Dave Eggers & Mokhtar Alkhanshali
The Monk of Mokha

Tuesday, January 15, 2019 at 7:00pm
Gotthelf Art Gallery

Dave Eggers (The Circle, What Is the What) and Mokhtar Alkhanshali come together for an evening of conversation about entrepreneurship, community development, civil war, and coffee. Alkhanshali is the subject of Eggers’ heart-pounding, bestselling book, The Monk of Mokha, which weaves together the history of coffee, the ongoing Yemeni civil war, and the courageous journey of a young man following the most American of dreams. A book signing and cups of Alkhanshali’s coffee will follow the event.

“Exquisitely interesting… This is about the human capacity to dream—here, there, everywhere.” —Gabriel Thompson, San Francisco Chronicle

General Admission
Premium: $33; Member Price: $31 (Best seats in the theater and one copy of The Monk of Mokha)
Price: $18; Member Price: $15 (No book included)

Architect Daniel Libeskind
Edge of Order

Tuesday, January 22, 2019 at 7:00pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre

Daniel Libeskind is one of the foremost architects of our time, a self-proclaimed rebel celebrated for innovative, site-conscious designs, including the Jewish Museum Berlin and New York’s World Trade Center Redevelopment. He has also emerged as one of architecture’s most visible public ambassadors. In his new book Edge of Order , Libeskind opens the door to his unique creative process, guiding us through a selection of his projects and revealing how he arrived at their designs. With a voracious appetite for culture and history, and an encyclopedic memory, Libeskind draws on everything from Greek mythology to Emily Dickinson to the Marx Brothers to explain the way he thinks about buildings and cities. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear from a master artist. A book signing will follow the event.

“With gusto, an exuberant architect considers his life and work.…Revealing, accessible, and luscious.” —Kirkus

General Admission Seating
Price: $18; Member Price: $15

Architect Daniel Libeskind
Edge of Order Add to Cart

NATHAN DEVIR: The Lost Tribes of Israel in Madagascar?

Wednesday, January 23, 2019 at 7pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre

For centuries, millions of people on the island of Madagascar have claimed to be descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel. Does this claim have any basis in fact? In this presentation, Professor Nathan P. Devir examines the evidence, provides an overview of current Jewish activity on the island, and elucidates the implications of these claims and movements for Israel and the larger Jewish world. Book signing to follow.

General Admission Seating
Price: $18; Member Price: $15

NATHAN DEVIR: The Lost Tribes of Israel in Madagascar? Add to Cart

ISABELLA ROSSELLINI LIVE: LINK LINK CIRCUS

Tuesday, January 29, 2019 at 8pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre
Lawrence Family JCC

Link Link Circus is at once comic and scientifically informed, arguing Darwin’s theory of evolution which links us humans to animals. The show is illustrated with legendary Isabella Rossellini’s short comic films, home movies and animation. She transforms herself into philosophers of the past like Aristotle, René Descartes and a medieval theologian while her dog Pan plays various animals, assisted by puppeteer and animal handler Schuyler Beeman. Judaism teaches that animals are part of God's creation and should be treated with compassion. God makes a covenant with the animals, just as he does with humans.
Co-Directed by Guido Torlonia “The world’s most uncategorizable star”—Vanity Fair



Assigned Seating
Price: $65; Member Price: $58; Premium: $85

ISABELLA ROSSELLINI LIVE: LINK LINK CIRCUS Add to Cart

Dan Zanes and Claudia Eliaza

Sunday, February 3, 2019 at 11am
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre
Lawrence Family JCC

Known as the crown prince of contemporary kids’ music, Grammy Award-winning guitarist Dan Zanes and Haitian-American jazz vocalist Claudia Eliaza perform for families live at the Garfield Theatre. Zanes got his start at Oberlin and went on to play in the acclaimed rock band The Del Fuegos. In his family-friendly incarnation, he has collaborated with everyone from Sheryl Crow to Lou Reed. (Ages 3+) “(Zanes is) the family-music genre’s most outspoken and eloquent advocate.” - TIME Magazine



