We are excited to host a very special musical event featuring the 14th and 15th String Quartets of Darius Milhaud (1892-1974), one of many artists and intellectuals who came to the San Francisco Bay Area seeking refuge from European fascism. The program draws from Milhaud's memoir, My Happy Life, archival holdings of The Magnes and […]
An exploration of the themes of the Kronos Quartet's world premiere, Beyond Zero: 1914—1918, which features a score by Aleksandra Vrebalov and film by Bill Morrison, created as a response to the centennial of the outbreak of the First World War. Historian and journalist Mark Danner will offer thoughts on the historical impact of The Great War […]
Free and open to the public A documentary devoted to three pilgrimages to sacred mountains in the three Abrahamic Religions. The work explores the role of music practices as a way of prayer and participation, and the importance of sound in shaping and giving meaning to places. The narrative is shaped around three episodes, each devoted to a different event, following the usual moments of a pilgrimage. The Ascent: on the occasion of Shavuot, the Israelite Samaritans go to pray on Mount Gerizim, in the West Bank, where their sacred places are located. The Feast: in August, members of the brotherhood of the Bektashi climb Mount Tomorr, in Albania, where they pray near the tombs of dede, and practice the kurban (a sacrificial slaughtering of a sheep, whose meat is consumed by each participating family). The Descent: in early September, the miraculous statue of the Black Madonna of Viggiano, Queen of Lucania, in Italy, "descends" into the village for a festival. Nicola Scaldaferri is an Associate Professor in the Department of Cultural Heritage and Environment at the University of Milan, Italy, where he founded and directs the Laboratory of Ethnomusicology and Visual Anthropology. He has done extensive ethnomusicological research in Italy, Albania, and Burkina-Faso, as well as research on […]
Honoring Hana Berger Moran, distinguished survivor. Featuring Joel Ben-Izzy, storyteller; Mike Perlmutter, Gerry Tenney, Dmitri Gaskin, Dusan Rustic, musicians. This event is free and open to the public. For all inquiries please contact the City of Berkeley at 510-981-7170 Priska and Hana 1949
Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett (POLIN Museum, Warsaw, and NYU) on Theatre of History: Presenting the Past in American Jewish Museums Monday, April 16, 6:30pm Presented by GTU Center for Jewish Studies, in collaboration with The Magnes, UC Berkeley What is “the problem with Jewish museums”? Whereas there were only two major Jewish museums in the United States before […]
This event is free and open to the public Please RSVP here Pogrom: Kishinev and the Tilt of History (Liveright/WW Norton, 2018) by Steven Zipperstein will be available for purchase through Mrs. Dalloway's bookstore after the event. In April, 1903, 49 Jews were killed, 600 were raped or wounded, and more than 1,000 Jewish-owned houses and stores were […]
This event is free and open to the public Please RSVP here In June of 1905, Sholem Aleichem—author of the Tevye Stories—met in Warsaw with theater producers Spivakovsky and Adler, and agreed to pen adaptations of his fiction works for theatrical production on stages throughout the Russian Empire. Only a few months later, caught in the […]
Additional Program Date: 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 […]
Poland Reborn: A State Between Democracy and Fascism John Connelly, History, UC Berkeley RSVP here This talk focuses on the divided Poland that emerged after World War I. On the one hand Poland had to accommodate the demands of generations of freedom fighters, while on the other, it quickly became a dysfunctional democracy that lapsed into […]
Visual Judaica: Jewish Icons and Judaica Collections in the early 20th century Shir Gal Kochavi, The Magnes, UC Berkeley Please RSVP here The highly decorative works of Arthur Szyk contain key Jewish visual elements such as the Lion of Judah, the dove, and the seven spices mentioned in the bible as typical of the Land of […]
Additional program dates: Tue, May 21, 2019 9am-3pm Wed, May 22, 2019 9am-5pm In Global Transit Forced Migration of Jews and Other Refugees (1940s – 1960s) May 20 – 22, 2019 German Historical Institute | Pacific Regional Office at the University of California, Berkeley Second Conference in the Series “In Global Transit” organized by the […]
The Magnes invites faculty, students, and staff from UC Berkeley and neighboring universities to a curatorial workshop about the new exhibition In Plain Sight: Jewish Arts and Lives in the Muslim World featuring co-curators Dr. Qamar Adamjee, scholar of Islamic art, and Dr. Francesco Spagnolo, Magnes curator and UC Berkeley Professor.
![Untitled [Lions of Judah and Star of David Motif]](https://magnes.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/2017-5-1-21_1-scaled.jpg "Untitled [Lions of Judah and Star of David Motif]")
