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Jewish American Heritage Month at the Magnes
May 12, 2025
Above image: Girl with a Red Scarf [detail] by Raphael Soyer. USA 1975-85. 91.23.
This May marks the 19th annual celebration of Jewish American Heritage Month, an opportunity for all Americans to connect with the vibrant and varied American Jewish experience.
The extensive Jewish American holdings at the Magnes provide unique access to rich texts, vibrant images, and objects that shed light on these experiences, paying tribute to the generations of Jewish Americans who helped form the fabric of American history, culture and society.
Since its inception, the Magnes has been firmly rooted in American Jewish history, establishing the Western Jewish History Center in 1967. The Center’s paintings, sculptures, and ritual objects are now a part of the museum collection. The Western Jewish Americana Archives at UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library preserve the Center’s collected history of Jewish immigration and community engagement in the San Francisco Bay Area and the American West since the Gold Rush.
The Magnes founders reflected the rainbow of identities of American Jewry. Seymour Fromer hailed from a Yiddish-speaking East European family from the Bronx, NY, while Rebecca Camhi Fromer descended from a Sephardic family from Salonika, in the Ottoman Empire.” — Magnes Curator Francesco Spagnolo
The Magnes continues to reflect and document the many trajectories of American Jewish life, including recently acquired major collections featuring works by immigrant Jewish artists such as Arthur Szyk and Roman Vishniac.
Jewish American Heritage Month is a national month of recognition of nearly four centuries of American Jewish life and provides an opportunity for people to learn about and appreciate Jewish heritage and reflect on the specific history and experiences of the American Jewish community.
Join the Magnes on Facebook and Instagram as we celebrate #JewishAmericanHeritageMonth and #OurSharedHeritage during the month of May.
Jewish American Heritage Month Programming
Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) on reading the authors you want to write like
The bestselling author Daniel Handler, known for penning the popular series of children’s novels A Series of Unfortunate Events spoke at the Magnes’ inaugural Jewish Arts & Bookfest in celebration of Jewish American Heritage Month on May 4, 2025. Throughout the day, artists and authors came together for panel discussions, workshops and other programming that showcased the Jewish experience through art, culture and storytelling.
In the keynote session and shared In episode 226 of Berkeley Talks, Handler, joined in a conversation by J. The Jewish News of Northern California‘s editor-in-chief Chanan Tigay, discusses how his Jewish identity shapes his worldview and storytelling, where the name “Lemony Snicket” came from, and how a great mentor taught him to read work by authors he admired in order to hone his craft.
The Jewish Arts & Bookfest was presented in partnership with New Lehrhaus, J. The Jewish News of Northern California, and the Jewish Community Library.
Torah Arks at the Magnes
Centered on three special Torah Arks in the Magnes Collection, the 3-part video series, Families in Motion, tells the story of community and migration across the Global Jewish Diaspora.
In celebration of Jewish American Heritage Month and created for all ages. All three Torah Arks can be seen in the current exhibition Time Capsules: Exploring the Permanent Collection.
Robert Tennenbaum and the Queen Mary
Home footage of two-year old Robert Tennenbaum and his family escaping Nazi Germany aboard the H.R.M.S Queen Mary. The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life holds the Torah Ark from the Queen Mary’s synagogue. Torah Ark by Cecil Jacob EprilEngland, c. 1935. 92.24.
Della Morrison and the Torah Ark of Rock Springs, Wyoming
A glimpse into the story of Della Morrison, who grew up in Rock Springs, Wyoming a hundred years ago. Della’s father made the portable Torah Ark their tiny Jewish community used to hold services in family homes. Portable Torah Ark by Louis M. Morrison. Rock Springs, Wyoming, c. 1910. Gift of Melvin J. and Marilyn A. Weiss. 2013.5.1.
Sarah Cohen and the Kochi Torah Ark
A glimpse into the story of Sarah Cohen, one of the last Jews of Kochi, Kerala, India, and a grand Torah Ark from there now part of the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life. Torah Ark, Kochi, Kerala, India, 17th-18th century. Gift of the Jewish Community of Ernakulam, India, Bernard Kimmel Collection, 67.0.3a-z.
Highlights from the collection
Saved by the Bay
The stories of scholars, writers and artists – many of them Jewish, related to Jews, or political dissidents – who escaped the rise of Nazism and fascism in Europe in the 1930s and ‘40s and brought their talents and dreams with them to UC Berkeley.
Torah Ark from Rock Springs, Wyoming
The story behind the portable Torah Ark of Rock Springs, Wyoming built by Louis Morrison in the early 20th century and the small “basement” Congregation Beth Israel that used it.
Mezuzah at the Vice President’s Residence
A sterling silver mezuzah from the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life now hangs at the official Washington, DC residence of Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff.
The Undefeatable Legacy Behind the Magnes Collection
Beginning with a vision and a few objects on display, founders Seymour and Rebecca Fromer created what is now the third largest Jewish museum in the United States.
Magazine Cover Art
Digital reproductions of the front and back cover art from World Over, a bi-weekly children’s periodical focused on the intersections between American and Jewish cultures and published between 1946 and 1973.
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