General Admission Seating
Price: Adult $32, Child (under 16) $18; Member Price: $29, Member Child (under 16) $15
Lap Child (under 5): Free

Dan Zanes and Friends in Concert Add to Cart

Brews & Views

Sunday, February 17, 2019 at 5pm
Project Bar and Grill
3683 Fifth Avenue, San Diego, CA 92103

Back by popular demand, Brews and Views combines two of your favorite things – local craft beer and innovating short films. Join the SDIJFF for an evening of short films, craft beers, and a good time with new and old friends. First 30 people to arrive will receive a FREE drink ticket.
General Admission
Price: $15.25; JCC Member: $13.25

Brews & Views Add to Cart

Tio Chorinho: A Tribute to Jacob do Bandolim

Tuesday, February 19, 2019 at 8pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre
Lawrence Family JCC

Toronto’s Tio Chorinho performs a tribute to the great Brazilian-Jewish mandolin virtuoso Jacob do Bandolim on his 101st birthday during the month of Carnival in Brazil. One of the founders of choro, the original Brazilian soul music, Bandolim’s compositions virtually defined the choro style through the Thirties, Forties and Fifties, and he remains one of the most endearing figures in Brazilian music to this day. This exciting tribute to one of Brazil’s greatest Jewish composers features creative arrangements by contemporary masters Tio Chorinho. Charming and powerful music with a sensual lyricism from one of the guiding lights of the Jewish Diaspora.
“An absolute delight...outstanding playing...It’s a terrific debut CD; play it on a grey day and your room will be filled with sunshine” -The Wholenote Magazine




Assigned Seating
Price: $38; Member Price: $33; Premium Seating: $52

Tio Chorinho: A Tribute to Jacob do Bandolim Add to Cart

Nellie McKay Performs THE BIG MOLINKSY: CONSIDERING JOAN RIVERS

Thursday, February 21, 2019 at 8pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre
Lawrence Family JCC

Nellie McKay exploded onto the music scene in 2004 with her eclectic showstopper, Get Away from Me. Upending the norms of piano-backed jazz with a seamless merger of musical erudition and thematic irreverence, it was, as the New York Times observed, “a tour de force from a sly, articulate musician.” With a voice that can be boisterous and bold or soft and breathy, McKay harnesses the agility of a superstar athlete from the piano bench. She has maintained that adventurousness — starring on Broadway in The Threepenny Opera, opening for Lou Reed at Carnegie Hall, duetting with Eartha Kitt and recording a dazzling tribute to Doris Day. In her onewoman show The Big Molinsky: Considering Joan Rivers, McKay delivers a performance for the ages as the talented and treasured Joan Rivers (playing a few other people in Rivers’ life to boot).



Assigned Seating
Price: $38; Member Price: $33; Premium Price: $52

Nellie McKay Performs THE BIG MOLINKSY: CONSIDERING JOAN RIVERS Add to Cart

Talks with Dr. Judith Hauptman

Thursday, February 28, 2019 at 10am
Rehearsal Room, Lawrence Family JCC
Thursday, February 28, 2019 at 7pm
Congregation Beth-El, 8660 Gilman Dr, La Jolla

AM SESSION:
In general, only men issue halachic statements in the Talmud. But women appear often in anecdotes, and a close reading thereof reveals that women sometimes took the law into their own hands and made changes in it for personal reasons. In this session, we’ll see the kinds of changes women made in the law and the reasons behind them. Text handouts in Hebrew and English.

PM SESSION:
This presentation is based on a discussion in Bavli Shabbat, which takes up the question of what to do when one sees people misbehaving, whether they are government officials or neighbors, and whether they are breaking religious or civil laws. Via anecdotes and midrashim, a demanding and contemporarily relevant moral principle emerges.

