Rebecca Camhi Fromer (January 16, 1927 – January 1, 2012) was an American playwright, historian and poet. Fromer co-founded the Judah L. Magnes Museum of Berkeley, California, in 1961 with her husband, Seymour Fromer. The museum, which is now called the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life and became part of the University of California, Berkeley in 2010, houses more than 15,000 Judaica artifacts and manuscripts, the third largest collection of its kind in the United States.
Fromer was born in New York City and raised in Los Angeles. She moved to Oakland, California, with her husband in 1953.
Fromer authored and co-authored several historical books and articles on Jewish history. Her books authored included Sonderkommando, Bridge of Sorrow, Bridge of Hope, The Holocaust Odyssey of Daniel Bennahmias, The House by the Sea: A Portrait of the Holocaust in Greece and Rumkowski and the Orphans of Lodz. Fromer was familiar with Sephardic culture and could speak the Ladino language.
Fromer, a resident of Berkeley, died on January 1, 2012, in San Francisco at age 84. Her husband, Seymour Fromer, who co-founded the museum with her, died in 2009.
References
- ^ Dinkelspiel, Frances (2012-01-03). "Rebecca Fromer, co-founder of Magnes Museum, dies at 84". Berkeleyside. San Francisco Chronicle (Berkeley Blog). Retrieved 2012-01-20.
- Rothstein, Edward (2012-01-22). "A Jewish Museum Shifts Identity". New York Times. Retrieved 2012-01-30.
- ^ Pine, Dan (2012-01-05). "Rebecca Fromer, Magnes Museum co-founder, dies at 84". Jweekly. Retrieved 2012-01-30.
- ^ Dinkelspiel, Frances (2012-01-03). "Rebecca Fromer, co-founder of Magnes Museum, dies at 84". Berkeleyside. Retrieved 2012-01-20.
- Woo, Elaine (2009-11-08). "Seymour Fromer dies at 87; founder of Jewish museums". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2012-01-30.
- 1927 births
- 2012 deaths
- Jewish American dramatists and playwrights
- Jewish American historians
- Museum founders
- Writers from Berkeley, California
- Writers from Oakland, California
- Writers from Los Angeles
- American women poets
- American women historians
- American women dramatists and playwrights
- 20th-century American philanthropists
- Historians from California
- 21st-century American Jews
- Jewish women writers
- Jews from New York (state)
- Jews from California
- 20th-century American women philanthropists
- 21st-century American women philanthropists
- 21st-century American philanthropists
- Historians of Jews and Judaism