For years, Marcy Goldman has been given credit for inventing matzah brittle, or matzah crack. I recently spoke to Karyn Lipman, who believes she came up with the idea at the same time. (With local expert, Dianne Jacob) Exclusive to @jewishsf.bsky.social jweekly.com/2025/03/27/w...

First in a new series. And for the first time, I'm a veteran!

Our new series on AI and the Jews, written by veteran reporter @danfriedmanme.bsky.social, begins:

Enjoy this Challah Poppy Seed Babka with Bourbon Sugar Syrup for Purim or any time. My latest in @jewishsf.bsky.social jweekly.com/2025/03/10/t... #JewishFood

Submit your matzah recipe and maybe win some “bread!” $250 prize for the winning original #matzahmadness recipe from @jewishsf.bsky.social See link for details, rules and more. PS: I’m a judge so I can’t enter but you should! jweekly.com/matzah-madne... #JewishFood

For 50 years, the East Bay has been one of the homes of the Jewish Renewal movement. With the ordination of two new local rabbis, the legacy of the not-quite-denomination that brought mysticism to progressive Judaism continues to grow in the Bay Area.

“Forbidden: A 3,000 Year History of Jews and the Pig” by @profrosenblum.bsky.social demonstrates how the pig — as animal, metaphor and lunch — has shaped how Jews understand themselves and how others view Jews.

Rabbi Chayva Lehrman of San Francisco, a former USAID worker, makes the Jewish case for America's role as provider of humanitarian aid:

How do you use up all that excess matzah during Passover? Send us your best matzah-based recipes and you could win $250 in our Matzah Madness competition! Submissions are due by March 1. Get details ⬇️

As penance for calling San Francisco "rat-infested" last month, Charles Barkley toured Glide Memorial Church and its homeless services center with Rabbi Michael Lezak, who also gave the NBA legend some of his own handmade challah.

To honor the memory of his relatives killed in the Holocaust, San Francisco artist Ben Wood is brining back those memories in dreamlike animated videos of his grandparents’ homes in Germany — buildings that were destroyed after his family members were forced to leave.

Remember the guy who was ejected from a coffee shop in Oakland for wearing a "violent" Star of David hat? Now he's planning to sue.

Happy #ValentinesDay! Have you listened to Such a Match, our romance podcast, yet? In each episode @emmagoss.bsky.social catches up with a couple that met through our old print personals ads. Stories include a couple whose mothers set them up and a pair who have been together for 70 years.

A protest against an Israeli speaker at UC Berkeley turned violent last February. One year later, no one has been held accountable for the incident. But Jewish students and faculty say that the university's new chancellor has improved the situation for Jewish and pro-Israel students.

If the Red Sea can split, we can find a new way forward for Gaza, writes Rabbi Nico Socolovsky.

Shai Davidai, a Columbia University professor barred from campus for his repeated confrontations with administrators over their handling of anti-Israel protests, will speak at Hillel of Silicon Valley on March 9.

"In the secular family of my childhood, being Jewish was not about pride. It was largely about antisemitism and the need to create a comfort zone within a hostile world."

Two employees of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency have sued the city, alleging that they faced persistent antisemitic harassment, discrimination and retaliation.

From this publication’s earliest days, Jews in the Bay Area were preoccupied with questions of immigration, citizenship and assimilation.

In this week’s episode of “Such a Match!” host @emmagoss.bsky.social shows us how dating culture 30 years ago mirrors some of what singles experience today:

This vegan coconut custard tart is filled with fruit (and symbolism for the Jewish New Year for the Trees). Plus it features an easy, press in crust. Recipe and more on Tu B’Shevat in my @jewishsf.bsky.social column jweekly.com/2025/02/03/t... #Jewishfood

Rebecca Golbert's heart broke watching the news as her former community in Alameda went up in flames.

Israel's acclaimed Batsheva Dance Company returns to the Bay Area Feb 22-23 at Cal Performances in Berkeley.

A pro-Israel billboard in Arcata sparked heated online debates about free speech, Israel and vandalism before it was torn down just days after it went up.

Local Jewish agencies that assist recently arrived refugees have been blindsided by Trump’s executive order closing the border to new refugees. Here's how they're coping — and continuing to help local refugees at a complicated time.

"We are just weeks into Donald Trump’s second presidential term — and already my fears of what a second Trump administration would mean for trans people like me are materializing at an alarming rate," writes Palo Alto-based writer and artist Jonah "Sam" Kaye.

