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Computing and the Practice of History

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

British and American intellectual and religious historian Professor Daniel Cohen is an internationally recognized leader in digital humanities, and the director of the Center for History and New Media and Associate Professor of History at George Mason University. He has been active in software development, in pedagogy, and in thinking programmatically about the impact of […]

Purim: A Diaspora Story in Jewish Art and Folklore

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

In conjunction with the opening of the exhibition, Case Study No. 3 | Sound Objects, The Magnes presents a lecture by Shalom Sabar (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem). Though a minor holiday in the Jewish year cycle, the Purim festival and the Book of Esther assumed unusual significance for the Jews living as a religious minority, whether […]

Tragic Komiks: Immigrant Identity in Translation

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

Marina Temkina is considered one of the most important Russian poets of her generation. Born in St. Petersburg, she emigrated from the former Soviet Union in 1978 and now lives in New York. Temkina published five books of poetry. She writes on gender, Russian-Jewish identity, and immigration with a sense of history lived through and […]

The Jewish Mother

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

“The Jewish Mother” has become an icon in film, fiction and popular culture. On one hand, her image reflects the yearning for lost childhood, family and traditional community. On the other hand, this sense of enchantment and nostalgia is accompanied by a perception of the mother as an intimidating, somewhat demonic figure, who forces her […]

Immigrants, Cantors, and Klezmers: Lecture by Mark Slobin

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

A professor of Music and American Studies at Wesleyan University, Mark Slobin is one of the most distinguished ethnomusicologists working today. He is author of the award-winning book Fiddler on the Move: Exploring the Klezmer World (Oxford, 2001) where he uncovers the intimate connection between style and stereotype in the representation of musical practice among Jewish immigrants. […]

A Sweet Diaspora Song. Paths of Jewish Music in America. Performance by Michael Alpert in conversation with Francesco Spagnolo

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

Presented in association with the 28th Jewish Music Festival, this performance by Michael Alpert, instrumentalist, singer, dancer, composer, songwriter and ethnographer, will thrill music lovers of all stripes. Alpert is one of the leading figures in the world scene of Jewish music, and in this performance-conversation with musicologist and The Magnes curator Francesco Spagnolo, he will retrace the […]

Writing Identity: Sayed Kashua

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

Sayed Kashua was born in the Arab town of Tira in central Israel. He has become one of the most important contemporary voices on the complexities of identity through his three novels, his column in the Ha’aretz newspaper, and the groundbreaking Israeli sitcom Arab Labor, which he wrote and created. His latest novel, Second Person Singular, was published in […]

Music @ The Magnes | Psoy Korolenko in Concert

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

Psoy Korolenko (pseudonym of Pavel Lion) is a Russian/Jewish multilingual poet-singer, known as a 'wandering scholar' and 'singing professor'. His unique one-man shows intersect folk, klezmer, rap, sound poetry and intellectual cabaret/comedy. As a writer and scholar he is known for his interest to otherness, diaspora, territory, minorities, and borderlines. He sings in English, Russian, […]

11th annual City of Berkeley Holocaust Remembrance Day Event

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

Join us for the 11th annual City of Berkeley Holocaust Remembrance Day Event Honoring survivors Sam Genirberg and Kathryn Winter Music by composer Aaron BlumenfeldAdmission is free. Refreshments will be served.

Pell Lecture: Film Screening and Discussion with Filmmaker Lisa Gossels and Peter Gossels

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

"THE CHILDREN OF CHABANNES" A film by Lisa Gossels and Dean Wetherell April 7th, 2013 at 3pm Event is free and open to the public. Sponsored by The Joseph and Eda Pell Endowed Fund for Jewish Studies. Co-sponsored by the UC Berkeley Graduate Program in Jewish Studies, Berkeley Hillel, the UC Berkeley Graduate School of […]

Movie Night | My So-Called Enemy

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

Spanning a seven-year period, “My So-Called Enemy” follows six Palestinian and Israeli teenage girls committed to justice and mutual understanding as the conflict continues to rage in their homeland, after participating in a women’s leadership program in the U.S. called Building Bridges for Peace.  This heart and mind-opening film documents how the young women’s transformative experience, of knowing […]

Robert Alter on his new book

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

Robert Alter’s award-winning translation of the Hebrew Bible continues with the stirring narrative of Israel’s ancient history. To read the books of the Former Prophets in this riveting translation (published by W.W. Norton & Co., 2013) is to discover an entertaining amalgam of hair-raising action and high literary achievement. Alter's immense achievements in scholarship ranging […]