General Admission Seating
Price: $18; Member Price: $16; 2-Pack: $28; Member 2-pack: $25

Women's Voices in the Talmud (AM SESSION) Add to Cart

The Moral Obligation to Speak Out in the Face of Wrongdoing (PM SESSION) Add to Cart

Matti Friedman-Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel

Wednesday, March 6, 2019 at 7pm
Astor Judaica Library
Lawrence Family JCC

A tale of Israel’s first spies who would emerge, after Israel’s War of Independence, as the nucleus of the Mossad, Israel’s vaunted intelligence agency. It’s about the complicated identities of these young spies, but it’s also about Israel’s own slippery and fascinating identity as a Western nation with Middle Eastern roots and traditions. Book signing to follow.

General Admission Seating
Price: $18; Member Price: $15

Matti Friedman-Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel Add to Cart

JACOB GOLDBERG Lectures on the Middle East

Monday, March 11-13, 2019 at 7pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre
Lawrence Family JCC

Professor Jacob Goldberg—a former senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak—presents a three-day lecture event centered on the current political landscape in the ever-changing Middle East. The author of The Foreign Policy of Saudi Arabia, Goldberg has also been published in the New York Times and the Washington Post.

General Admission Seating
Price: $28, 3-pack: $63; Member Price: $23; Member 3-pack: $52

Jacob Goldberg-Monday Add to Cart

Caroline Rothstein

Thursday, March 21, 2019 at 8pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre
Lawrence Family JCC

Caroline Rothstein is a New York City based writer and performer of spoken word poetry, theater, creative nonfiction and journalism. Her poignant poetry and soulful presentation allows the audience to connect to her, to each other, and to themselves, and feel “they are enough.” Her work has been featured in Cosmopolitan, The New Yorker, and elsewhere, with high praise coming from Lady Gaga who called the poet “very inspiring.”



General Admission
Price: $18; Member Price: $15

Caroline Rothstein Add to Cart

Inside Israeli TV-An Evening with Ronit Weiss-Berkowitz

Thursday, March 26, 2019 at 7pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre
Lawrence Family JCC

Ronit Weiss-Berkowitz, MGSDII visiting professor at SDSU, is one of the most powerful women in Israeli cinema. She has been a writer on several television series, directed documentaries and also served as a script editor on two series. She is well known in Israel for the drama “A Touch Away” and the documentary, “A Place Under the Sun." She was Editor-in-Chief at Keter Publishing House, one of the largest publishers in Israel, and has edited books by celebrated writers, including Amoz Oz, Shemi Zarhin, and Nava Semel.

General Admission Seating
Price: $18; Member Price: $15
Free for students and faculty with valid ID

Inside Israeli TV-An Evening with Ronit Weiss-Berkowitz, Thursday, March 26, 2019 at 7:00pm- LFJCC Add to Cart

Bill Charlap Trio: Somewhere, The Songs of Leonard Bernstein

Thursday, March 28, 2019 at 8pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre
Lawrence Family JCC

In celebration of legendary composer Leonard Bernstein’s 100th birthday, jazz pianist Bill Charlap and his trio perform songs from Charlap’s tribute, Somewhere: The Songs of Leonard Bernstein. Charlap is an acclaimed master of the Great American Songbook, whose inspired reading of Bernstein includes songs from West Side Story, On The Town, Fancy Free and Wonderful Town. Charlap has performed with Wynton Marsalis and Barbra Streisand and had a longstanding residency at the legendary Village Vanguard. In 2016, Charlap's collaboration with Tony Bennett led to a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Album.

