ADAM GOPNIK – CITIES & JEWISH LIFE

The Contemporary Jewish Museum and the JCCSF are proud to present Adam Gopnik at the JCCSF for the CJM’s Marilyn Yolles Waldman Distinguished Speaker Series.  

Cities have always been engines of creativity—dynamic spaces where the interplay of tradition and modernity have produced extraordinary cultural and civic achievements. Within this urban narrative, Jewish life has always played a defining role. 

While New York often takes center stage in the story of urban Jewish life, San Francisco offers a parallel tale that is equally compelling and uniquely its own. From the days of the Gold Rush, when Jewish pioneers like Levi Strauss helped shape the city’s commercial and civic fabric, to the rise and ongoing evolution of the tech industry, San Francisco has long been a space where Jewish ingenuity, resilience, and community thrive. 

ADAM GOPNIK has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1986. He has published more than a million words in the magazine, and the books that derive from his essays there include Paris to the Moon, At The Strangers’ Gate and most recently The Real Work. He has won the National Magazine Award for Essays and for Criticism three times, as well as the George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting. In 2021, he was named a chevalier of the Legion D’Honneur, France’s highest civilian or military award. 

The CJM’s Marilyn Yolles Waldman Distinguished Speaker Series is made possible by an endowed fund dedicated to supporting Jewish artists and thinkers in the public sphere who make significant contributions to excellence in art and culture. 

All seating is first come, first served.

Questions? Email [email protected]