On Monday, a lawsuit claiming San Francisco State University (SFSU) is “among the worst of the worst” for anti-Semitism was filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. The suit, Mandel et al v. SFSU et al, was filed by…

The after effects of the war fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, “The Six Day War,” still reverberate today. A great deal of ink has been spilled telling the tale of how Israel defeated a coalition of Arab armies to maintain its existence, establish…

In celebration of Jewish American Heritage Month, I’m detailing just some of the Anderson Family in San Francisco’s incredible contributions to art, culture, athletics and society. Their family’s combined civic contributions are too many to list in…

Holocaust Remembrance Ceremonies in the Bay Area

Yom Hashoah Ve-Hagevurah, "The Day of (Remembrance of) the Holocaust and the Heroism," is marked annually on the 27th day in the month of Nisan, a week after the end of Passover. This year it falls…

JCRC has been extra busy these first few months of 2017 advocating on behalf of our community both here and in Israel. We hosted an extraordinarily well-attended and impactful Jewish Community Forum with support from our local Federations and the…

This month JCRC Executive Director Abby Porth joined Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) President and CEO David Bernstein in publishing two important think pieces at eJewish Philanthropy about the power, importance and potential folly of…

Since January, Jewish institutions across the country have been evacuated one after another because of bomb threats. Just Monday, 28 sites, including three in our Bay Area Jewish community, were targeted with additional threats. There have been no…

In November, JCRC brought together a unique group of Bay Area Jewish community leaders for a special training by The Op-Ed Project, which educates women and others who are often underrepresented among the experts in their fields to take…

Just days into his presidency, Donald Trump signed an executive order banning refugees and citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States. He also signed an executive order calling for the construction of a border wall…

Working locally with our friends in the Hizmet Movement

So much is uncertain in our country with a new president, congress, cabinet leaders, and soon Supreme Court Justice. However you might feel about them, it's easy to become myopicly focused on…

Bear A Torch – Alongside the threats to limit immigration from majority-Muslim countries, there has been a not-coincidental increase in uncivil political discourse directed at Muslim and other minority students in schools around the country,…

Bear a Torch – Invest in Peace is a coalition of Bay Area community leaders, business owners, officials and activists promoting people-to-people partnerships among Israelis and Palestinians as a way to move toward two states living side-by-side in…

Bear a Torch - As the nation’s largest statewide lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender civil rights organization dedicated to creating a fair and just society, Equality California (EQCA) is working within California, at the federal level, and directly…

Following a vote by the UN Security Council on Israel’s settlements – a vote from which the United States abstained – outgoing U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave dueling speeches. Both occurrences…

Bear A Torch – This week’s torchbearer, Shalom Bayit, was born as a task force addressing domestic violence in the Bay Area Jewish community, but has always remained connected to a broader national agenda. Focused on the intimate space of the home,…

Bear a Torch – This week’s torchbearer, the Jewish Coalition for Literacy (JCL), is dedicated to eliminating childhood illiteracy by mobilizing tutors, engaging parents and expanding home libraries to help underserved public school children…

Bear a Torch – This week's torchbearer, Exhale, uses pro-voice approaches and tools to support women in sharing their personal abortion stories. Want to champion these beliefs and transform abortion stigma into respect? ACT NOW: Join the pro-voice…

Bear a Torch – Following the recent election and its divisive campaigns, many in our community have turned to JCRC for guidance. With our history convening people from across the political spectrum to meaningfully discuss challenging topics, we know…

In the novel Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield pays a visit to an old English teacher, Mr. Antolini, who tells him, “I don’t want to scare you, but I can very clearly see you dying nobly, one way or another, for some highly unworthy cause.”…

One of my greatest passions is supporting Latin-American Jewry, particularly their influence and involvement in the arts and culture of the Americas. All my life I was fascinated by South America. I always imagined I’d fit in well within Argentina,…

Addressing Homelessness & Affordable Housing

Homelessness remains a prominent stain on the “California Dream.” San Francisco alone has 6,500 homeless people, the second-highest in the entire country. The state that’s home to the booming tech and…

