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In My Ancestors’ Shoes: Getting Dressed in the Tenements, 1881

Magnes Collection of Jewish Life and Art 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA, United States

Join Vi, creator of the YouTube channel SnappyDragon, as she demonstrates how a young working-class Hungarian Jewish immigrant woman would get dressed in her best clothes for Shabbat in the Victorian-era Lower East Side. Based on the story of her own great-great-grandmother Carolina at age 19, Vi has created reproduction garments from the year 1881, […]

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100 Years of the Yiddish Song: 1920s-2020s

Magnes Collection of Jewish Life and Art 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA, United States

Over the course of a turbulent and tortuous century, the Yiddish song has survived and is even thriving in today’s flowering of performance and songwriting. Professor Mark Slobin's lecture will cover both the continuity and the new creativity of this history.

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Transmitting Anne Frank to Gen Z

Magnes Collection of Jewish Life and Art 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA, United States

Almost 80 years after her tragic death in concentration camp Bergen-Belsen, Anne Frank still figures prominently in the public domain. Over the years, her diary and her life story have been the subject of an expansive output of adaptations and engagements, giving her an iconic status. While there is an unabated interest in Anne Frank, new generations connect to her on their own terms and within their own, rapidly changing, media landscape. It poses a challenge to us to open up to their worlds and to find new ways to tell the story of Anne Frank.

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Now Virtual: Protecting Cultural Heritage during Armed Conflict

Magnes Collection of Jewish Life and Art 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA, United States

Join the Magnes for a lecture via Zoom with Blue Shield International's Patty Gerstenblith, as she discusses the legal, ethical, and voluntary constraints that have been adopted to protect cultural heritage and in particular archaeological sites from theft and looting during armed conflict.

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Walkers in the City: Jewish Street Photographers of Midcentury New York

Magnes Collection of Jewish Life and Art 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA, United States

"Walkers in the City" documents how roving, imaginative Jewish New Yorkers, entranced by the medium of photography, transformed everyday sights into rousing, joyous, and poignant moments of time, creating visual poetry out of the fabric of social life.

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Now Virtual | 1967: The Year that Transformed Israel

The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life: Zooming In 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA via Zoom

Join the Magnes for a special lecture via Zoom with Professor Eran Kaplan as he explores the impact of the 1967 Six Day War on Israel in this insightful program in conjunction with the current exhibition, "Cities and Wars. Roman Vishniac in Berlin and Jerusalem 1947/1967."

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From Lodz to Tel Aviv: The Satirical World of Dzigan and Shumacher, the Most Famous Yiddish Comedy Duo of the 20th Century

Magnes Collection of Jewish Life and Art 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA, United States

Join Taube Philanthropies, Berkeley's Center for Jewish Studies, and The Magnes for the Second Annual Eva and Martin Libitzky Memorial Lecture, "From Lodz to Tel Aviv: The Satirical World of Dzigan and Shumacher, the Most Famous Yiddish Comedy Duo of the 20th Century," featuring John Efron is the Koret Professor of Jewish History at UC Berkeley.

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The Afterlife of a Shtetl

Magnes Collection of Jewish Life and Art 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA, United States

Dr. Natalia Romik, curator, architect and 2022 Dan David Prize winner, returns to the Magnes to present an exclusive preview of her vibrant new exhibition soon to premier at the POLIN Museum, in Warsaw.

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Happy Ottoman Purim! Commemorating Muslim Victories through Jewish Holidays, 1516-1860

Magnes Collection of Jewish Life and Art 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA, United States

Helen Diller Annual Lecture Presented by Berkeley's Center for Jewish Studies. Co-Sponsored by the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life and Berkeley's Center for Middle Eastern Studies. This talk will explore the history of Jewish communities in the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire. Orit Bashkin looks at the ways in which Jews in […]

Radio, Propaganda, Terror: Austrian-Jewish Refugees and the Media

Magnes Collection of Jewish Life and Art 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA, United States

2024 Annual Feldman Lecture by Paul Lerner. Presented by UC Berkeley's Institute of European Studies, Center for Jewish Studies, Department of History, German Historical Institute Washington | Pacific Office Berkeley, and OPEN Austria.

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Modern Permutations of an Ancient Antisemitic Myth: The Blood Libel during the Holocaust

Magnes Collection of Jewish Life and Art 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA, United States

Presented by Berkeley’s Center for Jewish Studies and CJS Antisemitism Education Initiative, the 2025 Annual Pell Lecture features Elissa Bemporad and traces the endurance and permutation of the traditional ritual murder accusation against Jews during World War II, in particular in the German-occupied territories of the Soviet Union.

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A Case Study of Systemic Antisemitism: The Housing Market in Paris during the Holocaust

Magnes Collection of Jewish Life and Art 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA, United States

Presented by Berkeley’s Center for Jewish Studies and CJS Antisemitism Education Initiative, the 25/26 Annual Pell Lecture features Sarah Gensburger and will consider what the notion of systemic anti-Semitism can contribute to our understanding of the implementation of the Holocaust in Paris and its aftermath.