Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco

The Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, California, often abbreviated to CJM, is a non-collecting institution committed to promoting contemporary Jewish creativity.

Founded in 1984, the museum is located in the former Jessie Street Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) Power Substation, a historic building dating back to 1907, renovated and expanded in 1994 after a design by architect Daniel Libeskind (see our in-depth article about the architecture of the CJM).

Photos by Andreina Schoeberlein (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0), Helder Ribeiro (CC BY-SA 2.0), and Jeremy Weate (CC BY 2.0).

Due to its non-collecting nature, the museum’s activities encompass temporary exhibitions, often organized in collaboration with major international institutions, film screenings, performances, music concerts, lectures, and educational programs for families, schools, and teens.

The program of the Contemporary Jewish Museum covers various aspects of contemporary culture: from visual arts to music, from cinema to literature; presenting several themes related to Jewish culture, and the work of prominent modern and contemporary artists of Jewish heritage such as Amy Winehouse, Stanley Kubrick, Bill Graham, Allen Ginsberg, Peter Straub, Houdini, Jacques Lipchitz, Marc Chagall, John Zorn, and many others.

The museum building includes a book and gift store, and the Wise Sons Jewish Delicatessen restaurant

Cover image by Christopher Chan (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).