San Francisco State University President Leslie Wong, who has faced criticism of his administration’s response to anti-Semitic incidents at the school over the last years, has announced he is retiring. Wong, president since 2012, was traveling and unavailable to talk to J., but other figures connected to the university offered comments. “It’s been a challenging…
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Location: San Francisco
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…
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…
Bay Area
Rise of Delta variant pushes Bay Area Jewish groups to change course
On Monday morning, Rabbi Raleigh Resnick received some bad news. A child at his Chabad’s summer camp in Pleasanton had tested positive for Covid. Then, a…
Art
Riffing on Leonard Cohen at CJM
Tracking Leonard Cohen’s peripatetic trail around the world while researching her magisterial Cohen biography “I’m Your Man” inevitably led Sylvie Simmons…
Local Voice
Why San Francisco is home to the world’s oldest Jewish film fest
Just a few years ago, at a gathering of filmmakers during the annual Berlin Film Festival, I was asked by a perplexed newcomer to the festival scene why…
Culture
CJM taps longtime SFMOMA staffer to be new executive director
At the conclusion of its monthslong, nationwide search for a new executive director, the Contemporary Jewish Museum has selected a local museum leader —…
Bay Area
Group floods S.F. with digital billboards to #EndJewHate
An East Coast nonprofit whose stated mission is to “rebrand Judaism” with a hip, made-for-social-media bent is behind dozens of advertisements seeking to…
Film
Review: Palestinian father knows best in ‘200 Meters’ … or does he?
Will the inclusion of a film that humanizes Palestinians invite controversy at this year’s San Francisco Jewish Film Festival? If a tree falls in the…