Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life facts for kids
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| Former name | Judah L. Magnes Museum |
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| Established | 1962 |
| Location | 2121 Allston Way Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States) |
| Type | Art museum, Jewish Heritage Museum |
| Collection size | 30,000 |
The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life is a special place at the University of California, Berkeley. It holds a huge collection of Jewish history, art, and culture. Imagine over 30,000 Jewish objects and old writings! This makes it one of the biggest collections like it in the United States.
The collection is organized into three main parts. These are the Archives, the Library, and the Museum. Each part helps us learn more about Jewish life and history around the world.
Contents
Exploring the Museum's Treasures
The Museum part of the Magnes Collection has two main types of items. These are Jewish Art and Jewish Life.
Jewish Art Collection
The Jewish Art collection includes many different kinds of art. You can find paintings, sculptures, and photographs. There are also drawings, artist books, and even digital art.
Jewish Life Collection
The Jewish Life collection holds thousands of objects. These items show how Jewish people lived their daily lives. They include things used for family traditions and in synagogues. They also show how Jewish communities interacted with other groups throughout history.
Discovering the Archives
The Archives are a very important part of the Magnes Collection. They have been collecting historical records since the museum started. The goal is to show many different parts of the Jewish experience.
What's in the Archives?
The archives have old writings, photographs, and personal papers. They also keep records from different organizations and jobs. These items are divided into two main groups. One group is about Jewish people around the world. The other group focuses on Jewish history in the Western United States.
Visiting the Library
The library at the Magnes Collection has many interesting books and materials.
What's in the Library?
You can find rare and illustrated books from Jewish communities worldwide. There are also magazines, reference books, and original materials about Jewish history in the American West. The library also has sound recordings, music books, and old music papers.
Where to Find the Magnes Collection
The Magnes Collection has different locations for its various parts.
Museum and Exhibition Space
The main museum, where you can see exhibitions and attend events, is in downtown Berkeley. It's located at 2121 Allston Way. This building used to be a printing plant. It was updated to be bright and modern, with cool custom display cases.
Archives Location
The Magnes Collection's archives are kept at the Bancroft Library. This library is also part of UC Berkeley.
A Look at the History
The museum was started in 1962 by Seymour Fromer and Rebecca Camhi Fromer. They named it after Rabbi Judah L. Magnes, a Jewish activist. Rabbi Magnes was from Oakland, California, and helped start the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Early Days of the Museum
The museum began as just one room above a movie theater in downtown Oakland. Over time, it grew and moved to a larger building in Berkeley. This building was a beautiful old mansion.
Collecting Amazing Items
The Fromers worked hard to collect many items. They found old Yiddish records and books that people were throwing away. They also saved Jewish items from places where Jewish life was changing, like Morocco, India, and Central Europe.
Becoming Part of UC Berkeley
In 2010, the Judah L. Magnes Museum gave its collection to the University of California, Berkeley. The university agreed to show and protect the items. They also agreed to keep adding new things to the collection.
As part of this agreement, the collection moved to a much larger building. This new building on Allston Way was bought by the museum's board in 1997. The museum reopened in its new home on January 22, 2012. At that time, its name changed to the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life.
Special Exhibitions
Since it started in 1962, the Magnes has shown many interesting exhibitions. These shows often feature new research and ideas about Jewish studies. They also work with professors and students from UC Berkeley.
Highlights of Exhibitions
Many exhibitions use the large collections already at the Magnes. Some even show new artworks created just for the museum.
In recent years, the Magnes has added two major collections. In 2017, they acquired many works by Arthur Szyk. He was a Polish Jewish artist known for his political drawings. His art shows important events from the 20th century.
In 2018, the archives of photographer Roman Vishniac were given to the Magnes. This huge gift included over 30,000 images, videos, letters, and other items. It was one of the biggest and most valuable gifts ever received by UC Berkeley.
Notable Exhibitions (since 2012)
- Cities and Wars: Roman Vishniac in Berlin and Jerusalem 1947/1967, 2023
- In Real Times: Arthur Szyk, Art & Human Rights (1926-1951), 2022
- Souvenirs from Utopia: The Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts in Jerusalem (1906-1932), 2020
- Memory Objects: Judaica Collections and Global Migrations, 2019
- Project "Holy Land": Yaakov Benor-Kalter's Photographs of British Mandate Palestine, 1923-1940, 2018
- The Worlds of Arthur Szyk | The Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection, 2018
- Pièces de Résistance: Echoes of Judaea Capta From Ancient Coins to Modern Art, 2018
- Sketching Fiddler: Set Designs by Mentor Huebner, 2017
- From the Photographer’s Archive: Roman Vishniac, 2017
- I-Tal-Yah: An Island of Divine Dew. Italian Crossroads in Jewish Culture, 2016
- From Mendelssohn To Mendelssohn: German Jewish Encounters in Art, Music, and Material Culture, 2016
- The Future of Memory: Jewish Culture in the Digital Age, 2015
- The Secret Language of Flowers: Botanical Drawings from Israel, 1949-1950, 2015
- Literary Minds: Soviet Jewish Writers portrayed by Matvei Vaisberg, 2014
- Saved by The Bay: The Intellectual Migration from Fascist Europe to UC Berkeley, 2014
- Holy Land, California: Prints by Albert Garvey, 1974, 2013
Images for kids
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Arthur Szyk, Bar Kochba (1927), shown in an exhibition.
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Lazar Krestin, [Birth of] Jewish Resistance (1905), also shown in an exhibition.
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See also
- Judah Leon Magnes
- Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture
- Western Jewish History Center at the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley
- Contemporary Jewish Museum of San Francisco
