Talk l Music l Reception Honoring Jacob "Yakov" Harari, who will share the riveting story of his family's survival in Poland, along with a musical performance by The Ensemble Bembrillo, featuring Rachel Valfer, Eliyahu Sills, and Dan Cantrell. This event is free and open to the public.
Shana Penn is executive director of the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life and Culture and a visiting scholar at the Graduate Theological Union's Center for Jewish Studies. Her award-winning book, Solidarity’s Secret: The Women Who Defeated Communism in Poland (University of Michigan Press, 2005) examined women’s leadership role in defeating Poland’s communist regime. Presently, Penn is completing […]
Polish-born Yiddishist and oral historian Agnieszka Ilwicka will talk about her research project "Love in the Ruins: Jewish Life in Lower Silesia 1945-1968." After World War II, Lower Silesia was the largest Jewish settlement in Europe. Ilwicka will share her journey through Yiddish, Polish, Hebrew, and German stories recorded in the U.S., Israel, Germany, and […]
The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life cordially invites you to an opening reception for its two new exhibitions: The Invisible Museum: History & Memory of Morocco and Sketching "Fiddler": Set Designs by Mentor Huebner Reception Opening Remarks George Breslauer, Faculty Director, The Magnes History & Memory of Morocco Francesco Spagnolo, Curator, The Magnes Emily […]
The Ashkenazim (Jews of Central and Eastern Europe) have been singing in Yiddish since the Middle Ages. Their historical song repertoires were very different from today's Yiddish songs. Diana Matut's lecture will explore the world of Renaissance and Baroque Yiddish song, and answer a set of specific research questions, such as: What did the Jews […]
Free and open to the public Meet Victoria Hanna and watch as she develops MAGIC SPELLS, a new performance repertoire based on Hebrew amulets in The Magnes Collection. The series is curated by Francesco Spagnolo, and presented in conjunction with his UC Berkeley course, Jewish Nightlife (Jewish 121-001, Music 139). During her Fall 2017 residency, […]
Free and Open to the Public Join Schusterman Visiting Artist Victoria Hanna, Professor Francesco Spagnolo, and the students in his UC Berkeley course, Jewish Nightlife, for a final presentation of their work. In the course of the Fall Semester, “Jewish Nightlife” presented students with an array of learning and performance opportunities. The class studied the connections […]
In this multimedia, multidisciplinary presentation, Samuel R. Torjman Thomas explores the place of musical expression in the definition of Moroccan Jewish culture. Through discussion and live musical performance, Dr. Torjman Thomas analyzes the place of liturgical, para-liturgical, and folk repertoires in Moroccan musical life, highlighting the juxtaposition of several fundamental diasporic identities: Jewish, Sephardic, and […]
The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life cordially invites you to an opening reception for its two new exhibitions: High Holy Days at the Luna Park: Show-card Posters from the Firschein Press, Brooklyn, NY, 1920–1974 & The Karaite Canon: Manuscripts and Ritual Objects from Cairo OPENING REMARKS George Breslauer, Faculty Director, The Magnes Francesco Spagnolo, Curator, The Magnes HONORING Oscar and Theda Firschein (Menlo Park) Donors of the Firschein Collection PERFORMANCE Yair Harel (Jerusalem) Piyyut Hebrew Sacred Songs from […]
Free and open to the public Far from a throwback to the Middle Ages, Hasidism is a product of modernity that forged its identity as a radical alternative to the secular world. So argue the eight distinguished authors, led by David Biale, of Hasidism: A New History, the first comprehensive account of the movement’s place in […]
Free and open to the public A documentary devoted to three pilgrimages to sacred mountains in the three Abrahamic Religions. The work explores the role of music practices as a way of prayer and participation, and the importance of sound in shaping and giving meaning to places. The narrative is shaped around three episodes, each devoted to a different event, following the usual moments of a pilgrimage. The Ascent: on the occasion of Shavuot, the Israelite Samaritans go to pray on Mount Gerizim, in the West Bank, where their sacred places are located. The Feast: in August, members of the brotherhood of the Bektashi climb Mount Tomorr, in Albania, where they pray near the tombs of dede, and practice the kurban (a sacrificial slaughtering of a sheep, whose meat is consumed by each participating family). The Descent: in early September, the miraculous statue of the Black Madonna of Viggiano, Queen of Lucania, in Italy, "descends" into the village for a festival. Nicola Scaldaferri is an Associate Professor in the Department of Cultural Heritage and Environment at the University of Milan, Italy, where he founded and directs the Laboratory of Ethnomusicology and Visual Anthropology. He has done extensive ethnomusicological research in Italy, Albania, and Burkina-Faso, as well as research on […]
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 […]
