Honoring Our Queer Elders

“Honoring Our Queer Elders” is a curated exhibition of legacy videos comprised of oral histories from a diverse group of LGBTQIA+ Jewish elders living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Each video, distilled from about 12 hours of total footage, consists of in-depth interviews conducted by undergraduate students from the University of San Francisco (USF) who were enrolled in a groundbreaking community engaged learning Jewish studies course taught by the first Rabbi-in-Residence in school history, Camille Shira Angel.

These autobiographical, narrative-based interviews are a reservoir of information, wisdom, and encouragement for students and leaders, historians and activists. As these elders have been in San Francisco for decades, they are living sources of invaluable history. They contain irreplaceable insight into many of the profound experiences that shaped the queer nexus that San Francisco has become over the last half century.

The exhibition is the culmination of several years of teaching a project-based, community engaged learning Jewish studies course offered at the University of San Francisco (USF). Created, designed, and taught by USF’s Rabbi Angel, through this extraordinary class students engage in meaningful interactions with queer Jewish elders and others, while embarking on a path of learning that fosters critical thinking and cultivates a commitment to the public good.