GREATER GOOD
CONTEMPORARY JEWISH MUSEUM
Intersecting art & culture
BY LAUREN SARIA
M ENTION THE CITY of San Francisco and you’re likely to conjure images of steep streets cloaked in fog, the Golden Gate Bridge stretching across cobalt waves, and a host of other architectural icons, from Coit Tower to Chinatown’s Dragon Gate to the silhouette of the Transamerica Pyramid. But what visitors may not realize is that the city also hosts a Jewish community with roots winding all the way back to the Gold Rush, when a wave of German-speaking Jews arrived in California and established one of the first synagogues in the country in San Francisco. Today, the city claims the fourth-largest Jewish population in America. And considering San Francisco’s history as a destination for immigrants, the Bay Area’s Jewish population is not only large, but also incredibly diverse, including many households of mixed ethnic or racial backgrounds, according to a 2021 report from the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund. That rich diversity makes San
cultural traditions and identities can serve as lenses to examine modern life,” says Chad Coerver, the museum’s executive director. “The goal is to increase empathy and create a more accepting world for all people.” Founded in 1984, the non-collecting museum hosts an ever-changing lineup of exhibitions that explore the intersection of art and Jewish culture.
In 2008, the museum opened in its current building, which was designed by renowned architect Daniel Libeskind, bringing work from local, national, and international artists to downtown San Francisco. Coerver says that as a culturally specific museum, the Contemporary Jewish Museum works to create space for the public to have courageous conversations by exposing visitors to perspectives they might not have considered before. So, although the museum often features work by Jewish artists, that’s not the only criteria
Francisco a prime location to foster conversations about the contemporary life and the Jewish experience, which is exactly what the team at the Contemporary Jewish Museum aims to do. “We’re interested in the ways in which Jewish
taken into consideration when the museum staff curates exhibitions. “One of the
most important considerations when we conceive of an exhibition is that
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IN YOUR CORNER ISSUE 12 | 2022
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