Interested in helping to expand the Library’s collection? The Friends of the Jewish Community Library’s Adopt-A-Book program provides an opportunity to make a gift that will keep on giving. When you enable the Library to purchase an item from its wish list, that item will be enjoyed by users throughout the Bay Area.
You may adopt a book, a DVD, a CD, or an audio book, or an entire set of books in the Library’s Book Club in a Box program by selecting titles from the wish list below and making a donation that covers the expense. You may do so in memory or in honor of someone dear to you. Your gift will be reflected in a book plate placed in the chosen item. To adopt an item or learn more, call 415.567.3327 ext. 705 or write to hfreedman@jewishlearningworks.org.
Current wish list:
Book Club in a Box (sets of 12 books for lending to book groups free of charge):
I’d Like to Say Sorry, but There’s No One to Say Sorry To by Mikołaj Grynberg ($240)
Language, Literature, and Literary Criticism
Wrestling with Shylock: Jewish Responses to The Merchant of Venice by Edna Nahshon and Michael Shapiro ($120)
Saul Bellow: A Literary Companion by Mark Connelly ($40)
Jewish Anxiety and the Novels of Philip Roth by Brett Ashley Kaplan ($38)
Kafka’s Leopards by Moacyr Scliar ($27)
Searching for Wallenberg: A Novel by Alan Lelchuk ($25)
Jacob’s Ladder: A Novel by Ludmila Ulitskaya ($23)
1915 Diary of S. An-sky: A Russian Jewish Writer at the Eastern Front ($22)
Proust: The Search (Jewish Lives) by Benjamin Taylor ($22)
The Orange Peel and Other Satires by S.Y. Agnon ($16)
All I Could Never Be: A Novel by Anzia Yezierska ($15)
Art & War: Poetry, Pulp and Politics in Israeli Fiction by Lavie Tidhar ($12)
History and Biography
Encyclopedia of the Jewish Diaspora: Origins, Experiences, and Culture (3 Volume Set) by M. Avrum Ehrlich ($80)
The Image of Jews in Contemporary China by James Ross ($79)
Confessions of the Shtetl: Converts from Judaism in Imperial Russia, 1817-1906 by Ellie Schainker ($65)
Gentile New York: The Images of Non-Jews among Jewish Immigrants by Gil Ribak ($46)
Pillar of Fire: A Biography of Stephen S. Wise by A. James Rudin ($35)
Drawing the Iron Curtain: Jews and the Golden Age of Soviet Animation by Maya Balakirsky Katz ($35)
Old Lives and New: Soviet Immigrants in Israel and America by Edith Rogovin Frankel ($35)
Studies of Jewish Life in Bulgaria by Zvi Keren ($35)
Colonialism and the Jews by Ethan Katz and Lisa Moses Leff ($33)
Judeophobia: Attitudes toward the Jews in the Ancient World by Peter Schäfer ($33)
Zion in Africa: The Jews of Zambia by Hugh Macmillan and Frank Shapiro ($32)
The Jewish Community of Golders Green: A Social History by Pam Fox ($30)
Immigrants against the State: Yiddish and Italian Anarchism in America by Kenyon Zimmer ($30)
What Ifs of Jewish History: From Abraham to Zionism by Gavriel D. Rosenfeld ($28)
Saharan Jews and the Fate of French Algeria by Sarah Abrevaya Stein ($28)
Opening the Drawer: The Hidden Identities of Polish Jews by Barry Cohen ($27)
Ritchie Boy Secrets : How a Force of Immigrants and Refugees Helped Win World War II by Beverley Driver Eddy ($27)
Nationalizing a Borderland: War, Ethnicity, and Anti-Jewish Violence in East Galicia, 1914–1920 by Alexander Victor Prusin ($25)
The Lost Worlds of Rhodes: Greeks, Italians, Jews and Turks Between Tradition and Modernity by Nathan Shachar ($24)
Masada:
From Jewish Revolt to Modern Myth
by Jodi Magness ($24)
From Our Springtime: Literary Memoirs and Portraits of Yiddish New York by Reuben Iceland ($24)
