Category Archives: The Jewish News of Northern California
Dianne Feinstein debuted in the Jewish press at age 13
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who died on Sept. 29, didn’t make her religion a focal point of her public or political life. But the Jewish community knew her as one of its own, and that’s the way this publication reported on the San Francisco native from the beginning of her career. Actually, it started even earlier than that. Read more » »
Why some Jews are returning to Gold Country
Soon after Bernie Zimmerman moved from San Francisco to rural Nevada County, he and his wife, Grace, attended a local New Year’s Eve bash. Right away, he noticed something strange about his neighbors. They were all armed. “Everybody had a gun on their hips,” Zimmerman recalled. “The women were pulling guns out of their purses. Read more » »
Death announcements for the week of Jan. 6, 2023 – J.
Obituaries are supported by a generous grant from Sinai Memorial Chapel. Robert Frank Jacobs Nov. 8, 1966–Dec. 26, 2022 Robert Frank Jacobs Robert Frank Jacobs was born on Nov. 8, 1966. He was a premature baby and spent his first six weeks in an incubator at Peninsula Hospital in Burlingame. He passed away on Dec. 26, 2022, from several strokes. Read more » »
A journalist’s prescient take on rise of antisemitism in U.S. – J.
Rummaging recently through my apartment’s chaotic collection of old periodicals, I unearthed a Pete Hamill column from a 1981 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle. I used to read the paper when I lived in the city. Hamill, who died in 2020, was a seminal New York journalist, author and editor whose career spanned more than half a century. Read more » »
FROM OUR ARCHIVES: High Holiday ads from days days of yore – J.
Recipes for baked apples, an advertisement urging you to enjoy “delicious, festive dining” with kosher poultry, calendar listings in boldface type. For readers of The Emanu-El, the Jewish Bulletin or even J. The Jewish News of Northern California, seeing those features in our publication signified only one thing — that Rosh Hashanah was coming. Read more » »
FROM THE ARCHIVE: A century of Bay Area Jewish summer camp – J.
In 1919, a group of young Jewish men from San Francisco came back from the wilds of Ben Lomond, near Santa Cruz. They’d been at a summer camp, then a novel idea for the Jewish youth of the city. But it had been a great success. Read more » »
ARCHIVES: In early 20th century, sports were measure of ‘Jewish manhood’ – J.
Why don’t more Jews play sports? In 1911, that question was on the mind of Rabbi Martin Meyer, who favored the moral and physical virtues of a nice outdoor game. Read more » »
Jewish groups decry Supreme Court decision on school prayer – J.
Prominent Jewish groups denounced the Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling Monday in favor of a public high school football coach who prayed midfield after a game — and they worried about what the decision will mean for Jews and other religious minorities. Read more » »
84-year-old surprised to find her name (and her bat mitzvah) in J. archive
Pearl Cohen was paging through J. a few weeks ago when something caught her eye. There, in an archives column on the very first Bay Area bat mitzvahs, she recognized a name — her own. “When I saw my name there, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh!’” she said. Born Pearl Ruten, Cohen was among the first cohorts of local girls to have a bat mitzvah. Read more » »
Death announcements for the week of Feb. 18, 2022 – J.
Obituaries are supported by a generous grant from Sinai Memorial Chapel. Harry A. Battat June 3, 1935–Feb. 4, 2022 Harry Battat Harry A. Battat passed away on Friday, Feb. 4, 2022, at UCSF Medical Center in San Francisco after a heroic battle with cancer and Covid. Harry was born June 3, 1935, and grew up in San Francisco. Read more » »
