Virtual Symposium | Jewish Material Cultures in the Muslim World

AN IN PLAIN SIGHT: JEWISH ARTS AND LIVES IN THE MUSLIM WORLD PROGRAM

Join the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life for Jewish Material Cultures in the Muslim World, an international symposium in conjunction with the exhibition In Plain Sight: Jewish Arts and Lives in the Muslim World.

Chaired by the exhibition co-curators, Professor Francesco Spagnolo (Magnes) and Dr. Qamar Adamjee (Metropolitan Museum of Art), in collaboration with UC Berkeley Professor Emily Gottreich

The three sessions of the virtual symposium will focus on Jewish museums and collections in, and on the specificity of Jewish material cultures originating from the Muslim world, and present the directions of Jewish studies beyond borders.

Wednesday, May 21, 2025 | 9:00 am – 12:00 pm PST

via Zoom

With registration, a Zoom link will be sent to the email address you provide.

If you have any questions about accessibility or require accommodations to participate in this event, please contact us at magnes@berkeley.edu or call us at (510) 643-2526 with as much advance notice as possible.

Sessions

Jewish Museums and Collections in the Muslim World
Emily Gottreich, Chair
Nesim Bencoya, İzmir Jewish Heritage Project (Turkey)
Zhor Rehihil, Musée du Judaïsme Marocain, Casblanca (Morocco)

Jewish Studies Beyond Borders
Francesco Spagnolo, Chair
Prof. Mostafa Hussein, University of Michigan
Prof. Edwin Seroussi, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Curating Jewish Material Culture from the Muslim World
A conversation with Qamar Adamjee (Metropolitan Museum of Art) and Francesco Spagnolo (Magnes, UC Berkeley) moderated by Prof. Emily Gottreich (UC Berkeley)

About the Participants

Dr. Qamar Adamjee is an art historian of the Islamic world and the Indian subcontinent. Formerly an Associate Curator of South Asian and Islamic art at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, Dr. Adamjee began her career in the Islamic Art department at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and has recently returned to the Met as Provenance Researcher in the Asian Art department.

Nesim Bencoya is the General Coordinator for the İzmir Jewish Heritage Project. The project’s global objective is to develop a new platform of civil society organizations led by the İzmir Jewish Community Foundation for sustaining Jewish heritage within the cultural wealth of İzmir, Turkey.

Dr. Emily Gottreich is a world historian specializing in Middle East and North African history with a focus on Jewish-Muslim relations. Her current research project concerns the revival of Jewish heritage sites in the contemporary Islamic world. She received her BA in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of California, Berkeley and her MA and PhD in Middle Eastern Studies and History from Harvard University. She currently serves as Adjunct Professor of Global Studies and Political Economy at UC Berkeley and Senior Research Scholar at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Her publications include The Mellah of Marrakech: Jewish and Muslim Space in Morocco’s Red City (2007), Jewish Morocco: A History from Pre-Islamic to Post Colonial Times (2020), and the co-edited volume Jewish Culture and Society in North Africa (2011). She is a three-time Fulbright awardee to Morocco, past president of the American Institute for Maghrib Studies, and winner of the Phi Beta Kappa award for Excellence in Teaching.

Dr. Mostafa Hussein is an Assistant Professor of Jewish-Muslim studies in the Judaic Studies Department at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His scholarship focuses on Jewish-Muslim intersectionalities, shedding light on the complex cultural and historical interconnections between these communities in the Middle East. Dr. Hussein’s forthcoming book titled Hebrew Orientalism: Jewish Engagement with Arabo-Islamic Culture in Late Ottoman and British Palestine (Princeton University Press, 2025) provides a nuanced understanding of Hebrew orientalism by focusing on the practical activities of Hebrew writers, such as recuperating the Jewish past in the East, constructing Jewish indigeneity, consolidating Jewish ties to Palestine’s landscape, enhancing understanding of the Hebrew Bible, reviving Hebrew language, and undertaking translation projects. He also examines various perceptions of Jews in the Arabic-speaking countries in the Middle East and the evolution of Jewish imageries from the late nineteenth to late twentieth centuries. Dr. Hussein has recently published a new book titled: Remembering Jews in Maghrebi and Middle Eastern Media (Penn State University Press, September 2024).

Zhor Rehihil is the Director and Curator of the Casablanca Moroccan Jewish Museum. She is the first Muslim curator of a Jewish museum in the world and the first Muslim expert of Moroccan Judaica. She has participated in the restoration of multiple synagogue projects, acquired objects for the collections of the Casablanca Moroccan Jewish Museum, curated exhibitions on Moroccan Jewish heritage in Morocco and abroad, and has strengthened the museum’s educational role with Moroccan schools. In addition to authoring articles on the museum, Rehihil created the first glossary on Moroccan Judaica in Arabic. She has served as Professor of Museology at Ben Msik College of the Hassan II University of Casablanca (2017-2018) and taught a Moroccan Jewish Heritage course at Tangier’s International Institute for Tourism (2022). Rehihil is a member and coordinator of the Scientific Committee for the Creation of the Future Royal Museum of Moroccan Judaism in Fes. Since 2018, she has been the producer and host of “Nass El Mellah,” a radio show on Moroccan-Jewish culture on MedRadio.

Dr. Edwin Seroussi is the Emanuel Alexandre Professor Emeritus of Musicology at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Chair of the Academic Committee of the Jewish Music Research Centre, and Visiting Scholar at Dartmouth College (USA).  His research focuses on Jewish musical cultures of the Mediterranean and Middle East and their interactions with Islamic cultures, Judeo-Spanish song and music in Israel. He explores processes of hybridization, diaspora, nationalism and transnationalism in diverse contexts and historical periods such as the Ottoman Empire, colonial Morocco and Algeria, Germany’s Second Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Judeo-Spanish-speaking global diaspora. Besides his academic activities he is active in the music scene of Israel and abroad in diverse capacities as producer, advisor, member of the board of musical institutions and representative to the International Music Council (UNESCO). He has been awarded several prestigious prizes, among them the Israel Prize in the field of musicology for 2018.

Dr. Francesco Spagnolo is the Curator of the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life. He is also an Associate Adjunct Professor in UC Berkeley’s Department of Music and Center for Jewish Studies, and is affiliated with the Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion, the Institute for European Studies, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, and the Religious Diversity Cluster of the Haas Institute.

About the exhibition

Co-curated by Magnes Curator Dr. Francesco Spagnolo and scholar of Islamic art Dr. Qamar Adamjee, In Plain Sight: Jewish Arts and Lives in the Muslim World shares a selection of artworks and objects from the Magnes’s permanent collection that challenge common views about historical dualities and creative engagement among Muslim and Jewish artists and patrons. The exhibition highlights rootedness in diaspora, shared graphic forms and visual landscapes, attitudes towards sacred texts and human bodies, and networks of trade and knowledge exchange, all centering around the fundamental role of light in Jewish and Muslim prayer space.

In Plain Sight is generously supported by the Walter & Elise Haas Fund, David Berg Foundation, Kenneth Kofman and Andrea King, and an anonymous donor.