Explore the Magnes Collection

The holdings of The Magnes Collection are catalogued into three distinct areas, which together constitute the single collection: the Archives, the Library, and the Museum. This unique interdisciplinary understanding of the collection facilitates access to scholars by integrating the different descriptive standards applied to each area and thus offering a wide-angled perspective on Jewish history and culture.

The Magnes Collection veers from many of the traditional museological and cultural conventions adopted by Jewish cultural heritage institutions. Historically, Jewish art museums have attempted to enhance the cultural significance of Jewish material culture by displaying aesthetically pleasing objects of Jewish daily life, defining them as “art,” and addressing the evolving notions of Jewish art through issues of cultural identity rather than through shifting historical contexts. Instead, The Magnes asks its visitors to rethink the role of materiality in Jewish culture, and its relation to art. Rather than defining objects of Jewish daily life as art, The Magnes investigates Jewish material culture in its own right, focusing on its implications within Jewish life and its relations to other cultures. This approach provides a setting in which art and material culture can coexist, and enhances the study of Jewish culture in a highly interdisciplinary manner.

Jewish Art

The Jewish Art holdings provide a vivid depiction of the processes of Jewish integration into modern secular life since the mid-nineteenth century, and documents the ongoing debate about the definitions of Jewish identity in the modern world. Included in these holdings are painting and sculpture, photography, over two thousand works on paper, and film and digital media.

Jewish Life

The Jewish Life holdings document the intersection of the material and spiritual dimensions of the Jewish experience in the realm of personal and family rituals, in the context of synagogue and communal life, and in the social interactions among Jewish and host communities throughout Central and South-East Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and the Americas. Included in these holdings are textiles, costumes, metalwork, synagogue furnishings, objects relating to daily life, personal prayer, the life cycle, the Sabbath, and other holidays.