New San Francisco Contemporary Jewish Museum to Open

A random walk around downtown San Francisco found me in the middle of a Jewish festival celebrating the opening of the new San Francisco Contemporary Jewish Museum. The new museum is moving away from traditional museum culture, by focusing on the changing expression of Jewish culture, rather than on the history and struggle of Jews worldwide. The facade of the this new museum is a beautiful display of modern architecture set directly across an old, traditional Christian church. A perfect combination to depict, not only the diversity of the city, but the forward thinking of both the museum and the people of San Francisco.

The small alley dividing these two very different buildings is a vivid depiction of San Francisco’s history and future. It shows the city as place of forward thinking dreamers who moved here during California’s Gold Rush in pursuit of something bigger and better for themselves. Connected by a common dream of a better life, San Francisco provided a place for diverse groups of minorities to prosper. This museum brings attention to great San Franciscan Jews, including Levi Strauss and both of California’s state Senators, Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein. The museum’s director, Connie Wolf, describes the museum’s focus:

Tradition and history in isolation does not connect to our daily lives. What you want is to not be thinking about history and tradition as something over there, but you want to be engaged with how does it impact us. How can we strive to make the world a better place?

If you are visiting or living in San Francisco, the new Contemporary Jewish Museum opens Sunday, June 7th in the heart of downtown. More information can be found at www.thecjm.org.

To see another interesting and fascinating museum display from the Jewish Museum of Berlin, click on the Fashion & Arts page.

(Photo provided by The Ryan Thomas Collection. All rights reserved.)

~ by xpressyrsf on June 7, 2008.