Tracking Leonard Cohen’s peripatetic trail around the world while researching her magisterial Cohen biography “I’m Your Man” inevitably led Sylvie Simmons to Montreal, where she sat down with the elderly rabbi emeritus of the historic synagogue that Cohen’s grandfather helped build. “The rabbi was about 90 years old and had these great white eyebrows. It…
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Art
Culture
CJM taps longtime SFMOMA staffer to be new executive director
At the conclusion of its monthslong, nationwide search for a new executive director, the Contemporary Jewish Museum has selected a local museum leader —…
Art
S.F. artist goes underground with ‘ecstatic’ BART art installation
When Amy Trachtenberg was a student at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris 40 years ago, she fell in love … with the city’s grand 19th- and 20th-century…
Art
Palo Alto JCC unveils ‘mind-blowing’ musical sculpture
As visitors return to the reopened Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto, they will be greeted by a new four-story art installation by renowned local sculptor…
Art
Statue by Nazi artist no longer on display at St. Mary’s College
UPDATED: May 19, 8:45 a.m. A statue at St. Mary’s College in Moraga that was temporarily removed in February after student concerns surrounding the…
Art
Germany sets precedent in return of painting sold as owner fled Nazis
The German city of Dusseldorf has agreed to return an Expressionist painting estimated to be worth $18 million to the heirs of its original Jewish owner,…
Art
Investigation: Do San Francisco museums hold Nazi-looted art?
A view of Amsterdam at midday. A dark forest with sunlight peeking through the trees as a woman washes clothes in a river. A young boy feeding a monkey as…
Art
Family gifts its Nazi-looted porcelain figurines to Legion of Honor
The Kaumheimers were about to make it out of Italy alive. It was 1939, and the family of six had already left their German hometown of Stuttgart three…
Culture
CJM welcomes back in-person guests
It’s been over a year since Vic and Linda Milhoan were in a museum. This week, they were some of the first visitors to step foot in the Contemporary…