It’s a video collection you won’t likely find at Blockbuster or Tower: Titles include “Echoes From a Ghost Minyan,” “Bagel Boulevard” and “The Battle for Peace: Shimon Peres.”
And now that video cameras have taken over as the most popular means of recording history, the Judah L. Magnes Museum in Berkeley is perfectly positioned on the cutting edge.
As the sponsor of the only specifically Jewish video competition in the world, the Magnes has established itself as the primary repository for contemporary Jewish history and experience on tape.
With three years’ worth of entries on its shelves, the museum boasts a burgeoning collection of videos from around the world, now numbering more than 300.
“Everyone who submits [to the competition] gets a prize: They become part of our archive,” says Bill Chayes, the Magnes’ exhibit designer and curator of film, video and photography, and founder and director of Magnes’ annual Jewish Video Competition.
The archive encompasses a wide range not only of technical skill, but also of subject matter. Categories include the Holocaust-World War II, community portraits, Israel, biographies, contemporary religion, fictional narratives, Jewish culture, local cable television productions and contemporary North American Jewish issues.
“We’re not so much concerned with broadcast-quality tapes but with personal expression and information,” says Chayes, who notes that the competition attracts more than 120 entries each year.
“The things we show are not based on any theatrical prospects or the need to entertain a large group. They’re meant to be watched individually.”
Nearly 60 community histories are in the video library — from a piece on Indiana’s Jewish immigrants to a survey of the Jews of Montreal. Another shelf holds Jewish organizations’ videos about themselves, including a tape marking the 100th anniversary of the Boston Jewish federation (the nation’s oldest) and one about Providence, R.I.’s 135-year-old synagogue, Temple Beth-El.
“Our archive is relevant in a different way than an archive of 70 Hollywood productions with Jewish themes,” Chayes says.
“Certainly there’s value in understanding the way Jews are represented in mass media, and what kind of image the rest of the country is getting. But what we have is a more direct representation of issues that Jews are exploring.”
For the current exhibition of the 25 winners from 1996, which runs through November 24, the Magnes has four viewing stations set up, each with four headsets.
All of the archive’s videotapes are available for screening anytime. Prospective viewers need only make an appointment with Chayes or Isaac Solotaroff, assistant director of the Jewish Video Competition.
Entry forms for the competition are available at its website (http://www.slip.net/jewvideo), and the archive catalog will eventually be posted on the Internet as well. At present, copies of the catalog can be ordered for $2.
Chayes envisions the Magnes collection as both a vital venue for research and a programming resource. Already he’s received some 40 requests for videos from a such Jewish organizations as synagogue groups and community centers.