Both the Western Jewish History Center and the Museum’s Blumenthal Library have collections relating to music. The Western Jewish History Center has: the Flora Jacobi Arnstein collection, which contains some material about the composer Frederick Jacobi; the Sigmund Anker collection (Anker was a violinist with the San Francisco philharmonic); the Daisy Cohn collection; the Regina Gans collection; the Solomon Goldman collection (which contains letters from Ernest Bloch); another small Ernest Bloch collection; the Jennie Harris collection (Jennie Harris was a songwriter); the Ellis Kohs collection; the Reuben Rinder collection (Rinder was a cantor of San Francisco’s Emanu-El, 1913-1959); the Bashe Rubenchik Rosenbloom collection; the Oscar Weil collection (Wiel was a composer of light opera and songs); and a very small Darius Milhaud collection, relating to his opera, David.”The library is a significant repository of Jewish music and recordings and played a key role in the revival of Klezmer music… The library also contains sheet music of songs and poems written in German ghettos and concentration camps during World War II.” Both the Center and the Blumenthal Library are open, Monday-Thursday, 11am-5pm, by appointment only. Researchers and other members of the public may send research questions via research@magnes.org
or by telephone 510 549 6956 (direct)
Tel: 510 549 6950 (main museum number)
Fax: 510 849 3673
http://magnes.org/collect.htm