View source for Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life

{{Infobox museum
| name            = Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life
| image           =
| imagesize       =
| map_type        = USA California#USA
| map_caption     = Location within California
| coordinates     = {{coord|37.8592|-122.248|region:US-CA|display=inline,title}}
| established     = {{Start date|1961}}<ref name=latimes/><ref name=sfgate/>
| location        = 2121 Allston Way<br /> [[Berkeley, CA]] 94720 (United States)
| type            = [[Art museum]], Jewish Heritage Museum<ref name="JLMM: About">{{citation | title= Judah L. Magnes Museum: About | publisher= ARTINFO | year= 2008 | url= http://www.artinfo.com/galleryguide/21114/7632/about/judah-l-magnes-museum-berkeley/ | accessdate= 2008-07-30 }}{{dead link|date=January 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
| visitors        =
| director        = [[John M Efron]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://magnes.berkeley.edu/people-institutions/john-m-efron/|title = John M. Efron - the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life|date = 19 October 2021}}</ref>
| curator         = Francesco Spagnolo <ref>{{Cite web|url=http://magnes.berkeley.edu/about/staff/francesco-spagnolo|title=Francesco Spagnolo - the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life|date=7 October 2021}}</ref>
| publictransit   =
| website         = http://magnes.berkeley.edu/
| logo            = Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life Logo.png
| former_name     =
}}
The '''Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life''', formerly known as the '''Judah L. Magnes Museum''' from 1961 until its reopening in 2012,<ref name=nytimes/> is a [[museum]] of [[Jewish]] history, art, and culture in [[Berkeley, California]].  The museum, which was founded in 1961 by [[Seymour Fromer|Seymour]] and [[Rebecca Fromer]],<ref name=latimes>{{cite news |first=Elaine |last=Woo |title=Seymour Fromer dies at 87; founder of Jewish museums|url=http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-seymour-fromer8-2009nov08,0,4517609.story |work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=2009-11-08 |accessdate=2009-11-19}}</ref> is named for Jewish activist Rabbi [[Judah L. Magnes]], a native of [[Oakland, California|Oakland]] and co-founder of the [[Hebrew University of Jerusalem]]. The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life houses more than 30,000 Jewish artifacts and manuscripts, which is the third largest collection of its kind in the United States.<ref name=nytimes>{{cite news|first=Edward|last=Rothstein|title=A Jewish Museum Shifts Identity
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/23/arts/design/magnes-judaica-museum-joins-berkeley-library-review.html |work=[[New York Times]] |date=2012-01-22 |accessdate=2012-01-30}}</ref>
During the 2000s, negotiations were held to potentially merge the Judah L. Magnes Museum with what is now called the [[Contemporary Jewish Museum]] of [[San Francisco]].<ref name=sfgate>{{cite news|first=Kenneth|last=Baker|title=Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life reopens
|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/22/DDM71MRT24.DTL |work=[[San Francisco Chronicle]] |date=2012-01-23 |accessdate=2012-01-30}}</ref> However, the talks failed to produce an agreement to combine the two institutions.<ref name=sfgate/>
In 2010, the Judah L. Magnes Museum agreed to give its collection to the [[University of California, Berkeley]], which will now display and preserve the museum's rare Jewish artifacts.<ref name=sfgate/> As part of the agreement, the collection was moved from its location in an 8,600-square-foot house on Russell Street in Berkeley to a 25,000-square-foot building on Allston Way in downtown Berkeley.<ref name=sfgate/> The Magnes Museum's board of directors had originally purchased the downtown building in 1997.<ref name=sfgate/>
The museum reopened in its new facility on January 22, 2012.<ref name=sfgate/> In addition to the move, the name of the museum was changed to the '''Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life.'''
==Facilities==
The space available for the museum has grown over time.  Beginning as one room above the Parkway Movie Theater off Lake Merritt in [[downtown Oakland]], the museum eventually expanded and relocated to the former Burke Mansion (architect: [[Daniel J. Patterson]]) in Berkeley. The museum's art and artifact collections are now located at 2121 Allston Way in [[Berkeley, California|Berkeley]], while the Western Jewish Americana archives are held in the [[Bancroft Library]] at [[UC Berkeley]].
