Timed with the first day of LGBT+ History Month, on October 1, 2025, the University of San Francisco’s (USF) Swig Program in Jewish Studies and Social Justice officially launched Honoring Our Queer Elders, the newest online digital exhibit of its Jewish history resource website Mapping Jewish San Francisco.
Honoring Our Queer Elders is a curated exhibition of legacy videos comprised of oral histories from a diverse group of LGBTQIA+ elders living in the Bay Area, including San Francisco Bay Times columnist Dr. Marcy Adelman and former Bay Times columnist Kathleen Archambeau, as well as Pam David and former State Senator Mark Leno, who have contributed to the paper. Each video featured in Honoring Our Queer Elders, distilled from about 12 hours of total footage, consists of in-depth interviews conducted by USF undergraduate students 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.
About Mapping Jewish SF
Mapping Jewish San Francisco is a digital humanities project of USF’s Swig Program in Jewish Studies and Social Justice. The project takes a collaborative approach to examining the complex history and unique religious, cultural, and political identity of Jewish San Francisco.
Top scholars and experts—including university faculty, undergraduate and graduate students, and community leaders—are contributing exhibitions to tell stories of the Jewish individuals and institutions that have shaped and are shaping the San Francisco Bay Area. Along with the partners of the project, including other academic institutions, libraries, archives, and leading Jewish organizations, Mapping Jewish San Francisco aims to bring the past to life, making it possible to travel back in time to visually explore the rich Jewish history of the Bay Area. https://bit.ly/4nZLiHM
Published on October 9, 2025
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