Beit Midrash Study Session | Thirst
Dec 7 @ 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm
A FLOWING THROUGH TIME AND TRADITION PROGRAM
Film Screening with Alan Snitow & Deborah Kaufman
Join us for Thirst, the fourth in a series of Beit Midrash Study Sessions inspired by the art and objects on view in Flowing through Time and Tradition.
Sunday, December 7, 2025 / 17 Kislev 5786
1:30 – 3:00 pm
In person at the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA
RSVP
Population growth, pollution, and scarcity are turning water into “blue gold”—the oil of the 21st century. Global corporations are buying up local water supplies, leaving communities without control over their most vital resource. Thirst (2004), a character-driven documentary film with no narration, reveals how water sparks explosive grassroots resistance to globalization. Filmed in Bolivia, India, Japan, and the U.S., it offers a piercing look at the clash between public stewardship and private profit.
Join filmmakers Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman for a special one-hour screening of Thirst, followed by a conversation about the film’s creation and the insights from their book Thirst: Fighting the Corporate Theft of Our Water (2007). The program will close with a collaborative text study exploring Jewish perspectives on water, distribution, and responsibility.
Please join us for a special gallery tour focusing on objects connected to the monthly Beit Midrash theme before each study session from 1:00-1:30pm. Please RSVP for the gallery tour here.
The Magnes’s programs and exhibitions are supported by our community. Click here to make a suggested donation of $10 per session or $55 for the full series.
If you have any questions about accessibility or require accommodations to participate in this event, please contact us at dalter@berkeley.edu or call us at (510) 643-2526 with as much advance notice as possible.
Program is subject to change.
About the guest teachers
Alan Snitow’s films include the new film POST ATLANTIC (2025), “Town Destroyer,” the award-winning “Company Town,” “Between Two Worlds,” “Thirst”, “Secrets of Silicon Valley”, and “Blacks and Jews.” He was a producer at the top-rated KTVU-TV News, the Bay Area Fox affiliate, for 12 years. Before that, he was the News Director at Bay Area’s Pacifica Radio station, KPFA-FM, winning the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Gold Award for Best Local Newscast. Snitow served on the boards of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, Film Arts Foundation, California Media Collaborative, Food and Water Watch, and as Board President of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. He is a member of SAG-AFTRA and a graduate of Cornell University.
Deborah Kaufman’s films include the new film POST ATLANTIC (2025), “Town Destroyer,” the award-winning “Company Town,” “Between Two Worlds,” “Thirst”, “Secrets of Silicon Valley”, and “Blacks and Jews.” She founded and for 13 years was Director of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, the first and largest independent Jewish film showcase in the world. Kaufman has been a Board member of the California Council for the Humanities, the New Israel Fund, and Amnesty International USA. She has been a consultant, programmer, lecturer, and activist with a variety of human rights, multicultural and media arts organizations. Kaufman is a graduate of University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, and a member of the California Bar. She is member of the Documentary Branch of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.
About the Film
Global corporations are rapidly buying up local water supplies. Communities suddenly lose control of their most precious resource. Thirst, a character-driven documentary with no narration, reveals how water is the catalyst for explosive community resistance to globalization. A piercing look at the conflict between public stewardship and private profit. Shot in Bolivia, India, Japan and the USA. Spanish, French, and Portuguese subtitles.
About the series
Beit Midrash, meaning a house of study in Hebrew, is a series of eight creative, collaborative study sessions inspired by the art and objects on view in Flowing through Time and Tradition. Guided by the curator and guest teachers, we will engage with texts and artistic expressions to delve deeper into the exhibition objects and themes, to draw knowledge, surface reflections, and pour forth new perspectives.
About the exhibition
Exploring the theme of water through the holdings of the Magnes Collection, Flowing through Time and Tradition traces how water flows through and shapes Jewish lives: enacting belief, sustaining life and communities, providing the means for spiritual cleansing, and mapping identities.
