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Modern Food Rituals: From the Communal Table to the Global Tasting Room

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

Inspired by Gourmet Ghettos: Modern Food Rituals, a new exhibition on display at The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, UC Berkeley scholars and Bay Area authors, artists, and food activists animate a roundtable discussion about religious and secular food rituals, the ways they engage with the growing public interest in ecology, food security, and […]

PopUp Exhibition | Yiddish on Opposite Sides of the Atlantic

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

Dr. Yael Chaver teaches Yiddish language and literature at Berkeley. Her presentation will tell a story of Yiddish linguistic development that contrasts the cultural context of Soviet Russia, with that of the Yiddish-speaking immigrants in New York on opposite sides of the Atlantic in the 1920s. Posters and grammar books from the Magnes will serve […]

Holocaust Survivors Memoir Reading

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

Please join Jewish Family & Children’s Services of the East Bay for a special reading highlighting the ongoing work of our Holocaust Survivors Memoir Writing Group. Members of the group will share pieces that will reflect upon the theme of 1945 - Now I Am Free. Light refreshments will be served Please contact Rita Clancy at rclancy@jfcs-eastbay.org or […]

Warsaw: the Jewish Metropolis

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

Before the war, Warsaw was the home of Europe’s largest Jewish community. It was a fascinating mosaic of different Jewish worlds: Hasidism, Bundists, Polish speakers and Yiddish speakers, a colorful underworld, a center of the Yiddish press and theater. Professor Kassow, author of Who Will Write Our History, will discuss how Jewish Warsaw grew and […]

Sarah Benor: “Mensch, Bentsh, and Balagan: Language as a Marker of Jewish Identity”

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

Professor Benor’s upcoming talk describes the range of Jewish American English – from the addition of a few Yiddish words among Jews with weak connections to organized Jewish life to the “Yeshivish” of strictly Orthodox Jews, which is filled with words from Yiddish, Hebrew, and Aramaic and Yiddish influences in grammar and pronunciation. Jews of various stripes use subtle variation in […]

PopUp Exhibition | Yosef Rosen on the Powers of Amulets

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

As objects engraved with magical formulas, amulets offer fascinating insight into the world of beliefs that informed them. The Magnes is fortunate to own a vast number of both paper and metal amulets, designed to protect the bearer from harm. Several amulets will be on display during this PopUp Exhibiton by Yosef Rosen, a Doctoral […]

Daniel Fisher on the Materials of Lived Biblical Interpretation

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

Daniel Fisher (Magnes Graduate Fellow and PhD Candidate, Near Eastern Studies) specializes in the Hebrew Bible and its early reception history. At the Magnes, Daniel is working with Dr. Francesco Spagnolo to curate Biblical Lives, an exhibition to open in fall 2015 highlighting materials from the collection that empowered Jews across history to engage with […]

Jewish Songlines | Judeo-Spanish and Yiddish Music and Dance with Esti Kenan-Ofri (Israel) and Michael Alpert (United States)

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

A unique encounter between two world-class interpreters of Jewish musical traditions from Central and Eastern Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. Esti Kenan Ofri teaches in the Department of Music at Bar Ilan University. She is a composer and a performer of Sephardic and Arabic music and dance, and a vocalist sought by some of […]

Shanghai Refugee Camp Treasures from the Magnes of Collection of Jewish Art and Life

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

Special Guest: Sheer Ganor, Graduate Student in History, UC Berkeley This session will bring us into conversation with archival ephemera from the Jewish refugee camp in that operated in Shanghai, China during the Second World War in the Magnes Collection. Specifically we will examine identification documents, High Holiday tickets, a representation of living conditions, and […]

PopUp Exhibition | Freud’s Moses: Between Anti-Semitism and Assimilation

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

The debate about Sigmund Freud’s ambivalent relationship with Judaism found new inspiration in the last few decades through a wave of new publications that focus on Freud’s last work,Moses and Monotheism (1939). Dr. Sharvit’s lecture will instead concentrate on an earlier essay by  Freud, The Moses of Michelangelo (1914). In this work, initially published anonymously, […]

City of Berkeley 13th Annual Holocaust Remembrance Day

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

Honoring Sonia Korn-Grimani Distinguished Survivor with Jenny Chabon Cantor Eliana Kissner Performer Benji Marks Bass and Guitar Stephanie Anne Johnson, PhD Theater Arts, Writer Susan D. Felix Berkeley Art Ambassador Noon-1:30 PM Followed by a Reception For additional information 510-981-7170

PopUp Exhibition | Moroccan Jews and the Ornaments of Acculturation

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

Jews have lived in Morocco for over two millennia, both prior to and eventually deeply integrated with Moroccan Muslims. Their communities were also among the largest in the Arab world, and boast an impressive cultural heritage, expressed in The Magnes Collection through textiles, photographs and illustrated manuscripts. Join Professor Emily Gottreich in exploring the history […]