Writing Identity: Sayed Kashua

The Magnes Collection of Jewish Life and Art 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA, United States

Sayed Kashua was born in the Arab town of Tira in central Israel. He has become one of the most important contemporary voices on the complexities of identity through his three novels, his column in the Ha’aretz newspaper, and the groundbreaking Israeli sitcom Arab Labor, which he wrote and created. His latest novel, Second Person Singular, was published in […]

Robert Alter on his new book

The Magnes Collection of Jewish Life and Art 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA, United States

Robert Alter’s award-winning translation of the Hebrew Bible continues with the stirring narrative of Israel’s ancient history. To read the books of the Former Prophets in this riveting translation (published by W.W. Norton & Co., 2013) is to discover an entertaining amalgam of hair-raising action and high literary achievement. Alter's immense achievements in scholarship ranging […]

Litquake: Thaisa Frank

The Magnes Collection of Jewish Life and Art 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA, United States

The day culminates with a public reading by award-winning author Thaisa Frank. Heidegger’s Glasses is Frank’s startling, surreal debut novel. Part love story and part historical fiction, Heidegger’s Glasses evocatively reconstructs the landscape of Nazi Germany from an entirely original and haunting vantage point. To register, please click here.

Dear Mendl, Dear Reyzl: Yiddish Letter Manuals from Russia and America

The Magnes Collection of Jewish Life and Art 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA, United States

The authors will discuss their recently-released book Dear Mendl, Dear Reyzl: Yiddish Letter Manuals from Russia and America by (Indiana University Press, 2014) As a special session of The Townsend Center for Humanities Working Group on Modern Jewish Culture, the program will also address The Magnes’ extensive collection of Jewish-themed postcards, which animate themes of mobility and […]

Irvin Ungar on Arthur Szyk: Soldier in Art

The Magnes Collection of Jewish Life and Art 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA, United States

In 2017, The Magnes acquired from Irvin Ungar, a private collector, the most significant collection of works by Arthur Szyk (Łódź, Poland, 1894 – New Canaan, Connecticut, 1951)  thanks to an unprecedented gift from Taube Philanthropies. Szyk’s works are now available to the world in a public institution for the first time as the Taube […]