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Music @The Magnes: Theodore Bikel

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

  An Academy Award-winning and Tony-nominated actor and internationally renowned folksinger, who was also active in the Soviet Jewry Freedom Movement will present a one-night-only special performance. This concert is in conjunction with a free conference, Captives of the Dawn: Remembering Soviet Yiddish Culture taking place Sunday, November 4 at The Magnes. Tickets for this performance are […]

Captives of the Dawn: Remembering Soviet Yiddish Culture

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

This year’s conference is dedicated to Yiddish culture and literature in the former Soviet Union and brings together nationally renowned scholars in the field. Followed by a choral performance and poetry readings in Yiddish, Russian, and English. Participants : Yael Chaver, Department of German, UC Berkeley Marat Grinberg, Assistant Professor of Russian and Humanities, Reed […]

Annual Kristallnacht Commemoration; Author Alex Kershaw on “The Liberator”

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

A Program in Commemoration of Kristallnacht: The Night of Broken Glass Best-selling author and noted historian Alex Kershaw discusses his latest book, The Liberator, which follows one American soldier’s 500 day odyssey from the beaches of Sicily to the liberation of Dachau. Presented by The Jewish Federation and The Jewish Community Foundation of the East Bay and The […]

Emma Goldman Papers Project Reception

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

Reception to honor the publication of the third in the four-volume series, Emma Goldman: A Documentary History of the American Years- 1890-1919 (Stanford University Press, November 2012).  Readings from the work of the eloquent advocate of universal social justice.

The Book of Genesis: A Biography

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

Ronald Hendel will introduce his forthcoming book, The Book of Genesis: A Biography (Princeton, November 2012) in conversation with Rabbi Stephen Pearce of Temple Emanu-El, San Francisco, and the Very Rev. Jane Shaw, Dean of the Grace Cathedral, San Francisco. The book traces how Genesis has shaped views of reality, and how changing views of reality have […]

Book Reading: Artist Helene Aylon

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

Artist Helene Aylon on her memoir- Whatever is Contained Must Be Released: My Jewish Orthodox Girlhood, My Life as a Feminist Artist (The Feminist Press, 2012). Aylon's book reading includes a slideshow and short video.   "Never afraif to question sacred texts, ancient rituals, and religious bias- Aylon is a role model for all artists. Whatever is Contained […]

Movie Night | Life? Or Theatre? (Netherlands/Germany/USA/France 2012)

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

LIFE? OR THEATRE? Dir. Frans Weisz | Netherlands, Germany, USA, France | 2012 | 85min. In this documentary, Dutch filmmaker Frans Weisz traces the life of Charlotte Salomon, a German Jewish painter who defied the Nazi regime as a teenager by staying in Berlin and attending art school until 1938, when she was sent to […]

Movie Night | Dressing America: Tales From the Garment Center (USA 2011)

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

DRESSING AMERICA: TALES FROM THE GARMENT CENTER Dirs. Stepehen Fischler and Joel Sucher | USA | 2011 | 57min. Dressing America explores the ways in which immigrant Jews transformed a half-square mile of new York City into an urban village, packed with sewing machine operators, cutters, tailors, designers, trim manufacturers, machine and tool suppliers and […]

Movie Night | Fluchkes (Dir. Ofer Inov | Israel | 2011)

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

Fluchkes is an honest, humorous look at growing older and its relationship to creativity and art. The film follows a group of talented, energetic and feisty women, all aged between 72 and 82, as they prepare for a professional dance performance. Intimately observing a year of grueling rehearsals building up to the final show, director […]

Computing and the Practice of History

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

British and American intellectual and religious historian Professor Daniel Cohen is an internationally recognized leader in digital humanities, and the director of the Center for History and New Media and Associate Professor of History at George Mason University. He has been active in software development, in pedagogy, and in thinking programmatically about the impact of […]

Purim: A Diaspora Story in Jewish Art and Folklore

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

In conjunction with the opening of the exhibition, Case Study No. 3 | Sound Objects, The Magnes presents a lecture by Shalom Sabar (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem). Though a minor holiday in the Jewish year cycle, the Purim festival and the Book of Esther assumed unusual significance for the Jews living as a religious minority, whether […]

Tragic Komiks: Immigrant Identity in Translation

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

Marina Temkina is considered one of the most important Russian poets of her generation. Born in St. Petersburg, she emigrated from the former Soviet Union in 1978 and now lives in New York. Temkina published five books of poetry. She writes on gender, Russian-Jewish identity, and immigration with a sense of history lived through and […]