“Charlap approaches a song the way a lover approaches his beloved…when he sits down to play, the result is an embrace, an act of possession.”
-TIME Magazine

"Bill Charlap is one of the greatest musicians and greatest artists I've ever met."
-Tony Bennett, 2016 Grammy Awards Ceremony

Assigned Seating
Price: $38; Member Price: $33; Premium Price: $52

Bill Charlap Trio: Somewhere, The Songs of Leonard Bernstein Add to Cart

Family Day-Rick Recht in Concert

Sunday, March 31, 2019 at 5:30pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre

Rick Recht brings his unique brand of high-energy, interactive Jewish rock music for an all-ages family concert. His concerts are extraordinary, inspirational, and moving experiences that have earned him a strong, loyal national fan base. Recht has become an icon for Jewish youth, elevating the medium of Jewish music as a powerful and effective tool for developing Jewish pride and identity. Kick start the fun with Shalom Baby/PJ Library’s Instrument Making Factory sponsored by Geppetto’s at 4:30pm.



Family Day is made possible by the generosity of the Viterbi Family. This concert is brought to you in collaboration with Tarbuton, and the San Diego Jewish Teen Initiative, a partnership between the Lawrence Family JCC, Jewish Federation and Jim Joseph Foundation on behalf of the San Diego Jewish community.

General Admission Seating
FREE to the public, but tickets will be required to enter.

Family Day-Rick Recht in Concert Add to Cart

Leonard Mlodinow
Elastic: Unlocking Your Brain's Ability to Embrace Change

Monday, April 1, 2019 at 7:00pm
David and Dorothea Garfield Theatre

With rapid technological innovation leading the way, today’s world is transforming itself at an extraordinary and unprecedented pace. We are confronted every day with new challenges as jobs become more multifaceted, information streams multiply, and myriad devices place increasing demands on our attention. Leonard Mlodinow (The Drunkard’s Walk, Subliminal) is a theoretical physicist and collaborator of both Deepak Chopra and Stephen Hawking. He joins us to share insight from his book Elastic: Unlocking Your Brain's Ability to Embrace Change, which draws on cutting-edge research in neuroscience and psychology to illuminate ways in which the human brain is uniquely engineered to adapt. Mlodinow takes the stage for a look at the mechanics of our own minds as we navigate the rapidly shifting landscapes around us. A book signing will follow the event.

Mlodinow never fails to make science both accessible and entertaining. — Stephen Hawking, author of A Brief History of Time

General Admission Seating
Price: $18; Member Price: $15

Leonard Mlodinow
Elastic: Unlocking Your Brain's Ability to Embrace Change Add to Cart

Jamie Bernstein-Famous Father Girl: A Memoir of Growing Up Bernstein

Wednesday, April 3, 2019 at 7pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre

The oldest daughter of Leonard Bernstein, one of the 20th century’s most revered musicians, offers a rare look at her father on the centennial of his birth. Book signing to follow.

General Admission Seating
Price: $18; Member Price: $15

Jamie Bernstein-Famous Father Girl: A Memoir of Growing Up Bernstein Add to Cart

JENNY SCHEINMAN’S KANNAPOLIS: A Moving Portrait

Thursday, April 4, 2019 at 8pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre
Lawrence Family JCC

Acclaimed composer, singer, and violinist Jenny Scheinman accompanies the captivating visual world of Depression-era filmmaker H. Lee Waters, who documented over 118 small towns in the southeast between 1936-42. A frequent collaborator with musicians such as Bill Frisell, Ani Difranco and Norah Jones, Scheinman and her musical sidemen provide a live soundtrack seasoned with bluegrass, country, and roots music. Kannapolis: A Moving Portrait takes audiences on a journey back into America’s industrial past that speaks to any community today as much as to the towns where it was filmed.
"A beautifully coordinated melding of music and film... a vivid image of small-town life, morphing back and forth almost imperceptibly between black-and-white and color."
The Washington Post
"Scheinman [has] a distinctive vision of American music, suffused with plainspoken beauty and fortified all at once by country, gospel, and melting-pot folk, along with jazz and the blues.”
The New York Times



Assigned Seating
Price: $38; Member Price: $33; Premium Price: $52

JENNY SCHEINMAN’S KANNAPOLIS: A Moving Portrait Add to Cart

Novelist Nathan Englander at Our Shabbat Table
In conversation with Barry Edelstein, Artistic Director, The Old Globe

