California and KlezCalifornia, Inc.

Israel in the Gardens
Sunday, June 1, 2008, 11:00 am - 5:00 pm
Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco Jewish Socialists in America: History and Legacy
A Talk by Tony Michels
Thursday, June 5, 7:30 pm

In the late 19th and early 20th century, Jewish immigrants created a vibrant, secular, left-wing culture in the Yiddish language. Unlike many other newcomers to the United States, they embraced the politics and values of the left as reflected in their lectures and social events, Yiddish schools and theatre, and the Yiddish press. In his talk, Tony Michels will address the achievements and failures of Yiddish socialism and what remains of that legacy a century later.

Tony Michels received a Ph.D. in history from Stanford University and is George L. Mosse Associate Professor of American Jewish History at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He was awarded the Salo W. Baron Prize from the American Academy for Jewish Research in 2006 for his book A Fire in Their Hearts.

Co-sponsored by the Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring of Northern California Program made possible, in part, by Judy Baston

Genealogy One-on-One Help

Whether you're trying to find your great-grandmother's elusive town or your grandfather's passenger manifest, take advantage of the Library's extensive reference collection and Internet connection to countless searchable databases-all with one-on-one guidance from experienced genealogists.

Longtime Library volunteer staffer Judy Baston and other veteran researchers from the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society begin with a brainstorming and problem-solving roundtable, followed by individual attention using the Library's resources.

Bring your materials and your questions to the Library, generally the first Sunday of the month. Registration requested but not required; call (415) 567-3327, ext. 704.

Sunday, March 2, 12 - 2 pm
Sunday, April 6, 12 - 2 pm
Sunday, May 4, 12 - 2 pm
Sunday, June 1, 12 - 2 pm