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Doug Kahn

Rabbi Doug Kahn

Rabbi Doug Kahn is executive director emeritus of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area, which he served for 34 years. The views expressed are his own.

Rita Semel at her home in San Francisco in 2020. (Norm Levin/J.)
Posted inFirst Person

A tribute to the extraordinary 104-year life of Rita Semel

Doug Kahn by Rabbi Doug Kahn May 28, 2026May 28, 2026

Note: This tribute is adapted from the writer’s introduction to the oral history of Rita Semel as part of the Oral History Project at UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library and was […]

smoke rises from a city
Posted inLocal Voice

As a Zionist and lifelong advocate, I believe Israel has gone too far

Doug Kahn by Rabbi Doug Kahn July 21, 2025July 23, 2025
Candles at a vigil for victims of the Hamas attacks at Congregation Shir Hadash in Los Gatos, Oct. 8. (Photo/Emma Steinberg)
Posted inLocal Voice

In war with Hamas, what is the moral use of Jewish power?

Doug Kahn by Rabbi Doug Kahn October 30, 2023November 3, 2023
Folk dancing in San Francisco on Israel's 25th Independence Day in 1973 (Photo/Saul Miller)
Posted inOpinion

Israel at 25, 50 and now 75: A personal reflection

Doug Kahn by Rabbi Doug Kahn April 21, 2023
Temple Sinai in Oakland in 1914
Posted inFrom the Archives

J. archives bring humanity of Bay Area Jewish history to life

Doug Kahn by Rabbi Doug Kahn March 23, 2023March 24, 2023
Bay Area Council for Soviet Jews' daily vigil in front of the Soviet Consulate, Nov. 24, 1986 (Photo/Tom Wachs)
Posted inUncategorized

50 years ago, we worked to free Soviet Jews. Those lessons still apply today.

Doug Kahn by Rabbi Doug Kahn August 16, 2021August 16, 2021
Journalists visiting a renovated barrack at Auschwitz, Dec. 1, 2016 (Photo/JTA-Cnaan Liphshiz)
Posted inHolocaust Remembrance Day

As Holocaust memories fade, our world becomes more perilous

Doug Kahn by Rabbi Doug Kahn January 17, 2020January 17, 2020
Rabbi Meir Kahane at a press conference, Aug. 31, 1984. (Photo/JTA-Gene Kappock-NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)
Posted inUncategorized

Embracing Kahanist extremism crosses a red line

Doug Kahn by Rabbi Doug Kahn February 25, 2019February 25, 2019
Noily stands next to a woman with a sign reading "Havdalah Against Hate"
Posted inLocal Voice

Why so many non-Jewish leaders showed up in our hour of need

Doug Kahn by Rabbi Doug Kahn November 5, 2018
Israeli tanks cross the Suez Canal during the Yom Kippur War (Photo/Wikimedia-Israel Defense Forces)
Posted inIsrael at 70

An eyewitness to Yom Kippur War, Ethiopian aliyah, Soviet Jewry and more

Doug Kahn by Rabbi Doug Kahn April 19, 2018

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