Friday, April 5, 2019 at 6:30pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre

Join Pulitzer finalist Nathan Englander (Dinner at the Center of the Earth, What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank) for Shabbat dinner and conversation about his best work yet—a brilliant satire, reminiscent of early Philip Roth, about a son’s failure to say Kaddish for his dead father. Larry is an atheist in a family of orthodox Memphis Jews. When his father dies, it is his responsibility as the surviving son to recite the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead, every day for eleven months. Larry refuses—thus imperiling the fate of his father’s soul. To appease his family, he hires a stranger through a website called kaddish.com to recite the daily prayer and shepherd his father’s soul safely to rest. For full menu visit sdcjc.org.

General Admisssion Seating
Price: $62: Member Price: $57 (Includes Shabbat Dinner & one signed copy of Kaddish.com: A Novel)
Price: $45; Member Price: $40 (Includes Shabbat Dinner)
Dinner/Book Package is only available to purchase in advance until Thursday, April 4, 2019

Novelist Nathan Englander at Our Shabbat Table
In conversation with Barry Edelstein, Artistic Director, The Old Globe Add to Cart

Parenting Expert Dr. Wendy Mogel
Voice Lessons for Parents: What to Say, How to Say it, and When to Listen

Tuesday, April 16, 2019 at 7:00pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre

Parenting expert and bestselling author Wendy Mogel, PhD, offers an essential guide to the art of talking to children and shows how a change in voice can transform conversations. Mogel’s New York Times bestseller The Blessing of a Skinned Knee is the bedside bible for a generation of parents. In Voice Lessons for Parents, she offers guidance for communicating with children across the expanse of childhood and adolescence and explains the most effective ways to talk about your child to teachers, coaches, nannies and caretakers, grandparents, partners and…your ex. She also shares what to do about the distraction of digital devices and how they impact the connection with your family. A book signing will follow the event.
"Wisdom for parents of children of all ages from one of the most astute psychologists on the planet. Dr. Mogel explains the art and science of communicating with the people you love most." —Angela Duckworth, New York Times bestselling author of Grit

General Admission Seating
Price: $30; Member Price: $28 (Includes one copy of Voice Lessons for Parents)
Book is only available for pick up on the day of show

Parenting Expert Dr. Wendy Mogel
Voice Lessons for Parents: What to Say, How to Say it, and When to Listen Add to Cart

End of the Silence

Wednesday, April 17, 2019 at 8pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre
Lawrence Family JCC

Written and performed by Dan Wolf
Directed by Gendell Hing-Hernandez
Music by Keith Pinto.

World premiere of a solo play from acclaimed Bay Area actor/playwright/rapper Dan Wolf whose performances cross borders to combine conventional theater styles with the themes, language, music, history and aesthetics of the Hip-Hop generation. End of the Silence is about a podcaster making a podcast. Using field recordings, voice actors, music, video, movement, spoken word and rap, this performance follows a Jewish - American man as he makes a podcast about his relationship with, and the untimely death of, an artist from Hamburg, Germany. The show plays out like a live podcast as Daniel (the writer and director) uses shards of a fragmented history to attempt to heal the wounds of time.

With incredible energy and seamless staging, the show has the effect of being lost in a good book, not sitting in a theater. -San Francisco Chronicle

Assigned Seating
Price $28; Member Price $23

End of the Silence Add to Cart

In Honor of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day
The Tattooist of Auschwitz With Heather Morris

Tuesday, April 23, 2019 at 7:00pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre

“I tattooed a number on her arm. She tattooed her name on my heart.” We are honored to be joined by Heather Morris to discuss her international and New York Times bestselling novel based on a true story. For readers of Schindler's List and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas comes a heart-breaking true story of the very best of humanity in the very worst of circumstances. The book tells the true story of Ludwig (Lale) Sokolov, a Jewish prisoner who was given the job of tattooing identification numbers on prisoners’ arms in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. One day, he met Gita while she was waiting in line to be tattooed and it was love at first sight. And so began one of the most life-affirming, courageous, unforgettable and human stories of the Holocaust: the love story of the tattooist of Auschwitz. A book signing will follow the event.