Six years ago, Redwood City resident Betsy Rosenthal was looking to get more involved in the Jewish community. Her daughter had recently participated in a philanthropic service project to benefit the Jewish Coalition for Literacy (JCL), a nonprofit…

This California legislative cycle the San Francisco-based Jewish Community Relations Council is supporting a pro-housing, pro-services agenda for San Francisco and a proposition that bolsters gun violence prevention laws in the State of California.…

“If you will it, it is no dream.” – Theodore Herzl

These are the words that kept running through my head as our bus ferried us between new housing complexes, high-tech offices, and the largest amphitheater anywhere near the Mediterranean. The tour…

It was my first day at Greenleaf Elementary School in Oakland, and anxiety was building up inside me as I walked the halls of the unknown school. The kids here were different. They were from a different religion, different races and a different…

On August 1, 2016, The Movement for Black Lives released a national platform. The document includes 40 policy suggestions. One section, “Invest-Divest,” caused significant national Jewish community and media attention because it includes hateful and…

How a Literacy Volunteer Discovered his True Calling

For the past six years Don Neuwirth, a schoolyard planner by profession, frequently volunteered through the Jewish Coalition for Literacy (JCL) as a reading tutor at Buena Vista Horace Mann…

The Economist’s cover story, “Drawbridges Up,” highlights a new political phenomenon that’s upending traditional right-left lines in the West: the debate between open and closed societies. In both the U.S. and Europe, we’ve seen drawbridge-up…

Lately, it has felt like every morning begins with a news story that brings us to our knees. Weighing heavily today is the news from North Miami, where an African American therapist trying to calm his autistic patient was shot in the process by an…

For the past 16 days we have been encouraging a wide variety of actions against gun violence. One key way to take action that we have not yet discussed is by supporting the many community-based programs preventing violence before it’s initiated.…

Many of us are trying to make sense of what happened in Orlando, placing the worst mass shooting in American history in one silo at the cost of others. But in reality, the attack in Orlando brings everything together. It’s as intersectional as…

In the photo above, Rabbi Doug Kahn holds aloft two prints by Polish born Jewish artist Arthur Szyk. Both of these luminous works are part of Szyk’s Visual History of Nations series, which was intended to celebrate the contributions that individual…

In the last year I’ve had all kinds of frightening new experiences. Around the time that an anti-Israel billboard went up along Highway 680, for example, I was called out to investigate a report of a flyer demonizing Israel on cars in the area.…

Growing up in the Richmond District of San Francisco, I was told I was Jewish but felt isolated. We didn’t attend synagogue, my schoolmates were Chinese American and my mother – despite a strong Jewish upbringing – identified with Eastern culture…

Eighty years ago, Abraham Cahan wrote, “There were no elections in the country from which we had fled. The ballot box and all it represented was the sacred hope for which many of our countrymen in Russia had martyred their lives.”

Voting in open…

A robust delegation from the Bay Area traveled to Sacramento this week, joining Jewish community members from across the state to network with legislators and advocate for public policy issues of importance to the broad Jewish community, as part of…

Yom Hashoah Ve-Hagevurah Ceremonies in the Bay Area

Yom Hashoah Ve-Hagevurah, "The Day of (Remembrance of) the Holocaust and the Heroism," is marked annually on the 27th day in the month of Nisan, a week after the end of Passover. A variety of…

True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.
--Socrates

San Francisco Hillel hosted Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat at San Francisco State University on Wednesday, April 6th. Within minutes a crowd led by the General Union of Palestinian…

If you come to North Shoreview Montessori School on a Wednesday afternoon, you’ll notice that just before 1 o’clock, the hallways fill with the jolly melody of the “Mickey Mouse March” and the majestic “Ode to Joy.” You can bet that Norma Tarrow…

Almost two years ago some friends and I organized to flag for removal a Facebook page called “Death to Israel.” We felt the page was clearly anti-Semitic and in violation of Facebook’s community standards. I was surprised when Facebook declined to…

Apartheid Week, San Francisco State University, spring 2014 – As an engaged Jewish student active in San Francisco Hillel for more than a year I thought I knew what to expect. But, in fact, what I saw changed me and altered the course of my ensuing…

It was Rabbi Menachem Landa of Chabad Novato who modeled for me the value of going door-to-door to connect with our community.

