At first developed as a electrical power station in the 1880s, the blue steel composition serves as a bridge from past to current the preserved brick facade evokes the heritage of the South of Industry neighborhood. The style aligns the Jewish notion of reverence for custom with the CJM’s present day determination to intellectual exploration and inventive innovation.
Chief working officer Kerry King states the museum puts a “Jewish lens on art” but that it’s not just for Jews. About 50 % the website visitors aren’t Jewish, she suggests.
Adam Hirschfelder, plans supervisor for the Commonwealth Club, a San Francisco-dependent community affairs forum, notes that the CJM’s “significant and attractive building” symbolizes the historic relevance of the Jewish community in San Francisco.
Jews persecuted in Europe found a refuge in the city, Hirschfelder notes, to the point where the city’s oldest synagogue, Sherith Israel, has a stained-glass graphic of Moses carrying the 10 Commandments with Yosemite Countrywide Park’s 50 % Dome in the qualifications. The concept: For quite a few up to date Jews, San Francisco is the promised land.
Like MoAD, the CJM doesn’t have a everlasting selection. Some exhibitions honor influential or well-known Jewish figures — Stanley Kubrick, Gertrude Stein and Amy Winehouse, for instance — whilst many others entice with themes such as “Veiled Meanings: Fashioning Jewish Costume.” Some look at Jewish record, these types of as an exploration of the kibbutz movement other individuals are pure fun, these kinds of as a 2014 exhibition about the Chinese match mah-jong and how it was commonly adopted by Jewish ladies starting in the 1930s.
In 2020, the museum featured an exhibition about San Francisco pioneer Levi Strauss. The German immigrant arrived to the metropolis in the 1850s to open a dry products store and later on assisted create and market the blue jeans that grew to become an intercontinental phenomenon. “It’s about telling a Jewish immigrant story,” claims King, “but it’s also classically American. It’s embedded in the cultural cloth of San Francisco, and then it is the story of blue denims. So it’s universal.”
Insider’s tip: Never overlook the Yud Gallery, wherever 36 diamond-formed windows develop amazing pure light-weight and give inspiration, claims King. “In Jewish tradition, multiples of 18 are thought of great luck, so the 36 home windows are double very good luck,” she provides. “The gallery was designed for terrific acoustics, so it’s a great spot to take pleasure in a converse or a overall performance. If you find you in the area and it is quiet, just sing a handful of strains of a favourite song. You will not be disappointed!”
Michael Shapiro, a San Francisco Bay Place freelancer, has contributed to National Geographic Traveler, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post and numerous other publications.