Judah Magnes was one of the most dedicated Jewish leaders of the twentieth century. The Judah L. Magnes Museum in Berkeley, California, is named in his honor.
Magnes was born in San Francisco. Judah and his family moved to Oakland, California, where First Hebrew Congregation influenced his Jewish identity. Magnes studied at the University of Cincinnati, University of Berlin, and the University of Heidelberg. In 1900, he became the first ordained rabbi in California. However, he spent most of his productive years working in New York and Israel.
While in New York Magnes cofounded the American Jewish Committee, the Yiddish newspaper Der Tag, and the American Civil Liberties Union. Magnes immigrated to the Middle East in 1922 and became the first president of Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Although he served as a Zionist delegate to the Zionist Congress, Magnes worked hard to build a state of Israel that embodied Jewish and Arab constituencies. Magnes advocated a binational solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. An article he published in the New York Times in 1937 called for "permission" of the Arabs in the Middle East to receive four hundred thousand Jews. Magnes's devout pacifist stance endured for his lifetime.
Berkeley, California resident, Seymour Fromer in 1962, founded the Judah L. Magnes Museum. It was considered the thirds largest Jewish museum in North America. Fromer's vast collection of Jewish artifacts, letters, artwork, and photographs was housed at the Magnes Museum until 2010 when it became integrated with the Bancroft Library at U.C. Berkeley.
Manuscripts written by Magnes and his 1894 Oakland high school yearbook are part of the collection housed at the Bancroft Library. Images of checks autographed by Magnes can be viewed and purchased on the Internet.
Judah Magnes is remembered for his principles of pacifism and the notion of cohabitation and peace in the Middle East. His legacy is carried on with the Magnes Museum Foundation.
