The Gallery & the Archive

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

Free and open to the Public Join David Wilson, Greg Niemeyer and Nicki Green, three contemporary artists who, in recent years, have interacted with The Magnes Collection and contributed to exhibitions that intersect new works with art and artifacts from the collection itself, in a conversation about art, creativity, archives, and memory, moderated by Francesco […]

The 2018 Taubman Lectures | Annette Yoshiko Reed: “Forgetting the Jewish Past between Rupture and Renewal”

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

The Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Chair in Jewish Studies invite you to the 2018 Taubman Lecture Series by Professor Annette Yoshiko Reed, NYU. Lecture 1 What Was Lost with the Dead Sea Scrolls When: Monday, March 12, 7:00 p.m. Lecture 2 How the Jewishness of Christianity was Forgotten When: Wednesday, March 14, 7:00 p.m. Lecture […]

Magic Spells: A Research Workshop on Hebrew Amulets

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

Please note: The February 27 event has been canceled. The series will begin on March 20. Join Magnes curators to discover the elaborate texts and imagery, magic formulas, and Kabbalistic sources in Hebrew amulets. Worn on one’s person or placed in homes, Jewish amulets are used at moments of vulnerability and transition, like childbirth, marriage, […]

City of Berkeley 16th Annual Holocaust Remembrance Day

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

Honoring Hana Berger Moran, distinguished survivor. Featuring Joel Ben-Izzy, storyteller; Mike Perlmutter, Gerry Tenney, Dmitri Gaskin, Dusan Rustic, musicians. This event is free and open to the public. For all inquiries please contact the City of Berkeley at 510-981-7170 Priska and Hana 1949

Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett on Theatre of History: Presenting the Past in American Jewish Museums

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

Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett (POLIN Museum, Warsaw, and NYU) on Theatre of History: Presenting the Past in American Jewish Museums Monday, April 16, 6:30pm Presented by GTU Center for Jewish Studies, in collaboration with The Magnes, UC Berkeley What is “the problem with Jewish museums”? Whereas there were only two major Jewish museums in the United States before […]

Irvin Ungar on Arthur Szyk: Soldier in Art

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

In 2017, The Magnes acquired from Irvin Ungar, a private collector, the most significant collection of works by Arthur Szyk (Łódź, Poland, 1894 – New Canaan, Connecticut, 1951)  thanks to an unprecedented gift from Taube Philanthropies. Szyk’s works are now available to the world in a public institution for the first time as the Taube […]

Fall 2018 Opening Reception | Pièces de Résistance & Project “Holy Land”

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

The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life cordially invites you to an opening reception for its two new exhibitions Pièces de RésistanceEchoes of Judaea CaptaFrom Ancient Coins to Modern Art & Project “Holy Land” Yaakov Benor-Kalter’s Photographs of British Mandate Palestine Tuesday, September 4, 2018 at 5 pm 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley RECEPTION OPENING […]

Pogrom: Kishinev and the Tilt of History | Steven Zipperstein (Stanford) in conversation with John Efron (UC Berkeley

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

This event is free and open to the public Please RSVP here Pogrom: Kishinev and the Tilt of History (Liveright/WW Norton, 2018) by Steven Zipperstein will be available for purchase through Mrs. Dalloway's bookstore after the event. In April, 1903, 49 Jews were killed, 600 were raped or wounded, and more than 1,000 Jewish-owned houses and stores were […]

Sholem Aleichem on the South Side of Chicago: The Story and Songs of the Rediscovered 1905 Musical Stempenyu

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

This event is free and open to the public Please RSVP here In June of 1905, Sholem Aleichem—author of the Tevye Stories—met in Warsaw with theater producers Spivakovsky and Adler, and agreed to pen adaptations of his fiction works for theatrical production on stages throughout the Russian Empire. Only a few months later, caught in the […]

Around Arthur Szyk: Berkeley Scholars on Art and History

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

Additional Program Date: Tue, Nov 27, 2018 5:30pm The Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection comprises hundreds of artworks, sketches, illustrated books, and archival documents created between two world wars and documenting the rise of totalitarianism in Europe. Szyk’s work touches on motifs drawn from the Bible, history, politics, and culture to pair extraordinary craftsmanship with […]

Around Arthur Szyk: Berkeley Scholars on Art and History

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

Poland Reborn: A State Between Democracy and Fascism John Connelly, History, UC Berkeley RSVP here This talk focuses on the divided Poland that emerged after World War I. On the one hand Poland had to accommodate the demands of generations of freedom fighters, while on the other, it quickly became a dysfunctional democracy that lapsed into […]

Spring 2019 Opening Reception | Memory Objects and the Vishniac Archive

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

The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life cordially invites you to an opening reception for the new exhibition, Memory Objects: Judaica Collections, Global Migrations and to celebrate the gift of the Roman Vishniac Archive Doors open at 5 pm Reception Opening Remarks George Breslauer, Faculty Director, The Magnes Francesco Spagnolo, Curator, The Magnes Honoring […]