==Exhibitions==
''My America'' opened at The Magnes on June 5, 2006. The exhibit was on loan from the [[Jewish Museum (New York)|Jewish Museum]] in New York.
Known for promoting the avant-garde since its inception in the early sixties, the Magnes also launched the REVISIONS series of installations, including such artists as Ann Chamberlain, Naomie Kremer, [[Larry Abramson]], [[Jonathon Keats]], Amy Berk, and Shahrokh Yadegari, as guest-curated by [[Lawrence Rinder]].
In September, 2007, ''They Called Me Mayer July: Painted Memories of Jewish Life in Poland Before the Holocaust'' opened at the Museum. ''Mayer July'' resulted from a collaboration between Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, a professor of performance studies and folklore at [[NYU]], and her father, Mayer Kirshenblatt, who was born in [[Poland]] in 1916. With Barbara's encouragement, Mayer taught himself to paint as a septuagenarian and produced sixty-five paintings chronicling life in the Polish town of [[Opatów]] before the [[Holocaust]].
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Year
!Title
|-
|2021
|[https://magnes.berkeley.edu/exhibitions/time-capsules-magnes-10-years-uc-berkeley/ Time Capsules. The Magnes: 10 Years at UC Berkeley]
|-
|2020
|[https://magnes.berkeley.edu/exhibitions/in-real-times/ In Real Times. Arthur Szyk: Art & Human Rights (1926-1951)]
|-
|2020
|[https://magnes.berkeley.edu/exhibitions/current-exhibitions/an-archive-of-archives-roman-vishniacs-exhibition-history-new-york-1971-1972/ An Archive of Archives: Roman Vishniac’s Exhibition History | New York, 1971-72]
|}
==History==
{{unreferenced section|date=February 2022}}
Founded by [[Seymour Fromer]] and [[Rebecca Fromer|Rebecca Camhi Fromer]], the Magnes Museum was dedicated to retrieving and preserving the art and artifacts of Jewish daily life, culture, and religion. Among the numerous artists and artisans whose careers and projects he helped launch and whose crafts he helped preserve:
Deborah Kaufman, who birthed the first Jewish Film Festival;
Vivian Kleiman, a Peabody Award-winning producer of the first professional documentary film on the Jewish Diaspora (''[[Routes of Exile: A Moroccan Jewish Odyssey]]);''
Lev Liberman and his band, the Klezmorim, the world's first [[Klezmer revival]] band;
David Moss who revived the art of Hebrew calligraphy and contemporary Ketubah design;
Victor Ries, a Jewish metalsmith and silversmith whose work includes the entrance gate to the original Magnes Museum property;
Among the projects that Seymour and Rebecca created:
*cataloguing the treasure trove of Yiddish records salvaged from dumpsters;
*collecting libraries of Yiddish books from the homes of Jewish chicken farmers in Petaluma, CA
*retrieving Judaica poised to be discarded as Jewish life in various countries was diminishing, among them Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Czechoslovakia, India, and Central Europe.
== See also ==
* [[Judah Leon Magnes]]
* Commission for the Preservation of Pioneer Jewish Cemeteries and Landmarks
*[[Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture]]
== References ==
{{reflist}}
== External links ==
*[http://www.magnes.berkeley.edu Official site]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060614001255/http://magnes.org/collections/wjhc.html Western Jewish History Center]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070311073248/http://64.78.31.127/site/pages/onlinex.php?id=14 Page at NY Jewish Museum on ''My America'' exhibit]
<!-- Yes, the IP address is correct, for some odd reason. -->
*[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/14/DDG0S4OSU.DTL&hw=mayer+july&sn=001&sc=1000 San Francisco Chronicle article on ''They Called Me Mayer July'']
{{authority control}}
[[Category:Art in the San Francisco Bay Area]]
[[Category:Art museums and galleries in California]]
[[Category:Education in Berkeley, California]]
[[Category:Institutions accredited by the American Alliance of Museums]]
[[Category:Jewish museums in California]]
[[Category:Museums established in 1961]]
[[Category:Museums in Berkeley, California]]
[[Category:University museums in California]]
[[Category:University of California, Berkeley]]