Council of American Jewish Museums
         E-News | July 2010
 
In This Issue
Magnes Museum
New Director at AJHS
Conference Planning
Museum Partners
CAJM is ...
Jewish art and history museums, historic sites, historical and archival societies, Holocaust centers, synagogue museums, Jewish Community Center galleries, children's museums, and university galleries ...  the professionals and volunteers who work in them ...  the children, adults, and families who visit them ...  the patrons who support them ...  the organization that keeps them vital.
 
Magnes On the Move
Exciting changes are taking place at the Judah L. Magnes Museum.  In late June the Board announced two major developments:  The museum's distinguished 10,000-piece collection, encompassing art, rare books and recordings, archival materials, and Judaica, some dating back to the 15th century, will be transferred to the University of California, Berkeley.  Magnes collectionsThe core holdings, including the Magnes' Western Jewish History Archives, will be known as the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at The Bancroft Library. Music manuscripts and sheet music will be located in the school's Jean Gray Hargrove Music Library.  In addition, the institution will have a prominent physical and programming presence within Berkeley's arts and commerce district.  A 25,000-square-foot building downtown is being renovated to include a lecture room, seminar rooms, and a state-of-the-art space for exhibiting the Magnes' prints, painting, photographs, costumes and Jewish ceremonial objects.  Visit the Magnes or CAJM website to read more about it.
 
Karp to Lead AJHS

The American Jewish Historical Society, founded in 1892 and based at the Center for Jewish History in New York City, has announced its new Executive Director:  Jonathan Karp.  Associate Professor and current Chair of the Judaic Studies Department at the State University of New York, Binghamton, Karp has also been a faculty member or visiting scholar at Dartmouth College, Franklin & Marshall College, and the University of Pennsylvania.  Karp, AJHSKarp received his Ph.D. from Columbia University.  "My scholarly interests center upon the roles that Jews have played as both economic and cultural middlemen ... [exploring] how, in recent centuries, the modernizing circumstances of capitalism came to influence economic perceptions held by and about Jews."  He is completing a book on relations between American Jews and African Americans from the standpoint of the business and art of twentieth-century popular music, and among his other publications, he served as co-editor, with Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, of The Art of Being Jewish in Modern Times: Essays on Jews and Aesthetic Culture (2007).

 

Freedom to Ring at Philly Conference                 

MNAJH, Only 2

As upcoming issues of CAJM's E-News will detail further, the 2011 conference in Philadelphia will draw inspiration from its host institution, the National Museum of American Jewish History, and its historic locale.  Conference sessions and events will explore aspects of American Jewish culture frequently addressed and interpreted in our museums, as well as the essential principles on which the United States was founded, as they resonate with the narratives our museums present.  Conference Co-Chairs Lynette Allen and Deborah Cardin are currently gathering program session proposals for the event to be held February 27-March 1, 2011.
 
AAM Policy on Museum Parent Organizations
AAM header
CAJM member museums, particularly those that operate under the umbrella of a synagogue, university, or JCC, or in some other institutional partnership agreement, may be interested in reading a revised statement on this subject issued recently by the American Associate of Museums.  In their Accreditation Commission Policy on Statements of Support from Parent Organizations, AAM requires strengthened statements by parent organizations' governing bodies articulating the value they place upon the museum and its collections, as well as a commitment to use necessary resources to protect these tangible and intangible assets, held in the public trust.  In the future, museums will not be eligible for AAM accreditation unless they comply with these more stringent regulations.
 
Some of the Ways CAJM Can Help You

CAJM offers resources for learning all year round on its website and at its annual conference ... 
CAJM offers information exchange and models professional standards ... 
CAJM advocates on behalf of Jewish museums like ...
JHSGH
(Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford)
 
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