Supporting Teaching and Learning

With the start of a new year, I feel the return of excitement and energy to the Magnes. We are welcoming visitors to our newest exhibition, In Plain Sight: Jewish Arts and Lives in the Muslim World, faculty and staff are approaching us with opportunities for collaboration, and students are working alongside our full-time team. 

While I welcome the spirited atmosphere that accompanies the opening of an exhibition and a new academic year, I acknowledge the real ongoing challenges and pain within our communities locally and abroad.

This past year, we refreshed our mission and vision to reaffirm the Magnes’s commitment to generating new knowledge and understanding of Jewish cultures, which feels more important than ever. As the leading Jewish museum at a major research university, a critical part of fulfilling our mission is supporting teaching and learning on campus and beyond. 

Please make a gift to the Magnes’s Annual Fund today to support student engagement at the Magnes. 

Collections-based class visits led by Magnes staff enrich students’ academic experiences in multiple disciplines, including English, History, and Jewish Studies. Our undergraduate colleagues in the Work-Study Program develop professional skills as they facilitate public access to the museum and its programs. And Undergraduate Research Apprentices build both academic and professional skills as they help create and expand public access to the collections.

Last year Undergraduate Research Apprentices Anya L. and Lavender L. worked with Magnes staff to research and digitize a set of 98 photographs of New York City’s Chinatown taken by Roman Vishniac. Applying their knowledge of Mandarin, Anya and Lavender dated the photographs to circa 1943 and found evidence of how the Chinese community of New York responded to World War II and the American war effort. Anya and Lavender will resume their work this semester to publish the photographic set online and share research findings publicly.

With your support, the Magnes can connect with learners of all ages. We can deepen our engagement with our campus community and establish new connections with local schools and community organizations. I hope you will make a gift to the Magnes’s Annual Fund today.

Thank you for your support of the Magnes, of UC Berkeley’s students, and of our entire academic and public communities. 

I hope to see you at the Magnes soon.

With gratitude,

Hannah E. Weisman
Executive Director