The Northern California branch (#1054) of the national group promotes secular Yiddish culture, Jewish education and social justice through events in the San Francisco Bay Area. In recent years, the branch, also known as the Maurice Savin branch, has created and co-sponsored poetry readings, as well as talks, panels and exhibits on Yiddish theater and labor and activist history. Other offerings include klezmer concerts, secular Jewish New Year celebrations, a labor seder and Hanukkah/khanike parties, along with mini-courses and discussion groups on Yiddish history and culture.

The branch also sponsors free, biweekly Beginning Yiddish classes in San Francisco. Members and friends participate in area marches for peace and justice and in activities that support union contracts, gender and civil rights issues and environmental justice. The national organization, founded in 1900, originally served immigrant and Yiddish-speaking Jews in need of mutual aid who were working far a shenere un besere velt far ale (for a more beautiful and better world for all). This remains the progressive group’s motto. It welcomes inquiries from the next generation.