Roman Vishniac. In Focus: 1922-2022

May 1 & 2, 2022  |  Annual Diller Lecture

Presented by University of California, Berkeley, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life and The Center for Jewish Studies.

The Magnes Collection, in collaboration with UC Berkeley’s Center for Jewish Studies, presents “Roman Vishniac. In Focus: 1922-2022.” celebrating the reopening of The Magnes and the richness of the Roman Vishniac Archive.

This 2-day event combines an in-person Open House featuring a digital display of photographs of Jewish life from Eastern and Central Europe from before World War II, as well as a virtual, day-long Symposium with internationally acclaimed scholars discussing the historical context and content of the photographs Vishniac took.

Over the last century, some Jewish worlds have been irretrievably lost while other Jewish worlds have been born anew. Roman Vishniac was a participant in, observer and photographic chronicler of many of these events.  His work forms the context for this event and Monday’s symposium topics focusing on the Jewish lives Vishniac captured in interwar Eastern Europe, Weimar Germany, and in the immediate aftermath of the Six Day War in Israel. The photographic images Roman Vishniac took in all three places provide a counterpoint to debates about identity and belonging that once dominated public life and the reverberations of these debates that continue to ring out in our own day.

Sunday, May 1st | Open House

In-person at The Magnes

The Magnes Collection’s Reopening Event  |  3:00-5:00pm  |  In-person at The Magnes

Celebrating the richness of the Roman Vishniac Archive, The Magnes Collection welcomes the public to an in-person reopening reception featuring a digital display of photographs from the Archive revealing Jewish communities and life in the interwar period of Eastern Europe, and in Israel at the end of the 1967 war.

The Magnes Collection galleries will be open to view current exhibitions An Archive of Archives: Roman Vishniac’s Exhibition History | New York, 1971-72,  Time Capsules. The Magnes: 10 Years at UC Berkeley, and In Real Times. Arthur Szyk: Art & Human Rights (1926-1951).

Monday, May 2nd | Symposium

Virtual webinar

Welcome  |  9:30-10:00am

Introductions and Opening Remarks
John Efron Koret Professor of Jewish History at Berkeley; Faculty Director, The Magnes Collection and Center for Jewish Studies
Francesco Spagnolo Curator, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life and Associate Adjunct Professor, Department of Music

Vishniac’s Workshop: The Polish Republic and Weimar Germany  |  10:00-11:30am

The Pre-war World of East European Jewry
Samuel Kassow, Charles H. Northam Professor of History at Trinity College

Vishniac’s Weimar Germany: East European Jewish Culture in Berlin
Michael Brenner, Abensohn Chair in Israel Studies and Director, Center for Israel Studies, American University; Professor of Jewish History and Culture at the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich

Moderator: John Efron Koret Professor of Jewish History at Berkeley; Faculty Director, The Magnes Collection and Center for Jewish Studies

Lunch Break  |  11:30am-1:00pm

Roman Vishniac and His Work  |  1:00-2:30pm

Roman Vishniac’s Photographs of East European Jews: An Odyssey of Memory
Jeffrey Shandler Professor of Jewish Studies, Rutgers

Grandfather Roman: A 19th Century Naturalist and 20th Century Photographer
Benjamin Schiff Emeritus Professor of Politics, Oberlin College

Moderator: Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett University Professor Emerita and Professor Emerita of Performance Studies at New York University, Chief Curator of the Core Exhibition at POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, and a Magnes Scholarly Advisor

Break  |  2:30-3:00pm

Vishniac: From Berlin to Jerusalem  |  3:00-4:30pm

Roman Wischniak. The Berlin Years
Aubrey Pomerance Head of Archives of the Jewish Museum Berlin

Vishniac in Israel
Rebekka Grossmann Postdoctoral Fellow, The Rosenzweig Minerva Research Center for German-Jewish Literature and Cultural History at Hebrew University, Jerusalem

Moderator: Francesco Spagnolo Curator, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life and Associate Adjunct Professor, Department of Music

Closing  |  4:30-5:00pm

Wrap-up and Closing Remarks
John Efron Koret Professor of Jewish History at Berkeley; Faculty Director, The Magnes Collection and Center for Jewish Studies

Generously funded by the Center for Jewish Studies Annual Diller Lecture and Taube Philanthropies, this event is free and the public is invited to join in person and virtually, adhering to campus COVID-19 guidance.

The Magnes Collection is currently processing the Roman Vishniac Archive. Materials from the archive are not yet available.

Registration closed

If you require accommodation for effective communication or information about mobility access in order to fully participate in this event, please contact Carlin Cylwik at crm@berkeley.edu with as much advance notice as possible and at least 7–10 days in advance of the event.