Despite Congress and President Joe Biden recently designating Juneteenth a federal holiday, the United States still struggles to commemorate a jubilant, though complicated, moment of freedom from chattel slavery. As a nation, we have yet to fully reckon with the legacy of slavery and ongoing systemic racism. Commemoration of events both joyous and tragic is woven into…
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Jewish Life
Obituaries
Wallace Levin, backer of U.S. vets and an S.F. sleuth, dies at 91
In Hebrew, Wallace Levin might have been labeled a shomer, a watcher or a guardian. For most of his life, Levin stood guard, joining the Army during the…
First Person
What does Jewish tradition teach us when nature is out of balance?
Every houseplant I’ve ever been responsible for could attest, from beyond the grave, that I don’t exactly have a green thumb. So it was interesting to…
Health
Q&A: How a retired stockbroker became the ‘Spinning Rabbi’
Fred Fox thought he wanted to grow up to be a rabbi, comedian, therapist or entertainer. Instead, he became a stockbroker in his native New York City. Now…
Recipe
Three tasty — and scholarly — Sephardi Jewish recipes
“To eat is to remember.” That phrase from Hélène Jawhara Piñer’s “Sephardi: Cooking the History” sums up the theme of this new book about the culinary…
Bay Area
Camp scholarships now a 'Birthright' for Russian-speaking Jewish kids
Growing up in Soviet-era Ukraine in the 1970s and ’80s, attending Jewish summer camp was not an option for Rabbi Shimon Margolin of San Francisco. The…
Parenting
Summer is a real page-turner in my book-happy family
My grandparents’ basement is a magical place. Always cool in summer, it’s filled with piles of old movie posters from our family-owned movie theater,…
Organic Epicure
Fire Swamp’s bagels and babka are sizzlin’ hot at Novato market
The beginning of the pandemic for Alex Tishman was like that of so many other chefs. Employed at the time by the company Big City Chefs, he was mostly…
Religion
‘My Unorthodox Life’: Uninteresting and superficial
To paraphrase Shakespeare: In the Jewish world, this has been the “summer of our discontent.” First, there was Gaza. Then, there was the pandemic of…