Did you miss it? Of course you did.
Jewish life on the Peninsula just wasn’t the same last year without To Life!, a Jewish Cultural Street Festival. The popular Palo Alto street fair took a back seat to the grand opening of the Taube Koret Campus for Jewish Life.
Thankfully, the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center, which organizes the festival, is bringing it back after the one-year hiatus.
To Life takes place 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 10 on Palo Alto’s California Street, which will be closed to traffic. The event is free.
All the charms that have made the festival a perennial favorite remain intact.
Those include one of the Bay Area’s prime venues for Jewish arts and crafts, non-stop musical entertainment and scrumptious kosher food.
As always, scores of local Jewish agencies, synagogues and institutions will have information booths up at the Koret Tents of Community.
If it’s tunes you seek, To Life is well in the groove. In addition to local Jewish choruses and youth choirs, Sephardic singer Stefani Valadez will take the main stage, as will Palo Alto hometown favorites the Klezmakers (they will be joined by Yiddish dance expert Bruce Bierman and a troop of dancers).
Headlining the festival will be indie Afro-pop band Fool’s Gold, performing from 4 to 5 p.m. on the Jessica Lynn Saal Memorial main stage.“At each festival, we try to present performances that represent the diverse expressions of Jewish culture,” says Oshman JCC community events director Amy Grossman.
There will also be ongoing performances on the Community Stage, starting at 12:15 p.m., and in the Family Area, with children’s skits, magic and more, beginning 11:30 a.m.
Always a highlight: the exquisite Judaica on display and for sale. This year, at least 55 local and Israeli artists will take part. The juried show will include such media as jewelry, textiles, ceramics, paintings, handcrafted clothing, glass, photography and sculpture.
Did we mention something about scrumptious kosher food? Serving vegetarian and kosher treats will be Mountain View’s Kitchen Table Restaurant, Oakland’s popular Middle Eastern eatery Amba, Kick’s Cookies and Ice Cream, Yes Catering and the Jewish Study Network, with its squad of burger-grilling rabbis ready to throw down.
As a family-friendly event, To Life has plenty for the kids. Local Jewish day schools, along with the Oshman Family JCC, will host a bevy of crafts activities. The JCC’s camp staff will also be on hand to organize games.
While To Life is a major event for the Bay Area Jewish community, it always seems to embody a small-town feel. In part that’s due to a corps of local volunteers who handle everything from setting up booths to selling drinks to helping out in the kids’ areas.
With the support of major Bay Area Jewish institutions, including the Koret Foundation, the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation, local Jewish day schools and this newspaper, To Life truly is a communitywide day of celebration.