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"Being Jewish": A Bay Area Portrait is organized by The Contemporary Jewish Musuem, San Francisco. Lead Inaugural Year Exhibition Support is by the Koret Foundation and the Taube Foundation.
Jun 8, 2008–Oct 18, 2011
Discover the many different ways of “being Jewish” in the Bay Area through this mural of community photos, and objects which reflect the flavor of Jewish life in the Bay Area, both past and present.
“Being Jewish”: A Bay Area Portrait reflects the vibrant texture of local Jewish life and celebrates the diversity of the Bay Area. For this exhibition The Museum launched a community-wide call for photographs, asking people to broadly consider what “being Jewish” in the Bay Area means to them.
A mural of these photographs offers a dynamic mix of Jewish expression—from challah to hiking, from Hanukkah to hanging out with family and friends, from Torah to baseball. Similarly, the objects on display suggest the flavor of Jewish life in the Bay Area, both past and present. They represent many of the holidays and lifecycle events, as well as popular expressions of Jewish identity that can be seen in the photographs. In dialogue, the objects and the photographs present a portrait, with room for interpretation and elaboration, of the many different ways of “being Jewish” in the Bay Area today.
“Being Jewish”: A Bay Area Portrait is co-organized by Assistant Curator Dara Solomon and Curatorial Assistant Lisa Chanoff.
"Being Jewish": A Bay Area Portrait is organized by The Contemporary Jewish Musuem, San Francisco. Lead Inaugural Year Exhibition Support is by the Koret Foundation and the Taube Foundation.
Header image and gallery photos: installation views of "Being Jewish": A Bay Area Portrait, on view June 8, 2008–Oct 18, 2011 at The Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco. Photos by Sibila Savage and Bruce Damonte.