Review: Jewish Museum Shifts Identity

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Ed Rothstein

Above left, Italian Book of Esther scroll; right, German Torah binder, both 18th century

CALIFORNIA - The story of how the Judah L. Magnes Museum — whose collection of Judaica is the third largest in the country — became the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at the Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley, might not seem terribly ripe with complication or implication. In recent years small private museums facing financial strain have often sought refuge by negotiating new lives within universities. Perhaps on Sunday, when the Magnes opened its doors to the public in a building it had long owned near the campus here, it was simply inaugurating another phase of its 50-year life. The [new] Magnes, we sense, is primarily a place for study, lectures and social gatherings, the main modes of university life. The museum aspect — the public display of artifacts and interpretations — is more muted. This may simply be the price a private institution must pay to ensure that its collection is cared for, that it will serve scholars and that it will, over time, become a center for social and intellectual life. [link]