Ritual objects at Magnes bring messages of texts home

J-WEEKLY
By Robert Nagler Miller
Pop-up New Year’s greeting card from Germany, 1910 photos/the magnes collection
CALIFORNIA---Whether it is our grandparents’ ketubah (marriage contract) gathering dust in a closet, the seder plate we pull out of the hutch at Passover or the mezuzah we affix to our front door, by our very ownership of these items, we are extending the narrative of our Bible. So when Daniel Fisher, this year’s Magnes graduate fellow, proposed an exhibit focusing on how Jewish objects help us impart our stories and connect to our history and faith, Spagnolo jumped aboard. [link]

The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life:Living by the Book: The Jewish Bible and the Everyday Power of Text” (Ends June 24, 2016); 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA; (510)643-2526; magnes.org
This 1984 color lithograph and etching by artist Theo Tobiasse celebrates the festival of Shavuot