Taube Center for
Jewish Peoplehood
The Taube Center for Jewish Peoplehood is our home for Jewish learning and education. Here we create opportunities to explore Jewish values and voices and to celebrate rich, cultural traditions. We welcome you—you of every age, background, and interest—to join us in our journey to understand Jewish life, past and present.
Scroll below for an overview of our current programs, and check back soon for fresh, new programs being developed by Jessica Rosenberg, our new Director for the Taube Center for Jewish Peoplehood.
Tikkun Marin is the Osher Marin JCC’s initiative to improve and repair our Marin community. Its name is taken from Tikkun Olam, the Jewish concept that we bear responsibility not only for ourselves but for the moral, spiritual, and material welfare of everyone.
Jewish holidays and festivals are observed in Judaism throughout the Hebrew calendar. Jewish holidays occur on the same dates every year in the Hebrew calendar. Osher Marin JCC celebrates these special days with programs that engage families.
We pledge to remember European Jewish life before the Holocaust; to challenge all who pass through our lobby to confront hatred and prejudice in all its forms; and, we dedicate ourselves to building multi-cultural understanding and community.
The Osher Marin JCC is proud to partner with the Memorial Scrolls Trust in London to prominently display Torah MST#732 rescued from the Czech Jewish community of Hostomice, a small town in Bohemia about 20 miles from Prague.
In 1942, Prague was under Nazi occupation and a group of Jewish workers at the Jewish Museum risked their lives to rescue their community’s sacred scrolls and other ritual objects. As hopes faded for rescuing fellow Jews and themselves, they chose to preserve, for future generations, their holy heritage. The Nazis weren’t satisfied with destroying Jewish lives; they also set out to eradicate Jewish culture, tradition, and memory.
By sharing this Torah, we are honoring the Jews of Hostomice who perished in the Shoah, ensuring that their lives continue to have meaning and that their culture and tradition are preserved.
These are some of the children and people of Hostomice. Also pictured are Torah scrolls hastily hidden from complete destruction by Nazis. Our own Hostomice Torah MST #732 was rescued from a similar stash in Prague.
According to the 1930 census, there were 117,551 Jews in Bohemia and Moravia (356,830 in all of Czechoslovakia). By 1943 some 26,000 had managed to emigrate. 82,309 Jews were deported to Terezin and other camps, of whom 71,000 were murdered and another 7,000 prior to deportation. Today, the population of the Czech Republic is ten million, with only 4,000 Jews.
We will not forget.
Past JCC Events
Book Talk: The Newark Minutemen
Marin author Leslie Barry discusses her family's incredible true story: a Jewish boxer in 1930s New Jersey was recruited by the Jewish mob and the FBI to go undercover against the rising German-American Nazi party. Along the way, he falls in love with the enemy's daughter. The story is being made into a Hollywood movie.
An Evening of Poetry
We brought together two wonderful Marin poets to talk about their experiences as writers during a time of crisis, the importance of community, and their shared sense of reverence for the natural world. Jane Hirshfield is an honored and distinguished poet, and was recently elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Meryl Natchez is a poet, translator, and reviewer, and chair of the Marin Poetry Center, which cosponsored this event.
Book Talk: The Four Keys of Kabbalah
Rabbi Yisrael Rice of Chabad of Marin will talk about his new book, The Four Keys of Kabbalah, an in-depth look at Jewish mystical wisdom in an approachable and easy-to-understand format. Rabbi Rice is the director and spiritual leader of Chabad of Marin, and has been a part of our community since 1987.
Thank you to our generous donors.
