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Center for Jewish Living and Learning (CJLL)

Community Programs

CJLL’s Community Programs Department sponsors major community-wide educational and cultural events in partnership with other Bay Area Jewish organizations. We serve as a resource for speakers and programs and welcome partnerships that build a robust East Bay Jewish community.

Our programs include:

East Bay International Film Festival
Held in early spring, the East Bay International Film Festival is a celebration of independent and international films – features, shorts and documentaries – that reflect the dynamism and diversity of the Jewish people. Our goal is to educate, engage and encourage dialogue, and film is a medium which helps us build bridges between our community’s diverse religious and ethnic groups. More than 6,000 attendees enjoyed the Festival’s 15-year anniversary in 2010.

Contra Costa Jewish Book & Arts Festival
Presented in partnership with the Contra Costa Jewish Community Center, the Contra Costa Jewish Book & Arts Festival brings noteworthy authors, scholars and performing artists to the community each fall. The festival celebrates its 23rd year in 2011.

Community-wide Yom HaShoah/Holocaust Commemorations
Each spring, in partnership with other East Bay Jewish organizations and synagogues, we hold community programs at Temple Sinai (Oakland) and Temple Isaiah (Lafayette) commemorating the victims and survivors of the Holocaust. In addition, we sponsor a commemoration of Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) on November 9 each year.

East Bay Jewish Forum
This series of more than 20 weekly lectures, in partnership with Alameda County synagogues and sisterhoods, runs from October through March and features a range of prominent speakers and subjects that touch upon the historical, political and cultural aspects of the global Jewish community. The program, one of the longest running adult lecture series in the United States, is supported in part by the Lenore Dickstein Memorial Fund.

Lesser Synagogue Leadership Development Seminar
A leadership development program designed for up-and-coming temple and synagogue leaders encourages participants to draft new models and initiatives for transforming congregational life in the 21st century. Experts in the field of synagogue transformation join the CJLL Executive Director in leading this annual seminar. This program is supported by the Richard Lesser Memorial Synagogue Symposium Fund.