J. The Jewish News of Northern California

In January, Ben traveled from New York City to rural Oregon for a Jewish-run, guided psychedelic retreat. Still processing his father’s death from last summer, he felt the need for something beside conventional therapy to come to terms with his grief.

W.W.M.D.? What would Maimonides do? That is the question underlying “Maimonides and the Goodness of the World,” the first episode in a series on great Jewish thinkers from the long-running radio show and podcast “Philosophy Talk.” But it’s hardly the only question “Philosophy Talk” host Josh Landy, a professor of French at Stanford University, has pondered about the 12th-century rabbi, physician and Torah commentator. “Why should we care about what Maimonides had to say?” Landy asks.

Nearly four in 10 American Jews say they have found new ways to engage with Jewish life since Oct. 7, 2023 – a rebound from last year that suggests the wave of Jewish involvement following the Hamas-led attack on Israel has proved more durable than initially expected.

The miracle of Hanukkah came early this year: Hanukkah Barbie is here. Mattel would like us to call her “Holiday Sweater Barbie.” Respectfully, no. This is Hanukkah Barbie. She is dressed in the blue-and-yellow color palette that retailers have apparently decided belongs exclusively to Hanukkah. Her sweater is covered in Jewish stars and dreidels, with a light-up hanukkiyah built right into the front. As if the sweater isn’t Hanukkah enough, she also dons blue-and-white gingham pants.

To mark an anniversary of horror and death, Jews gathered together across the Bay Area on Oct. 7 for the third year in a row. They prayed, mourned, wept, sang and reflected. This year’s anniversary, marking the Hamas massacre of 1,200 people in Israel, was the first one with no hostages, living or dead, remaining in Gaza. Of the 251 people taken by Hamas that day, the final 20 living hostages were released on Oct. 13, 2025, as part of a ceasefire agreement.

Three Jewish-themed films — a short that takes place in line at the bagel shop and documentaries about a toy inventor and a South Beach fashion icon — are among 25 films streaming online as part of the Legacy Film Festival on Aging Oct. 23-Nov. 22. “Lox,” which previously showed at the East Bay International Jewish Film Festival, is the story of Ruth, an elderly woman who appears to have a chance encounter with a stranger with whom she strikes up a conversation as they wait in line for bagels.

For the Jewish community, the last few weeks have been a time of renewal and commitment to beginning again. We celebrated the start of the new Jewish year, 5787. We rang in Rosh Hashanah with the blast of the shofar. The sound of this ancient instrument implores us to wake up and to live in the world with intention and awareness. Ten days later, came the Day of Atonement; Yom Kippur simulates death and reintroduces us to life.

The Ross Valley School District says it has identified students it believes are responsible for antisemitic graffiti found over the weekend at Brookside Elementary School in San Anselmo. The district has given their names to police, Superintendent Tyler Graff told J. in an interview Tuesday. The graffiti was scrawled on the asphalt near the school’s multipurpose room sometime between the end of classes Friday and Saturday evening.

(JTA) — “They tried to kill us. We survived. Let’s eat.” Alan King’s joke about Jewish holidays gets to the essence of Jewish persistence in the face of horror. He might have added “Let’s sing.” Music has accompanied the Jewish people for millennia through periods of joy and sorrow. Moses and the Israelites praised God for His salvation from the Egyptians in  the “Song of the Sea.” Weddings, the Shabbat table and kumsitzes all come with joyous soundtracks.

Mark Ulriksen’s vibrant, often comical illustrations have been seen on the glossy covers of 65 issues of the New Yorker magazine. Now you can see the San Francisco-based artist’s work in a very different setting: a mural outside the entrance of the new East Bay Jewish Community Campus in Oakland’s Rockridge neighborhood. The mural depicts a quiet desert oasis blooming with grape vines, wheat, barley, and trees bearing pomegranates, figs, olives and dates (the biblical “seven species” of Israel).