Jewish Bay Area Lifecycle Resources

Jewish Bay Area Lifecycle resources have offerings for the observance and celebration of Jewish lifecycle events and milestones. This includes birth, adoption, infertility issues, brit milah (bris), circumcision, Bar Mitzvah, Bat Mitzvah, Wedding and funeral. You can find a source here whatever you are searching for. Need a rabbi to conduct a Jewish ceremony such as a Bar Mitzvah or Bat Mitzvah, a Jewish wedding or an interfaith wedding, or a funeral? They are here in Jewish Bay Area Lifecycles. There are also many organizations to help with everything from Jewish adoption, issues around infertility, ritual cleansing (mikvah.)  Also contains locations of Jewish cemeteries of various denominations for Jewish burials and cemeteries. The San Francisco Bay Area is a place where new ideas and creative interpretations of traditional observances are germinated. Then they grown into full-fledge movements. Jewish organizations in the Bay Area are always thinking outside the box to find new ways to enliven their traditions to excite and energize Jews of all ages and their families. The full range of Jewish denominations and expressions find their home here, within the 10 counties that surround the San Francisco Bay. Jewish Bay Area Resources provides a buffet with the most sumptuous fare displayed on its table. It offers up many ways to express one’s religious and spiritual beliefs and practices. This is evident in the alternative to Brit Milah, the traditional circumcision rite of passage.  The area has a non-cutting form of expressing the Abrahamic covenant that is one of the hallmarks of Jewish tradition. With alternative ideas given expression, organizations have sprung up in the Bay Area to provide service and support to those new ways of “doing Jewish.”

Jewish Bay Area Lifecycle Resources

Local congregations, individual rabbis, agencies and organizations provide support, advice, counseling and services to assist individuals and families during various lifecycle events. Congregations and additional religious organizations are listed in Chapter 4, Religious Life.
Bay Area

General Resources

Bay Area

Jewish Birth, Adoption & Circumcision

East Bay

Hasidah
Hasidah is the voice of hope and compassion that raises awareness of infertility, provides emotional and spiritual care, and reduces financial barriers to treatment in the Jewish community.
http://www.hasidah.org
Learn More

Stuart Avram Zangwill, M.D.
Performs spiritual, meaningful brit milah ceremonies for all affiliations and interfaith couples. Board certified in both pediatrics and pediatric hospital medicine with over 25 years experience performing circumcisions with anesthesia/pain control.
http://zmohel.com

Learn More
Bay Area

Adoption Connection
Provides support and services to adoptive parents and birthmothers during and after pregnancy. Full-service, nonprofit, licensed adoption agency and open adoption leader. A division of S.F.-based Jewish Family and Children's Services.
http://adoptionconnection.org
Learn More

Bruchim
A Jewish nonprofit that works to ensure that families opting out of circumcision are welcomed openly by Jewish institutions and take an active role in the Jewish community.
http://bruchim.online
Learn More

Piser & Piser Mohelim
Bay Area urologist/hand surgeon; husband/wife mohelim team, trained and certified by Hebrew Union College; performing personalized, spiritually enlightening brit milah and hatafat dam brit (for previously circumcised converts) since 1991.
Learn More
North Bay
Peninsula
San Francisco

Alternatives to Brit Milah

Ceremony for families opting out of circumcision.
Bay Area

Bruchim
A Jewish nonprofit that works to ensure that families opting out of circumcision are welcomed openly by Jewish institutions and take an active role in the Jewish community.
http://bruchim.online
Learn More

Adoption & Infertility

East Bay

Hasidah
Hasidah is the voice of hope and compassion that raises awareness of infertility, provides emotional and spiritual care, and reduces financial barriers to treatment in the Jewish community.
http://www.hasidah.org
Learn More
Bay Area

Adoption Connection
Provides support and services to adoptive parents and birthmothers during and after pregnancy. Full-service, nonprofit, licensed adoption agency and open adoption leader. A division of S.F.-based Jewish Family and Children's Services.
http://adoptionconnection.org
Learn More
North Bay

Bay Area Brit Milah (Circumcision)

The ritual of brit milah is performed to symbolize the covenant between God and the people of Israel. The brit (or bris) takes place on the eighth day of a male baby's life (provided there are no health problems). Traditionally, the brit is performed by a mohel, a ritual circumciser familiar with the relevant laws and customs.
East Bay

Stuart Avram Zangwill, M.D.
Performs spiritual, meaningful brit milah ceremonies for all affiliations and interfaith couples. Board certified in both pediatrics and pediatric hospital medicine with over 25 years experience performing circumcisions with anesthesia/pain control.
http://zmohel.com

Learn More
Bay Area

Bruchim
A Jewish nonprofit that works to ensure that families opting out of circumcision are welcomed openly by Jewish institutions and take an active role in the Jewish community.
http://bruchim.online
Learn More

Piser & Piser Mohelim
Bay Area urologist/hand surgeon; husband/wife mohelim team, trained and certified by Hebrew Union College; performing personalized, spiritually enlightening brit milah and hatafat dam brit (for previously circumcised converts) since 1991.
Learn More
North Bay
Peninsula
San Francisco

Brit Bat/Simchat Bat (Rejoicing for Daughter)

The birth of a baby girl is traditionally marked in the synagogue when her father or parents are called to the Torah on the Sabbath to give the newborn her Hebrew name. The past decade has seen the development of various naming ceremonies for girls. In fact, there is a growing liturgy around the brit bat, and various alternative rituals have been proposed. This ritual is frequently performed on the eighth day of a baby girl’s life.

