Welcome to the Magnes!

Exhibitions, Programs, and 15,000 Objects from Around the World

The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life was established in 2010 following the transfer of the Judah L. Magnes Museum to the University of California, Berkeley. Its remarkably diverse archive, library and museum holdings include art, objects, texts, music, and historical documents about the Jews in the Global Diaspora and the American West. As one of the world's preeminent Jewish collections in a university setting, it provides highly innovative and accessible resources to both researchers and the general public. The holdings of The Magnes continue to grow. In 2017, The Magnes established the Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection, and in 2018 it received the gift of the Roman Vishniac Archive. 

We are open to the public Tuesday - Friday from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM. We are closed on the weekends and on University Holidays.

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Around Arthur Szyk: Berkeley Scholars on Art and History

When: 
Tue, Oct 23, 2018 5:30pm
Tue, Nov 27, 2018 5:30pm

The Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection comprises hundreds of artworks, sketches, illustrated books, and archival documents created between two world wars and documenting the rise of totalitarianism in Europe. Szyk’s work touches on motifs drawn from the Bible, history, politics, and culture to pair extraordinary craftsmanship with searing commentary on a diverse range of subjects including Judaism, the American War of Independence, the Second World War, the Holocaust, and the founding of the State of Israel.

The Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Chair in Jewish Studies 2019 Taubman Lectures

When: 
Tue, Apr 09, 2019 7:00pm
Thu, Apr 11, 2019 7:00pm
Tue, Apr 16, 2019 5:30pm

Lecture One: Tuesday, April 9, 7pm: Freud, Anna O., and the Linguistic Architecture of the Modern Jewish Self

Lecture Two: Thursday, April 11, 7pm: A Different Diaspora: Translation, Dispersion, and the Rewriting of Psychoanalysis in Jewish Languages

Lecture Three: Tuesday, April 16, 5:30pm: Weinreich's "Freud Laboratory": The Yiddish Translation and Reception of Psychoanalysis (Reception follows.)

The Worlds of Arthur Szyk | The Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection

On View: 
Aug 28, 2018 to Dec 14, 2018
Jan 29, 2019 to Jun 28, 2019

Acquired by The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life in 2017 thanks to an unprecedented gift from Taube Philanthropies, the most significant collection of works by Arthur Szyk (Łódź, Poland, 1894 – New Canaan, Connecticut, 1951) is now available to the world in a public institution for the first time as the Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection.

Pièces de Résistance: Echoes of Judaea Capta From Ancient Coins to Modern Art

On View: 
Aug 28, 2018 to Dec 14, 2018
Jan 29, 2019 to Jun 28, 2019

Notions of resistance, alongside fears and realities of oppression, resound throughout Jewish history. As a minority, Jews express their political aspirations, ideals of heroism, and yearnings of retaliation and redemption in their rituals, art, and everyday life.

Centering on coins in The Magnes Collection, this exhibition explores how the Jewish revolts against Hellenism and the Roman occupation of Palestine (Judaea Capta) echo from antiquity into the present.

Project “Holy Land”: Yaakov Benor-Kalter’s Photographs of British Mandate Palestine, 1923-1940

On View: 
Aug 28, 2018 to Dec 14, 2018
Jan 29, 2019 to Jun 28, 2019

For nearly two decades, Yaakov (Jacob) Benor-Kalter (1897-1969) traversed the Old City of Jerusalem, documenting renowned historical monuments, ambiguous subjects in familiar alleyways, and scores of “new Jews” building a new homeland. Benor-Kalter’s photographs smoothly oscillate between two worlds, and two Holy Lands, with one lens.

Memory Objects: Judaica Collections and Global Migrations

On View: 
Feb 26, 2019 to Jun 28, 2019

The First World War (1914-1918) uprooted millions across Europe, and beyond. Many Jews left Eastern and Southern Europe, bringing with them prized personal and communal belongings. In an attempt to rescue precious heritage from imminent destruction, these “memory objects” often ended up with museums, collectors, and art dealers in the West.

The Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Chair in Jewish Studies 2019 Taubman Lectures

When: 
Tue, Apr 09, 2019 7:00pm
Thu, Apr 11, 2019 7:00pm
Tue, Apr 16, 2019 5:30pm

Lecture One: Tuesday, April 9, 7pm: Freud, Anna O., and the Linguistic Architecture of the Modern Jewish Self

Lecture Two: Thursday, April 11, 7pm: A Different Diaspora: Translation, Dispersion, and the Rewriting of Psychoanalysis in Jewish Languages

Lecture Three: Tuesday, April 16, 5:30pm: Weinreich's "Freud Laboratory": The Yiddish Translation and Reception of Psychoanalysis (Reception follows.)

The Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Chair in Jewish Studies 2019 Taubman Lectures

When: 
Tue, Apr 09, 2019 7:00pm
Thu, Apr 11, 2019 7:00pm
Tue, Apr 16, 2019 5:30pm

Lecture One: Tuesday, April 9, 7pm: Freud, Anna O., and the Linguistic Architecture of the Modern Jewish Self

Lecture Two: Thursday, April 11, 7pm: A Different Diaspora: Translation, Dispersion, and the Rewriting of Psychoanalysis in Jewish Languages

Lecture Three: Tuesday, April 16, 5:30pm: Weinreich's "Freud Laboratory": The Yiddish Translation and Reception of Psychoanalysis (Reception follows.)

The Herman P. and Sophia Taubman Chair in Jewish Studies 2019 Taubman Lectures

When: 
Tue, Apr 09, 2019 7:00pm
Thu, Apr 11, 2019 7:00pm
Tue, Apr 16, 2019 5:30pm

Lecture One: Tuesday, April 9, 7pm: Freud, Anna O., and the Linguistic Architecture of the Modern Jewish Self

Lecture Two: Thursday, April 11, 7pm: A Different Diaspora: Translation, Dispersion, and the Rewriting of Psychoanalysis in Jewish Languages

Lecture Three: Tuesday, April 16, 5:30pm: Weinreich's "Freud Laboratory": The Yiddish Translation and Reception of Psychoanalysis (Reception follows.)

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Memory Objects: Judaica Collections and Global Migrations

Memory Objects: Judaica Collections and Global Migrations

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2/26/2019 to 6/28/2019

Every week, Tuesday-Friday, 11am-4pm, during the UC Berkeley Fall and Spring Semesters.

The First World War (1914-1918) uprooted millions across Europe, and beyond. Many Jews left Eastern and Southern Europe, bringing with them prized personal and communal belongings. In an attempt to rescue precious heritage from imminent destruction, these “memory objects” often ended up with museums, collectors, and art dealers in the West.

Location: The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life

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Around Arthur Szyk: Berkeley Scholars on Art and History

Around Arthur Szyk: Berkeley Scholars on Art and History

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Poland Reborn: A State Between Democracy and Fascism
Tue, Feb 26, 2019 5:30pm to 7:00pm

Poland Reborn: A State Between Democracy and Fascism
John Connelly, History, UC Berkeley
RSVP here

Location: 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA

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The Magnes: Social Media, Internships, and Exhibitions

Posted on Thursday, September 8, 2016

I am delighted to share the wonderfully insightful reflection and writing of Isabel (Issy) Steckel (Wesleyan, 2019), this summer’s Social Media intern at The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life. Issy, a Bay Area native, interested in all things art, Italy, and Jewish studies, dove in, head first to her position as Social Media intern. Her knowledge and expertise only served to garner more publicity for The Magnes, and to bolster our social media presence, tripling our follower count on Instagram.

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Power of Attention: Shiviti Manuscripts at The Magnes

Posted on Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Over the course of this year, our Magnes Graduate Fellow, Yosef Rosen, in collaboration with our former Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program (URAP) student, Zoe Lewin, worked extensively with The Magnes’s shiviti manuscript collection.

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The Magnes: A Student Manifesto

Posted on Friday, May 6, 2016

I am delighted to share an essay by Lauren Cooper. Lauren, who is graduating from UC Berkeley this Spring, with a Major in Comparative Literature, and Minors in Spanish and History, has been involved with Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program (URAP) that I direct at The Magnes for the last two years.

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Carla Shapreau awarded Palisca Award for the digital edition of looted music manuscript

Posted on Friday, November 20, 2015

Carla Shapreau, a faculty member at Berkeley Law whose research involves the Nazi-era plunder of musical cultural property and the restitution of those possessions, a senior fellow in the Institute of European Studies and a curator at the Department of Music, as well as a member of the Magnes Working Group on Mapping Diasporas, is the recipient with two co-authors of this year’s Claude V.

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Greg Niemeyer on The Materials of Memory | PopUp Exhibition @Magnes December 9, 2015

Posted on Thursday, October 22, 2015

Greg Niemeyer is Associate Professor of Art Practice and the Director of the Berkeley Center for New Media (bcnm.berkeley.edu). Born in Switzerland in 1967, he studied photography and classics, and received his MFA from Stanford, where he founded the Digital Art Center.

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Living by The Book: The Hebrew Bible and the Everyday Power of Text

Posted on Friday, August 14, 2015

Living by The Book (2015) Exhibition Catalog

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