When Rabbi Landa arrived with Chabad Novato co-founder Adina Landa in Northern California four years ago this March, he…

Today is the last day of Black History Month 2016. Throughout the month, we have featured on our social media the intersection of the African American and Jewish communities. As we wrap up the month, I want to share my speech from the San Francisco…

This is a continuation. For part 1 click here.

I’ve often joked that, in my position as JCRC Executive Director, being a rabbi means much more in the non-Jewish community than the Jewish community. The fact is that the training and the knowledge…

My spiritual journey is not a subject I’ve generally spoken about before, let alone given as much thought to as I should. But I was asked to address the topic at the most recent San Francisco Interfaith Council breakfast attended by representatives…

Just before MLK Day weekend, the National LGBTQ Task Force, one of the nation’s oldest and most prominent LGBT advocacy organizations, suddenly canceled a long-scheduled session at its Creating Change conference. The session was to be hosted by A…

JCRC affirmed a new JCRC Consensus Statement on Economic Justice last week at its first Assembly meeting of 2016. The new statement affirms the value and dignity of every human life and asserts that the Bay Area organized Jewish community, which…

Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.” -Martin Luther King,…

2015 was a big year for me. Not only was my son, Abraham, born – he’s an absolute delight! – but it was also my first year with the Jewish Community Relations Council.

When I started at JCRC I hoped to find a tight-knit group with a strong team…

When I booked my flight to Bali for a month-long yoga teacher training, I can honestly say I was not thinking about my Jewish identity. Yet, the trip ended up connecting me to my family and my community in a way I never would have expected.

Growing…

On December 9, JCRC, Jewish Family & Children’s Services (JFCS), and the Oshman Family JCC (OFJCC) held the first-ever JCRC Civic Connection for the South Peninsula. This Chanukah-themed reception drew nearly 70 attendees all of whom were grateful…

This week I have been thinking about JCRC’s role as the public face of the Jewish community and how this relates to lighting of the hanukkiyah, one of the most public Jewish rituals.

At the time of the Maccabbees, in the mid-second century BCE, the…

“Call JCRC!” is a refrain we hear multiple times each week coming from our community. If you’ve personally urged such action, thank you for your trust in JCRC to help resolve sensitive and complex community issues. 

Occasionally, the issues we…

The following was given as the Closing Prayer at the San Francisco Interfaith Council’s 18th Annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Prayer Breakfast on November 24, 2015. In honor of San Francisco’s Sanctuary Movement, the theme of the event was “Faith and…

Following last week’s deadly terror attacks in Paris, people around the world have joined in a massive outpouring of grief and outrage. This outcry has included communities of all faiths: Jewish, Muslim, Christians, all stand united with the people…

The Jewish Coalition for Literacy (JCL) and The Brandeis School of San Francisco have partnered for a second year of peer tutoring. JCL has trained 22 seventh and eighth graders from Brandeis to act as Reading Buddies for Buena Vista Horace Mann…

JCRC staff joined in the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) meeting in Washington, DC, last month. The nation’s largest gathering of Jewish community relations leaders, JCPA’s annual event brought representatives from numerous Jewish…

This past Saturday, Earl Raab, JCRC Executive Director Emeritus and one of the American Jewish community's most widely recognized and respected leaders, passed away in Forest Knolls, California, at age 96. The community is invited to his funeral,…

In its role as the public affairs arm of the Bay Area organized Jewish community, JCRC supported ten bills this California legislative cycle. Five of the bills were signed into law, three were vetoed by the governor, and the other two were moved to…

JCRC Associate Executive Director Abby Porth was appointed this week to serve on the San Francisco Human Rights Commission (SFHRC). Abby was pleased to accept this opportunity as an appointee of Mayor Ed Lee, and expressed her hope that others in…

During the playtime following Tot Shabbat, my daughter and her cousin, both of whom are two years old, called me into the kid-sized plastic house that Temple Israel keeps in its back patio area. As I ducked my 6-foot-frame through the door and…