“Based on a true story, the wrenching yet riveting tale of Lale’s determination to survive the camp with Gita is a moving testament to the power of kindness, ingenuity, and hope.” — People

General Admission Seating
Price: $18; Member Price: $15

In Honor of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day
The Tattooist of Auschwitz With Heather Morris Add to Cart

ISRAEL STORY LIVE!

Wednesday, May 15, 2019 at 8pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre
Lawrence Family JCC

Join us for an evening of magical live radio with the creators of Israel Story (Sipur Yisraeli)—the award-winning radio show and podcast that is one of the most popular programs in Israel, where it is aired nationally, on prime-time. With its unique blend of live storytelling and surprising multimedia, Israel Story introduces us to a different Israel, one that we rarely get a chance to see: life-sized, nuanced, funny and touching. These are everyday stories, told by, and about, regular Israelis.
“The Israeli ‘This American Life’” -Ira Glass

Assigned Seating
Price: $38; Member Price: $33; Premium Price: $52

ISRAEL STORY LIVE! Add to Cart

SALK TALKS

Wednesday, November 7, 2018 at 7pm Tuesday, May 28, 2019 at 7pm Tuesday, June 18, 2019 at 7pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre
Lawrence Family JCC

Three remarkable events bring together experts and influencers from The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, the world’s top leader in biomedical research, located in La Jolla. Salk scientists will showcase their remarkable insights and discoveries and their impact on humanity.

General Admission Seating
Price: $18; Member Price: $15;

Satchidananda Panda, PhD: “The ideal circadian code to a long healthy life” Add to Cart

Sreekanth Chalasani, PhD: “A new approach to alleviating symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorders” Add to Cart

5 Minute Play Festival

Monday, June 3, 2019 at 7pm
Rehearsal Room
Lawrence Family JCC

Join us for the 6th Annual 5-Minute Play Festival, a staged reading series. You'll get a taste of comedies, tragedies and everything in between as professional San Diego actors, under the stellar direction of D. Candis Paule, transform scripts into theater showcasing fresh, new playwrights that speak to Jewish identity, cultural experiences and values. This is an evening of laughter, inspiration and thought-provoking questions.

General Admission
Price: $18; Member Price: $15

5 Minute Play Festival Add to Cart

Chef Alon Shaya at Our Shabbat Table
Shaya: An Odyssey of Food, My Journey Back to Israel

Friday, June 21, 2019 at 6:30pm
David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre

Alon Shaya learned to cook while hanging onto the apron strings of his mother and grandmother. But by the time the Tel Aviv-born, Philly-raised chef moved to New Orleans and won the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant in America, shrimp, gumbo and jambalaya had made their way into his shakshuka—and okra had found a partner in black-eyed peas. Join us for a special Shabbat dinner to hear about -- and sample -- that culinary journey, in celebration of Shaya's cookbook/memoir, Shaya: An Odyssey of Food, My Journey Back to Israel. As you enjoy some of Chef Shaya's most raved-about creations, you'll hear the stories of the places, people and food that have informed his journey from Tel Aviv to NOLA and back again. For full menu visit sdcjc.org.
“Alon’s journey is as gripping and as seductive as his cooking…Lovely stories, terrific food.” —Yotam Ottolenghi, author of Jerusalem: A Cookbook

General Admission Seating
Price: $69; Member Price: $66 (Includes Shabbat Dinner & one signed copy of Shaya: An Odyssey of Food, My Journey Back to Israel)
Price: $45; Member Price: $40 (Includes Shabbat Dinner)
Dinner/Book Package is only available to purchase in advance until Thursday, June 20, 2019

Chef Alon Shaya at Our Shabbat Table
Shaya: An Odyssey of Food, My Journey Back to Israel Add to Cart