The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise: Muslims, Christians, and Jews under Islamic Rule in Medieval Spain by Dario Fernandez-Morera ($24)
Jewish Philadelphia: A Guide to Its Sights & Stories by Linda Nesvisky ($22)
Ukrainians and Jews in Revolutionary Times, 1917-1920: A Prayer for the Government by Henry Abramson ($20)
Venice and Its Jews: 500 Years Since the Founding of the Ghetto by Lenore Rosenberg and Donatella Calabi ($17)
Israel
Ethiopian Jewish Immigrants in Israel: The Homeland Postponed by Tanya Schwarz ($48)
Imagining the Kibbutz: Visions of Utopia in Literature and Film by Ranen Omer-Sherman ($39)
Normalizing Occupation: The Politics of Everyday Life in the West Bank Settlements by Ariel Handel and Marco Allegra ($35)
The Origins of Israel, 1882-1948: A Documentary History by Eran Kaplan ($33)
Defining Neighbors: Religion, Race, and the Early Zionist-Arab Encounter by Jonathan Marc Gribetz ($30)
The Mystery of the Kibbutz: Egalitarian Principles in a Capitalist World by Ran Abramitzky ($30)
Israeli Society in the Twenty-First Century by Calvin Goldscheider ($28)
Lives in Common: Arabs and Jews in Jerusalem, Jaffa and Hebron by Menachem Klein ($27)
Six Singular Figures: Understanding the Conflict: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate by Hadara Lazar ($20)
Teaching Plato in Palestine: Philosophy in a Divided World by Carlos Fraenkel and Michael Walzer ($17)
Bible and Religious Thought
The Impact of Culture and Cultures Upon Jewish Customs and Rituals by Simcha Fishbane ($89)
The Jewish Dietary Laws in the Ancient World by Jordan Rosenblum ($80)
Rabbinic Authority (3 volumes) by A. Yehuda Warburg ($66)
The Formation of the Babylonian Talmud by David Weiss Halivni ($65)
Practicing Piety in Medieval Ashkenaz: Men, Women, and Everyday Religious Observance by Elisheva Baumgarten ($60)
The Daat Mikra Bible Atlas: A Comprehensive Guide to Biblical Geography and History by Yehuda Elitzur and Yehuda Keel ($60)
Intrigue and Revolution: Chief Rabbis in Aleppo, Baghdad, and Damascus, 1774-1914 by Yaron Harel ($58)
Etrog: How A Chinese Fruit Became a Jewish Symbol by David Z. Moster ($54)
Revelation and Authority: Sinai in Jewish Scripture and Tradition by Benjamin D. Sommer ($50)
The Last Rabbi: Joseph Soloveitchik and Talmudic Tradition by William Kolbrener ($44)
Escape Velocity, A Post-Apocalyptic Passover Haggadah by Stanley Aaron Lebovic ($42)
Modern Conservative Judaism: Evolving Thought and Practice by Elliot N. Dorff and Julie Schonfeld ($38)
The Radical American Judaism of Mordecai M. Kaplan (The Modern Jewish Experience) by Mel Scult ($37)
Tradition and the Formation of the Talmud by Moulie Vidas ($35)
Abraham Joshua Heschel and the Sources of Wonder by Michael Marmur ($35)
JPS B’nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary by Jeffrey Salkin ($30)
A Guide to the Complex: Contemporary Halakhic Debates by Shlomo M.Brody ($30)
Shadal on Exodus: Samuel David Luzzatto’s Interpretation of the Book of Shemot ($29)
In This Hour: Heschel’s Writings in Nazi Germany and London Exile by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel ($29)
Scholarly Man of Faith: Studies in the Thought and Writings of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik by Ephraim Kanarfogel and Dov Schwartz ($28)
The Closing of the Gates: N’ilah by Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman ($27)
Halakhic Morality: Essays on Ethics and Masorah by Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik ($26)
