Tag Archives: Judah L Magnes Museum
Rebecca Fromer, co-founder of Magnes, dies at 84
Rebecca Camhi Fromer, a poet, playwright, historian, and co-founder of the Judah L. Magnes Museum of Berkeley, died in San Francisco on January 1 with her family by her side. She was 84.
Fromer and her husband, Seymour, who passed away in 2009 at the age of 87, started the Magnes Museum in 1960 in response to what they saw as California’s lack of knowledge of its Jewish heritage.
Starting with a few objects and a display case in the Oakland Museum in Seymour Fromer’s office at the Bureau for Jewish Education in Oakland, the Magnes grew to become the country’s third largest Jewish museum with more than 10,000 objects ranging from paintings, photographs, rare books, archival material, and Judaica.
Situated in a historic home on Russell Street for more than 40 years, the Magnes Museum merged with UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library in July 2010. Now renamed the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, it is scheduled to open in a remodeled building at 2121 Allston Way on January 22.
Fromer wrote, or co-wrote, numerous nonfiction books, including The House by the Sea: A Portrait of the Holocaust in Greece, The Holocaust Odyssey of Daniel Bennahmias, Sonderkommando, Rumkowski and the Orphans of Lodz, and Bridge of Sorrow, Bridge of Hope. Her poetry and prose were collected in Out of Silence, Into Being and One Voice, Many Echos. … Continue reading »
Director of Bancroft Library to retire
Charles Faulhaber, who recently oversaw the $64 million renovation of the Bancroft Library, announced this week that he will retire from his post in June 2011.
Faulhaber, 68, will have spent 42 years on the UC Berkeley campus by that time – the last 16 as director of the Bancroft. It’s time to move on, he said.
“I’ve got the best job on the Berkeley campus,” said Faulhaber, who is also a professor of medieval Spanish literature. “It’s pure joy.”
Faulhaber was appointed the James D. Hart Director of the Bancroft Library in 1995 and not only oversaw – and raised money for – the library’s renovation, but helped usher in a new digital era for the Bancroft.
Browsers on the library’s website can find lectures on California history, see an online exhibit of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, find out about diverse California cultures, learn about the history of the disability rights movement, as well as other social movements.
They can scan manuscripts in the Digital Scriptorium, which features illuminated manuscripts from the 8th to 15th centuries. They can buy reproductions of some of the library’s prized posters and photographs. There is even a Bancroft Facebook page which presents a “digital object of the day.”
Faulhaber also raised funds for three of the library’s most visible collections: The Mark Twain Papers, The Center for Tebtunis Papyri, and the Regional Oral History Project.
The Bancroft and UC Press will publish Twain’s autobiography in November, and its release has attracted national attention. The book was the subject of a Newsweek cover story last week and was featured on “60 Minutes.”
The Mark Twain Project’s acquisition of a an original Twain manuscript at auction in July drew much less notice, but is an illustration of how important fundraising – one of Faulhaber’s main responsibilities – is to the Bancroft Library. The project spent $249,500 to acquire “A Family Sketch,” Samuel Clemens’ 64-page, unpublished tribute to his daughter, Olivia “Susy” Clemens, who died of spinal meningitis at the age of 24.
Magnes Museum collections will move to UC Berkeley
Berkeley’s Judah L. Magnes Museum and UC Berkeley today announced a partnership whereby the treasures of the Magnes will be transferred to the university.
The Magnes’ 10,000-piece collection of precious music, art, rare books and historical archives will retain the Magnes name but be distributed to various parts of the university.
The bulk of the Magnes collection, which focuses on the Jewish experience in California, will move into a renovated building at 2121 Allston Way, just a block from … Continue reading »
Magnes Museum to sell its Russell Street property
The Judah L. Magnes Museum will be putting its property at 2911 Russell Street on the market next month, in anticipation of moving to a new facility in downtown Berkeley in 2011. The 12,000 ft stately home, which is sited on a 25,000 sq ft lot, is expected to list for around $3 million.
The museum is currently negotiating a partnership with UC Berkeley that will move its rare books and the archives in the Western Jewish … Continue reading »
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