Pidyon Haben (First-born Redemption)

A pidyon haben, redemption of a son, takes place 30 days after the birth of a first-born baby boy. The tradition is based on the belief that first-born sons were to serve God in the Temple. To redeem them from that obligation, five shekels were given to the Temple priests, who then served in the Temple instead. The ceremony today usually involves a symbolic charitable donation.

Circumcision Alternatives

Bar & Bat Mitzvah

Typically celebrated in the synagogue, the bar/bat mitzvah marks a young person becoming an adult member of the community. Traditionally, the 13-yearold is called upon to recite the Torah blessings and to read a Haftorah, a selection from the prophets. Variations on the ceremony exist. Study programs are also available throughout the community for adult men or women who missed the opportunity to celebrate a bar/bat mitzvah as a teenager. Synagogues provide bar and bat mitzvah training. See "Religious Life & Organizations."

Confirmation

For Reform and some Conservative Jews, the confirmation year (10th or 11th grade) represents a special time of celebration and commitment. It includes study and meetings with the rabbi, culminating in a special service, often held during the Shavuot holiday, which commemorates the receiving of the Torah by the Jewish people.

Chanukat Habayit

In the traditional ceremony of “dedicating the home,” a mezuzah is put up within 30 days of moving into a new home. A mezuzah is a small container that holds a handwritten scroll of parchment with Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and 11:13-21 on the front side and the word Shaddai (Almighty) on the back. The passages contain the Shema, considered the watchword of Jewish faith, proclaiming the oneness of God. The mezuzah is placed on the upper third of the doorpost, on the right side as one enters.

Mikvah

A ritual pool of fresh "living" water, the mikvah is used for spiritual purification. For some Jews, married life involves laws of taharat hamishpacha (family purity), which require a wife's monthly immersion in a mikvah after menstruation before she reunites with her husband. The mikvah is used today by some brides and grooms before their wedding. Jews-by-choice traditionally visit the mikvah as part of their conversion process.
East Bay
North Bay
Peninsula

Mikvah Society of San Jose
By appointment and for women only. Please call at least three days in advance. $20 donation requested. Please prepare at home and bring your own towel, etc.
Learn More
San Francisco

Marriage

Marriage within the Jewish community is packed with familial, social and religious considerations. Jewish weddings are often a joining not only of two individuals and their families, but also of different parts of the community. Above all, a wedding is a simcha, a commandment in which the bride and groom rejoice. The main elements of a wedding are kiddushin and erusin (sanctification of betrothal), the betrothal blessing, presentation of the ring, reading of the ketubah (marriage contract) and its presentation to the bride, recitation of the seven marriage blessings, drinking of wine to sanctify the marriage, and breaking of the glass (to remember the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem even on joyous occasions). Additional traditions are the bedeken, in which the groom places the veil over his bride’s face, and the encircling of the groom by the bride. Although a Jewish wedding need not take place in a synagogue, most Jews planning to marry turn to a rabbi or synagogue for some aspect of the wedding. Marriage preparation classes are offered in many branches of Jewish Family & Children’s Services, listed in Chapter 6, Social Services.
San Francisco

Marriage Officiating

Also see Chapter 4, Religious Life & Congregations.
San Francisco

Divorce

Couples contemplating divorce are urged to consult with a rabbi regarding the advisability of obtaining a religious divorce in addition to a civil divorce.
Peninsula

Rabbinical Court for Jewish Divorce
The Rabbinical Court arranges for the get, the halachic divorce document, to be executed in a manner recognized as legitimate throughout the world, including by the Rabbanut in Israel.
Learn More

Jewish Death

The Jewish traditions related to death and mourning are intended to recognize death as a part of life. Burial takes place as soon after death as possible. Traditional caskets are of plain wood, embalming and viewing of the body are shunned, and flowers are discouraged. Rabbis should be consulted for specific questions about burial and mourning practices such as the observance of shiva, recitation of the Kaddish, yahrzeit observance and attending yizkor services. Funeral homes and chevra kadishas (burial societies) can also answer questions.
Santa Cruz / Monterey
East Bay
Bay Area
North Bay
Peninsula
San Francisco
South Bay

Ritual Preparation

Santa Cruz / Monterey
East Bay
Bay Area
North Bay
South Bay

Cemeteries

Santa Cruz / Monterey
East Bay
North Bay
Peninsula
San Francisco
South Bay

Bereavement

East Bay
Bay Area

Funerals

East Bay
Peninsula
San Francisco
South Bay

Monuments

Back to Top