The Jewish film festival in Contra Costa County started small in 1995, with just four movies. Thirty years later, the East Bay International Jewish Film Festival is set to screen more than 20 films in theaters and online in February and March.

A weekly series of events at San Francisco's LGBTQ synagogue will address the “pain so many of us are experiencing” under the Trump administration.

What are you doing for Tu Bishvat? The ancient tax holiday sometimes called the New Year for the Trees or Jewish Earth Day is coming up next week. Check out our roundup of Tu Bishvat events around the Bay Area:

The Trump administration’s probe into “widespread antisemitism harassment” at UC Berkeley doesn’t reflect the strides the campus has made since late 2023, writes Professor Ron E. Hassner:

A regional roadside rivalry continues as a group of local Jews puts up to new pro-Israel billboards — in Humboldt County and Redwood City.

OPINION: In his heart of hearts, does Elon Musk really hate Jews? That's not really the point, writes local educator Jason Harris.

WinterFest, the little cousin of the summertime S.F. Jewish Film Festival, runs Feb. 18-23. The opening night film, locally produced documentary "Among Neighbors," will be co-presented as part of @sfindiefest.bsky.social.

An Iranian Jewish refugee, 89, was among the last to make it to the Bay Area before U.S. borders closed last month. In this interview, he talks about growing pressure on Jews in Iran, how a local Jewish agency helped him get here — and the pleasure of going to synagogue again.

Jewish films are screening for free in Santa Cruz County. The Santa Cruz Jewish Film Festival is already underway and runs through May 25.

As a nature and earth-based holiday, Tu Bishvat is perfectly aligned with a plant-based diet, writes recipe columnist Micah Siva:

Security is an "absolute must" in SF Hillel's upcoming massive renovation, says executive director Roger Feigelson. The $8.2 million capital campaign is now entering the home stretch with a $2.5 million pledge from San Francisco philanthropist Nancy Grand.

Ethel's Deli in Petaluma, beloved purveyors of bagels and deli fare, is no more. And in San Francisco, Daily Driver, home of wood-fired bagels, has closed up shop. @alixwall.bsky.social reports:

David “Dudu” Habib, beloved managing funeral director at Sinai Memorial Chapel, died of cancer last month. He was 46.

These three friends, all over the age of 100, have long been pillars of their synagogue community — two of them for at least seven decades.

The Jewish manager and the Vietnamese chef (Tu “The Jew” Phu) at Gigi’s wine bar in San Francisco have long admired each other’s cultures. The latest from @alixwall.bsky.social:

An 89-year-old Iranian Jewish refugee was among the last to make it to the Bay Area before U.S. borders closed to refugees last month. In this interview, he talks about growing pressure on Jews in Iran, how a local Jewish agency helped him get here — and the pleasure of going to synagogue again.

Since I love talking to people about what they're passionate about, @Carrie Galore was a great subject to talk with about mushroom foraging. In @jewishsf.bsky.social jweekly.com/2025/01/28/f...

The new survey follows up on one conducted in the weeks after the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel. Overall, Bay Area Jews are feeling more optimistic — but there's more to the data. @mayamirsky.bsky.social breaks it down:

Avera Mengistu, an Ethiopian Israeli with mental health challenges, has been missing in Gaza for over a decade. As more Oct. 7 hostages begin returning home, he should be a the front of the line, writes Ethiopian Israeli human rights advocate Beza Abebe.

Where do Jews thrive? New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik addressed that question when he was in the Bay Area recently. His answer: cities and coffeehouses — in other words, places of cosmopolitanism.

Mira Shelub will be remembered for her Yiddish scholarship, counseling career — and her resistance efforts as a WWII partisan fighter.

After being targeted with antisemitic or anti-Israel vandalism, Bay Area Jewish groups sometimes receive an unexpected sympathy call — from the Socialist Workers Party.

UC Berkeley has deleted the description of an upcoming event that would have examined "how Zionism has weaponized feminism, so as to serve Israel’s genocidal intent." According to the description, the event would have denied that Hamas committed sexual assaults during the Oct. 7 attacks.

Two Jewish community organizers in the East Bay respond to an op-ed by Hank Levy, the Alameda County treasurer who recently disinvested the county from Caterpillar, which produces militarized bulldozers for the Israeli army: