At Emanu-El, we are an active community of lifelong Jewish learners — in the endless pursuit of spiritual growth and exploration. As Jews, we are compelled to question and debate. These conversations energize us as we gain new perspectives and challenge our own long-held beliefs. Our shared desire for knowledge and for community enriches us as individuals and bonds us as a congregation. Emanu-El thrives when we are learning together. We hope you will find time on your calendar and in your mind to join us on a thought-provoking and powerful Jewish journey.

To inquire about adult education, please contact Ariana Estoque, Director of Member Experience, at (415) 750-7552 or [email protected].

Scroll down to view our current Adult Education offerings:

Introduction to Judaism
When: Tuesday Evenings, 7:00 – 9:00 pm
Where: First session of each trimester will be held in person at Emanu-El; subsequent sessions will be on zoom for ease of accessibility. 
Cost per trimester: Emanu-El Member $72; Non-Member: $118

Dates: Fall 2022 – Oct 25; Nov 1, 8, 15, 29; Dec 6, 13

Winter 2023: Jan 10, 17, 24, 31; Feb 7, 10*, 14, 21, 28

Spring 2023: Apr 18, 25; May 2, 9, 12*, 16, 23, 30

Join Emanu-El clergy to learn about the breadth and wonder of Jewish tradition. This class is a pathway for the adult learner who wishes to discover or deepen Jewish knowledge, non-Jews who are marrying a Jewish partner, and those who are considering conversion to Judaism. Participants register for each trimester separately.
*Shabbat Dinner experience at the Temple.

REGISTER FOR Winter 2023

Click here to view the 2022-2023 syllabus.

Hebrew 102 (Second trimester for beginners) with Yaffa Tygiel

Tuesday evenings on zoom: 7:00 – 8:30 pm

February 7 – March 28, on zoom only

In this class students will study to speak basic modern Hebrew by communicating with each other, reading texts, poems & songs and writing short paragraphs in Hebrew. We will be using the book “Hebrew from Scratch”. If you were not enrolled in the first trimester, but interested joining, please contact Ariana Estoque at 415-750-7552 to check in. 

The course also offers a first introduction to Jewish and Israeli culture as well as the Jewish traditions, using music, food and art.  

Ms. Yaffa Tygiel, a very experienced native speaking teacher, will be teaching this class in Hebrew.

Jewish High Fidelity: A Musical Evening with Guitarist Lucian Plessner, featuring the music of Leonard Bernstein 

Thursday, February 23  6:30pm 

Martin Meyer Sanctuary  

Congregation Emanu El and the German Consulate General in San Francisco have the pleasure of inviting you to a guitar concert by Lucian Plessner.

This recital features one of the masterpieces originally written for guitar, the Cavatina by Alexandre Tansman, and Mr. Plessner’s arrangements of Leonard Bernstein’s music made on the composer’s personal request.

Mr. Plessner will perform the music and give an insight onto the lives and the backgrounds of the compositions of these two flamboyant musicians.

You are welcome to visit Mr. Plessner’s videos On Jewish Music Part I and II, his contribution to the official Festive year 1700 Years of Jewish Life in Germany on: www.lucian-plessner.com

Lucian Plessner taught himself to play the guitar and gave his first recital at the age of fifteen. After his studies at the Musikhochschule Köln, Lucian Plessner lived for five years in Córdoba, Andalusia. The pianist Alexis Weissenberg recommended him to Alicia de Larrocha, with whom he worked on his Spanish concert repertoire. In 1987 he caused a sensation in the music world when a Spanish concert agency hired him “as a foreigner” for a solo tour throughout the country.

Particular attention Lucian Plessner caused in 1989 with his arrangements of Leonard Bernstein’s music for the guitar, which he made on the composer’s personal request (CD Bernstein on Guitar, cpo/DeutschlandRadio). He performed this program worldwide f.e. in Moscow, Munich, Hamburg, the Konzerthaus Wien, the N.Y.U., the “Kfar Blum Festival” in Israel on the fifth anniversary of Leonard Bernstein’s death, the Settimane Musicali di Stresa e del Lago Maggiore, where he appeared alongside with celebrities like Vladimir Ashkenazy, Shlomo Mintz and Mstislav Rostropovich, and at the Leonard Bernstein Festival Boston to Broadway at Harvard University.

In 1994, he performed his Bernstein program for Lord Yehudi Menuhin on his birthday.

In addition to his solo performances, Lucian Plessner has created several projects with actor Klaus Maria Brandauer featuring a literature-music dialogue.

Recent concert tours brought Lucian Plessner to Hong Kong, Buenos Aires, and repeated invitations to the Mahalla Festival in Istanbul and to Mexico-City.

Shabbat Morning Torah Hevra with Emanu-El Scholar Rabbi Lawrence Kushner

This year Rabbi Kushner will be using Arthur Green’s Speaking Torah: Spiritual teachings from around the Maggid’s Table (Genesis-Leviticus). 

Zoom meetings, Saturday mornings, 10:00 am – 11:00am

First session: Saturday morning, September 24, 2022

No class, April 1 & 8 for Passover break

Classes will continue thru May 2023

To register, please contact [email protected] to have your name & email address added to the Zoom invitation list.

Weekly Torah Study with Emanu-El Clergy
When: Every Saturday, 9:15 – 10:00 am
Where: Via Zoom

Each week, a member of our clergy leads a group in Torah Study followed by Mourner’s Kaddish and Healing Prayer.

To find this Saturday’s Torah Study, click here.

Adult Education Committee Mission Statement:

The Adult Education Committee is dedicated to foster Jewish knowledge on the highest educational level. The goal is to deepen the engagement with Jewish texts, Jewish spirituality, Jewish history and tradition, Jewish culture, and Jewish philosophy as we consider how Judaism brings meaning to our world. While choosing speakers, programs and events, the committee will always strive for excellence, inspiration, and diversity.

We commit ourselves to cooperate with other committees of our synagogue like the Tzedek Cooperative or the Israel Action Committee and/or work with other organizations to help to build programs that contain Jewish themes in a broader sense. The goal is to enhance the joy and responsibility that come with the exploration, experience and learning of Jewishness and Judaism in every possible way. Thus, we accept and embrace Emanu-El’s role as one of the leading Jewish learning institutions in the Bay Area.