Study Session
People of the Book
Presented by Achinoam Aldouby, the Associate Curator of the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life.
2:00pm | Helzel Study Room
Jewish Arts and Bookfest
Sunday, May 4, 2025
at UC Berkeley’s Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA
A collaborative study session centered on textual and visual sources that explore the idea of the Jewish people as the “People of the Book.” Together, we’ll examine how this identity has shaped, challenged, and evolved within Jewish thought, and how it has been reimagined across different contexts and mediums.
About the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life
Located in downtown Berkeley, just steps from campus, the museum and research center is home to one of the world’s preeminent collections of Jewish art and life. UC Berkeley’s Magnes generates new knowledge and understanding of Jewish cultures with and for its academic and public audiences through its collections-based exhibitions and programs.
About the Curator: Achinoam Aldouby
Achinoam Aldouby is an Associate Curator at the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life.
A Chateaubriand Research Fellow at Centre de Recherches Moyen-Orient, Méditerranée (CERMOM) in 2023 and a Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley’s Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies in 2022/23, Aldouby received her M.A. from The Hebrew University in Jerusalem ‘17 and is finishing her PhD from Tel Aviv University. Her research focuses on theatrical adaptations of Jewish history, rituals, and canonical texts as a way of exploring aspects of collective memory and tracking the ongoing formation of identities, communities, and culture. Aldouby served as Secretary-General of the Israeli Society for Theatre Research and Associate Editor of Bamah, the Israeli Performing Arts Magazine.