I was walking through the Tenderloin the other day when a man started talking to me. He was telling me his story, how he had gone through some rough times in his life, and that now he really appreciated things like jazz, red wine, and good food. His…

Following the implementation of the Strategic Plan, consensus building remains a cornerstone of JCRC. After all, it is through convening our community and finding the consensus on pertinent public policy issues that we are able to be effective and…

My children have just returned to school, carrying new backpacks, bright lunchboxes, and – for my little one – an elephant “lovey,” or transitional object, in tow. Despite the frantic rush to get out the door each morning, the return to our…

JCRC reaches out regularly to other faith and ethnic groups as part of our important efforts in community relations. In fact, in a very real sense this interfaith and intergroup outreach is one of the core ways that we work to ensure a just society…

Jewish tradition emphasizes the importance of protecting the life and well-being of women, and there is a strong consensus in the organized Jewish community supporting a woman’s reproductive rights. That’s why we’ve long supported women’s health…

When I decided to take a gap year after high school to go to Israel, I had no idea what was in store for me. I would try to envision what my year would look like: Would I spend my afternoons making shakshuka and whipping up hummus plates with my…

By now we’re all very much aware that, for better or worse, a deal was reached last week between Iran and the P5+1 countries (the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, China and Russia). If you haven’t read JCRC’s statement, you can do so…

When I first arrived in Eugene to attend the University of Oregon in the fall of 2013, I thought I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I would major in Political Science, go on to be involved in politics, and continue my Jewish experience in Hillel.…

JCRC is currently implementing a dynamic new strategic plan, the third in its 70-year history, which will advance our mission of education and advocacy, and guarantee our efficacy in creating an inclusive, diverse forum for engaging the Bay Area’s…

The sound of the Muslim call to prayer echoed in the sanctuary of Peninsula Temple Beth El (PTBE) in San Mateo as more than 200 members from 26 faith houses gathered together to celebrate the Muslim Iftar Service on Sunday, June 28th. Imam Fatih…

Jewish summer camp has become a rite of passage for many of us. In fact, the Foundation for Jewish Camp estimates there are about 70,000 campers annually. For most of my friends, camp provided some of the most formative moments of their young lives.…

A crowd will march through downtown Oakland this Friday. For once, it will be a victory rally. That’s because in a 105-97 game (that had my neighbors whooping at the television last night), the Golden State Warriors have taken home the National…

“Part of what being Jewish means is to be involved – in the community, in the world, in the lives of those who may need us.”

The first time I met Janet Parker was at the Jewish Coalition for Literacy’s annual Chanukah party. In between getting to…

You would expect a conference on antisemitism to be depressing and, without question, the numbers aren’t pretty. The ADL Global 100 index suggests that worldwide 26 percent of people harbor antisemitic attitudes. Yet, at the 5th Global Forum on…

I am the proud Great-Granddaughter of Mr. Aaron Burdwise; a Baltimore-based musical merchandise importer, inventor, composer and entrepreneur who came to America from Uman, Ukraine in 1904. For many years, my family and I searched for detail…

An enthusiastic crowd of close to 500 people, including at least a dozen elected officials and city dignitaries, attended the first-ever celebration of Jewish American Heritage Month in San Francisco City Hall yesterday. The Jewish Community…

May is Jewish American Heritage Month, a national month of recognition of the more than 350-year history of Jewish contributions to American culture. In recognition JCRC is featuring a two-part overview of San Francisco Jewish Heritage, a.k.a. …

May is Jewish American Heritage Month, a national month of recognition of the more than 350-year history of Jewish contributions to American culture. In recognition, JCRC is featuring a two-part overview of San Francisco Jewish Heritage, a.k.a. …

On April 21, I joined a small group of Jewish friends at the “Centennial Concert in the Square,” an Armenian Genocide Commemoration Committee event held in San Francisco’s Union Square to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. I…

I worry. As a Jewish community professional, the commemoration of Yom HaShoah v HaGevurah heightens my apprehension. Seventy years after the camps were liberated and the war ended, the numbers of survivors are dwindling precipitously. What will…

Recent allegations of anti-Semitism at Stanford University are the latest reminder of how challenging the campus environment has become as a result of anti-Israel activity. A Stanford Student Senate candidate, who identifies as Jewish and Latina,…

Yom HaShoah Ve-Hagevurah, "The Day of (Remembrance of) the Holocaust and the Heroism," begins tonight at sundown and continues through sunset tomorrow. In remembrance, we’d like to share this poem written by Sylvan Kamens and Rabbi Jack Riemer.

