Join Francesco Spagnolo, Curator of the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley, for a presentation on the current exhibition Threads of Jewish Life: Ritual and Other Textiles from the San Francisco Bay Area. In this virtual program, Spagnolo explores early Jewish life in San Francisco through the textiles and objects on view in the exhibition, including the mysterious origins of the exhibition's extraordinary Torah ark.
This talk was originally presented via Zoom on May 22, 2020.
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.
Support for Threads of Jewish Life: Ritual and Other Textiles from the San Francisco Bay Area is generously provided by Maribelle and Stephen Leavitt and Grants for the Arts.
Public Programs at The CJM are made possible thanks to generous support from Grants for the Arts and the Walter & Elise Haas Fund.
Challah Cover, German origin, 1859. Linen backing, cotton embroidery floss, and glass and metallic beads. Gift of Congregation Beth Israel-Judea, San Francisco, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley