The teen years are instrumental in the creation of a sense of self. They are also a critical time in the creation of what psychologists from The Family Narrative Lab at Emory University call the “intergenerational self”—a self embedded in a larger familial history.

What shapes us? Which family histories become our core stories? How do we make them our own? In the fourth iteration of What We Hold, over twenty teens, ranging in age from fourteen to nineteen years old, have created individual audio recordings reflecting on and connecting with their families’ stories of migration, language, rebellion, persistence, and passion.

GOLEM: A Call to Action is a digital exhibition in three parts by Los Angeles–based artist Julie Weitz, comprising three video artworks—Golem v. Golem, My Golem as a Wildland Firefighter, and A Prayer for Burnt Forests—that draw on Jewish allegory, folklore, and spiritual practice to confront societal and ecological disasters. The legend of the golem originates as far back as the Middle Ages, when Jewish mystics imagined the creation of a clay humanoid as a meditative technique for becoming closer to God. By the nineteenth century, popular Yiddish folktales characterized the golem as a helper, companion, or rescuer of an imperiled Jewish community. In this exhibition, Weitz revitalizes golem mythology to frame a moral imperative for action on the social and ecological issues we face today. 

Los Angeles-based artist Stephen Berkman’s immersive photography installation is a tribute to Shimmel Zohar, a mythical nineteenth-century Jewish immigrant photographer, founder of Zohar Studios. The exhibition includes over thirty photographs, several large installations, a cabinet of curiosities, and a large format artist book about the Zohar project.

In 1873, at the end of the California Gold Rush, Levi Strauss & Co., named for a Bavarian Jewish dry goods merchant in San Francisco, obtained a U.S. patent with tailor Jacob Davis on the process of putting metal rivets in men’s denim work pants to increase their durability. It was the birth of the blue jean. 

This exhibition draws extensively from the holdings of The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life (University of California, Berkeley) and showcases a variety of textiles in use by San Francisco Jewish community members during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The Contemporary Jewish Museum commissioned artwork by Sacramento-based artist Dave Lane to be placed in its soaring lobby space. The massive sculpture, entitled Lamp of the Covenant, is a 90-foot-long, six ton work suspended high over the heads of visitors. Attached to an enormous oval of steel are antique objects: world globes, light bulbs, tools such as nineteenth century apple peelers and blow torches, and various other objects that suggest the unfolding marvels of the cosmos.

The teen years are instrumental in the development of a sense of self. They are also a critical time in the creation of what psychologists from the Family Narrative Lab at Emory University call the “intergenerational self”—a self embedded in a larger family history.

What shapes us? Which family histories become our core stories? How do we make them our own? Over fifty teens, ranging in age from twelve to nineteen years old, created audio works reflecting on these questions and exploring themes including migration, language, rebellion, persistence, and passion.