We…

I just returned from two remarkable weeks in Israel. I arrived in advance of our annual JCRC study tour to Israel for major community leaders – university administrators, ethnic and religious leaders, public officials, LGBT and union leaders – a…

For Passover this week, Jews around the world will rejoice in retelling the story of the Exodus, when our ancestors fled from harsh slavery in Egypt. We are commanded to the tell the story as if we ourselves were slaves, so that we might remember…

Last month, JCRC held a meeting with two of Congresswoman Barbara Lee’s staffers, Jonathan Gast and Jose Hernandez, in her Oakland office. We discussed JCRC’s support for legal aid for unaccompanied minors fleeing violence in Central America, our…

The news these past months has been bleak – ISIS, Syria, Paris, Copenhagen. I find myself tensing up when I go online to see what’s happening, and I think, What will it be today?

Anti-Semitism and attempts to delegitimize Israel are nothing new,…

Today is Election Day in Israel and you may be watching the process closely, but you can only vote if you’re in Israel and an Israeli citizen. However, there is another Israel-related election that allows you to have your voice heard! And voting is…

This was the second year I’d been invited to speak about JCRC and our advocacy initiatives to the teens at the NCSY Teen Advocacy Program (TAP). The program is designed to provide the teens with advocacy tools and culminates in a visit to…

Avi Rose, Executive Director of Jewish Family & Children Services of the East Bay relayed a story to me about one of the first gay Ugandan refugees that JFCS/East Bay resettled in the Bay Area.  Avi invited him to his personal Passover Seder.  Part…

On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day one of my best friends spent his day scrubbing racist and anti-Semitic graffiti, including a swastika, off his wife’s office building in Santa Cruz. If I needed a reminder why in 2015 it’s still important to have a…

JCRC hosted its annual “Behind the Scenes” celebration of community champions on February 11, 2015. Placing a rare public spotlight on JCRC and its community and interfaith partners, the evening featured a packed program and a fantastic kosher meal.…

Four Jews were brutally murdered at a French kosher supermarket and the gunman stated that he chose the store because it was populated with Jews. Astoundingly, some hesitated to call this an anti-Semitic attack. Karen Armstrong, exceptionally…

Last month I had the pleasure of attending the 54th Annual Moose Feed, one of the largest local union events of the year. Hosted by the Northern California Carpenters Regional Council and the San Francisco Building & Construction Trades Council, the…

“I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits.  I believe that what self-centered men have torn down,…

Recently, there has been important attention paid to Jews of color in the Jewish press. The JTA printed an article, “Black, Jewish and challenging ideas about the face of federation,” about our colleague at the Jewish Community Federation, Ilana…

There is a set of rituals that mark the end of the calendar year and the beginning of the secular New Year. From lists to resolutions, the Jewish community has adopted many of these activities. As you can see from the Los Angeles Jewish Journal’s…

What is happening to Jewish students on our college campuses?   I am asked this question on almost a daily basis. The answer, like everything related to Israel, is complicated.  On one hand, Jewish life is thriving on many of our campuses, with…

“I’m Jewish too!” Roy slipped me a note at the end of the day. When I told my 7th graders that I was taking a day off to celebrate the Jewish New Year, Rosh Ha Shanah, my students groaned about having a sub. Some asked some questions,…

“Let me tell you about who Ed Lee really is,” the Mayor of San Francisco told the crowd, doing away with his notes to speak off the cuff. More than 80 Jewish community leaders gathered to meet and ask questions of Mayor Lee as part of JCRC’s Civic…