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Susan Kahn in conversation with Thomas Laqueur

Jews do not eat pig. This (not always true) observation has been made by both Jews and non-Jews for three thousand years. Over time, the pig becomes a popular metaphor for Jewish/non-Jewish identity. In this talk, we explore this historical development.

Helen Diller Annual Lecture.

A unique phenomenon emerged in the heart of Berlin in the nineteenth century: a creative center for fashion and ready-made clothing. Hundreds of garment companies were established, manufacturing modern wear and developing new designs that were sold throughout Germany – and the world. The industry reached the height of its success in the 1920s.

Noted historian, author, and collector Ted Merwin presents an interactive, multimedia lecture on the ever-shifting place of the Jewish delicatessen in American life. In New York, San Francisco, and cities in between, the deli was the lifeblood and linchpin of the Jewish community.

In the last decade, graphic memoirs and novels have emerged as a significant form of historical (re)writing of past narratives and events. The medium of comics and its use of chronologically ordered panels allows the reader to create meanings through the combination of image and text. Aomar Boum argues for the use of graphic memoirs to re-construct the history of Saharan Vichy camps.

Save the date for a reception and program in celebration of The Magnes Collection’s newest exhibition, In Twilight.

Speaker: Philipp Lenhard, DAAD Associate Professor of History and German, UC Berkeley

In collaboration with The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, Faculty Director John Efron welcomes the German and Israeli Consul Generals to a reception and program showcasing 

The Magnes Collection, in collaboration with UC Berkeley’s Center for Jewish Studies, presents “Roman Vishniac.

The Magnes Collection, in collaboration with UC Berkeley’s Center for Jewish Studies, presents “Roman Vishniac.

Spring 2022 Pell Lecture.

Between 1933 and 1939, several dozen journalists writing for the Yiddish press in Poland traveled to Nazi Germany to cover political developments and Jewish life in the Third Reich from an investigative, ethnographic and uniquely Eastern European-Jewish point of view.

Persecution caused thousands of Jews from Germany and German-occupied countries to seek refuge in France, or to travel through France on their way out of Europe, between 1933 and 1944.

The exodus of Jews from the former Soviet Union transformed the Jewish landscape on three continents and has been called the preeminent case of Jewish human rights activism. It is often identified — and confused — with the Soviet dissident movement and the struggle for rights in Russia. What brought the two movements together — and what kept them apart?