Roman Vishniac. In Focus: 1922-2022 | Roman Vishniac: From Berlin to Jerusalem
Channel: magnesmuseum
Date: 2022-05-13

The Magnes Collection, in collaboration with UC Berkeley’s Center for Jewish Studies, presented “Roman Vishniac. In Focus: 1922-2022.” on May 1-2, 2022 celebrating the reopening of The Magnes and the richness of the Roman Vishniac Archive.

This 2-day event included an in-person Open House featuring a digital display of photographs by Roman Vishniac, as well as a virtual, day-long Symposium with internationally acclaimed scholars discussing the historical context and content of the photographs Vishniac took.

This video includes the third of three symposium panels and showcases the following:

PANEL THREE "Vishniac: From Berlin to Jerusalem”

“Roman Wischniak. The Berlin Years”
Aubrey Pomerance, Head of Archives of the Jewish Museum Berlin
Description: Roman Vishniac lived in the German capital for nearly 20 years, yet his Berlin photographs remained almost completely unknown throughout his lifetime. The rich spectrum of images of family and friends, Berlin characters, city and street scenes and of Jewish institutions after 1933 reveals a photographer coming into his own. 

“Vishniac in Israel”
Rebekka Grossmann, Postdoctoral Fellow, The Rosenzweig Minerva Research Center for German-Jewish Literature and Cultural History at Hebrew University, Jerusalem
Description: Following Roman Vishniac to Israel leads us to discover an angle of his work that is rarely discussed. Yet his photographs of Israel, taken in 1967, deserve attention not only as documents of a country that has just seen a major war, but also for offering close insights into Vishniac’s mission and self-perception as a photographer: to grasp the country, its surfaces and its people through his camera’s lens. 

Moderator: Francesco Spagnolo Curator, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life and Associate Adjunct Professor, Department of Music

CLOSING REMARKS

John Efron, Koret Professor of Jewish History at Berkeley; Faculty Director, The Magnes Collection and Center for Jewish Studies

Generously funded by the Center for Jewish Studies Annual Diller Lecture and Taube Philanthropies.

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The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life
University of California, Berkeley
magnes.berkeley.edu