One year after its launch, the Magnes Jewish Arts & Bookfest returns this year with a packed lineup of programs and panels.
“Building on the great energy from last year, the planning committee has been busy growing the festival into something even bigger. I’m excited about the topics we’re offering this time,” said Dan Alter, learning and engagement coordinator at the Magnes.
The one-day festival covers a wide range of Jewish ways of looking at — and making — art. Comedian Mahatma Moses, also known by his real name, Samson Koletkar, will be there to talk about being a Jewish Indian stand-up comic and perform a set. Stav Appel will discuss his book about finding imagery from the Torah in tarot cards, including Biblical scenes, ritual objects and symbolic motifs that seem to be drawn directly from Jewish tradition. Julian Voloj will discuss his graphic anthology “Hyphen,” which illustrates stories of Jews from Ethiopia, India and other diaspora communities.
There are also panels on Soviet stories, family history, memorializing the dead and more. There are programs just for kids, too, held in partnership with JCC East Bay, including one on family storytelling.
The keynote event will be a screening of “We’ve Been Here Before,” a documentary short film by Jacob Kornbluth that looks at how the 1980s and ’90s punk subculture fought against neo-Nazis. Kornbluth is also the director of 2013’s “Inequality for All,” about economist and UC Berkeley professor Robert Reich.
The film will be followed by a discussion between Kornbluth and anti-racism activists Eric K. Ward and Dion Garcia, exploring how antisemitism and white supremacy migrated in recent years from the fringe to the mainstream.
Throughout the day, there will also be booths and tables from local Jewish businesses and organizations, including J., New Lehrhaus, the Jewish Community Library and more.