California Dreaming: Jewish Life in the Bay Area from the Gold Rush to the Present

Through photographs, documents, newspapers, videos, and ephemera, the exhibition shows how the Bay Area Jewish community, despite its stunning diversity and significant historical changes, still operates according to its unwritten founding principles: a pioneering spirit that gave Jews the confidence to create their own destiny; a complex balance of invention/re-invention of institutions and rituals; a lack of physical, social, and economic ghettoization which led to a confident group of citizens; and inspired by their experience in the Bay Area, a yearning for greater justice for Jews and others, inspired by their California experience, and reflecting a sense of optimism that a newer and fairer society could be built.

Just as the founders of San Francisco Jewish life questioned the rules of community and tradition as they created their own robust community life, California Dreaming is structured around five questions that investigate key aspects of the community’s character, and that are designed to draw visitors into the discussion of what constitutes a Jewish community in the twenty-first century.

California Dreaming also features several installations that introduce the voice of the contemporary Jewish community, from film to photographs, and an interactive map.

The Contemporary Jewish Museum commissioned award-winning filmmaker, Pam Rorke Levy, to create a portrait of the local Jewish community as told through personal narratives from a variety of perspectives. From well-known community members Frances Dinkelspiel and Josh Kornbluth, to lesser-known figures, each participant offers an equally powerful voice that represents the many facets of the community, such as Holocaust survivors and Russian émigrés, a transplanted NYC Rabbi, teenagers, and cultural Jews.

The decision to live in the Bay Area is personal and encompasses a wide range of experiences and motivations—some have moved here because of love, others to attend university, to seek a new job, to escape persecution, to establish new rituals, or just to dream a little.

In this specially commissioned documentary, filmmaker Pam Rorke Levy has interviewed a wide range of individuals who call the Bay Area home and identify with some way with being Jewish. The result is an engaging and provocative assemblage of personal narratives, all offering equally powerful voices that represent the many facets of the Jewish community.

As part of The Contemporary Jewish Museum’s exhibition, California Dreaming: Jewish Life in the Bay Area from the Gold Rush to the Present, Rorke Levy’s Becoming Home allows you to listen to these individual stories while reflecting on your own experiences, traditions, landmarks, food, and rituals that can help you to express your identity and make you feel part of a community.

To demonstrate the incredible diversity of Jewish life today, the exhibition features an interactive map that documents the growth and movement of the institutions and organizations that support Jewish life in the Bay Area. Included are all synagogues, JCCs, social service agencies, educational institutions, and more. 

The Bay Area is home to hundreds of organizations that provide essential resources for health and well being, offer educational opportunities, advocate on key community issues, support Israel and Jews around the world, present cultural explorations, and serve as centers for Jewish learning. The information used to create this map has been collected through direct correspondence with the organizations and/or through Resource: A Guide to Jewish Life in the Bay Area, published annually by The Jewish News Weekly of Northern California.

California Dreaming: Jewish Life in the Bay Area From the Gold Rush to the Present was organized by The Contemporary Jewish Museum with leading support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Jim Joseph Foundation. Presenting partners include the Gaia Fund and Osterweis Capital Management. Major support comes from the Estate of Sidney and Vivian Konigsberg. Supporting sponsors include Levi Strauss & Co., The Donald and Carole Chaiken Foundation, Catherine and James Koshland, and Alison Gelb Pincus and Mark Pincus. Additional generous support comes from Dana Corvin and Harris Weinberg, Robin Reiner and Fred Isaac from the Frederick J. Isaac Philanthropic Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation of the East Bay, Randall E. Laroche and David G. Laudon, Ruth and Don Seiler, and Barclay and Sharon Simpson.

The Koret and Taube Foundations are the lead supporters of the 2012–13 exhibition season.