Reconstructing the Talmud: An Introduction to the Academic Study of Rabbinic Literature by Joshua Kulp ($25)
Derashot Ledorot: Deuteronomy, A Commentary for the Ages by Norman Lamm ($25)
Rest for the Dove: Reading for Shabbat by Haim Sabato ($25)
Masking and Unmasking Ourselves: Interpreting Biblical Texts on Clothing & Identity by Dr. Norman J. Cohen ($25)
Gershom Scholem: Master of the Kabbalah by David Biale ($25)
Nachmanides: An Unusual Thinker by Israel Drazin ($24)
The Importance of the Community Rabbi: Leading with Compassionate Halachah by Daniel Sperber ($24)
The Queen You Thought You Knew by Rabbi David Fohrman ($24)
Rabba, Maharat, Rabbanit, Rebbetzin: Women with Leadership Authority According to Halachah by Daniel Sperber ($24)
Peshat Isn’t So Simple: Essays on Developing a Religious Methodology by Hayyim J. Angel ($23)
When God Becomes History: Historical Essays of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook ($22)
The Beginning of Politics: Power in the Biblical Book of Samuel by Moshe Halbertal ($22)
Gender Equality and Prayer in Jewish Law by Rabbi Ethan Tucker ($22)
Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi: Prophecy in an Age of Uncertainty by Hayyim Angel ($22)
From Forbidden Fruit to Milk and Honey: A Commentary on Food in the Torah by Diana Lipton ($22)
The Spiritual Revolution of Rav Kook by Ari Ze’ev Schwartz ($21)
Loving and Beloved: Tales of Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berdichev by Simcha Raz ($21)
The Jewish Book of Grief and Healing: A Spiritual Companion for Mourning by Stuart M. Matlins ($18)
Thinking about the Torah: A Philosopher Reads the Bible by Kenneth Seeskin ($17)
The JPS Rashi Discussion Torah Commentary ($16)
Holocaust Studies
Saving One’s Own: Jewish Rescuers During the Holocaust by Mordecai Paldiel ($49)
Imprisoned: Drawings from Nazi Concentration Camps by Arturo Benvenuti ($30)
Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust: Language, Rhetoric and the Traditions of Hatred by Beth A. Griech-Polelle ($29)
The Holocaust Sites of Europe: An Historical Guide by Martin Winstone ($27)
Cooking and Food
Modern Jewish Comfort Food: 100 Fresh Recipes for Classic Dishes from Kugel to Kreplach by Shannon Sarna ($30)
The Arts
Bruno Schulz: An Artist, a Murder, and the Hijacking of History by Benjamin Balint ($28)
Miscellaneous
The Jewish Wardrobe: From the Collection of the Israel Museum by Daisy Raccah-Djivre ($58)
Jewish Treasures of the Caribbean: The Legacy of Judaism in the New World by Wyatt Gallery ($42)
Max Baer and Barney Ross: Jewish Heroes of Boxing by Jeffrey Sussman ($36)
Judaism and Human Rights by Carlos Ripoll ($35)
Mastering Hebrew Calligraphy by Izzy Pludwinski ($32)
Is Judaism Democratic?: Reflections from Theory and Practice Throughout the Ages by Leonard J. Greenspoon ($25)
The City in the Moonlight: Stories of the Old-Time Lithuanian Jews by Dovid Katz ($17)
DVDs
L’Chayim, Comrade Stalin ($310)
Carvalho’s Journey ($295)
Homicide ($30)
Vienna’s Lost Daughters ($25)
Jews and Buddhism: Belief Amended, Faith Revealed ($25)
Lacombe, Lucien ($24)
Jack L. Warner: The Last Mogul ($24)
From Toledo to Jerusalem ($20)
David Susskind Show: How to Be a Jewish Son ($20)
Border Street ($20)
Chariots Of Fire ($20)
ABC News Classics: Rabbi Heschel ($20)
Disengagement ($20)
Resistance: Untold Stories of Jewish Partisans ($18)
The Eternal Road: Kurt Weill & the Jewish Response to Hitler’s Germany ($17)
Frontline: Shtetl ($16)
Spark Among the Ashes ($16)
The Lost Jews of Kaifeng, China ($10)
