The Contemporary Jewish Museum
The former Jessie Street Substation (right) and the 2008 addition (left) designed by Daniel Libeskind
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 Location within San Francisco
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| Established | 1984 |
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| Location | 736 Mission Street, San Francisco, California, United States |
| Coordinates | 37°47′09″N 122°24′14″W / 37.78577°N 122.40394°WCoordinates: 37°47′09″N 122°24′14″W / 37.78577°N 122.40394°W |
| Director | Lori Starr |
| Public transit access |
 Powell Street Station
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| Website | www |
The Contemporary Jewish Museum (CJM) is a non-collecting museum at 736 Mission Street at Yerba Buena Lane in the South of Market (SoMa) neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The museum, which was founded in 1984, is located in the historic Jessie Street Substation, which was gutted and its interior redesigned by Daniel Libeskind, along with a new addition; the new museum opened in 2008. The museum's mission is to make the diversity of the Jewish experience relevant for a twenty-first century audience through exhibitions and educational programs.
The Contemporary Jewish Museum was founded in 1984 and was housed in a small gallery space near San Francisco's waterfront for over two decades. In 1989, the museum initiated a planning process to address the growing community need for its programs. The result was the decision to create a more expansive and centrally located facility with increased exhibitions, an area dedicated to education, and added program areas including live music, theater, dance, literary events, and film. In June 2008, the museum opened a new 63,000 square-foot facility in downtown San Francisco.
The museum has no permanent collection. It curates and hosts a broad array of exhibitions each year in collaboration with other institutions.
The museum’s education programs include public tours, classes and workshops, film screenings, lectures and gallery talks, performances, teacher training, school visits, family tours and art making, and a teen internship program.
The museum's main building is the former Pacific Gas & Electric Jessie Street Substation, which was built in 1881 and was designed by Willis Polk. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 6, 1974.
Daniel Libeskind designed the new 63,000 square foot (5,900 square meter) interior of the substation, plus a new deconstructivist cubical addition which extends it. The new museum was completed in 2008 at the cost of $47.5 million.
The building's tilted, dark-blue stainless steel cube, constructed by A. Zahner Company, slices into the old substation’s brick, making visible the relationship between the new and the old. Libeskind’s design preserves the defining features of Polk’s old building, including its brick façade, trusses, and skylights. 36 diamond-shaped windows light the top floor of the metal cube, known as the "Yud", which hosts sound and performance based exhibitions. The museum’s other section, a slanting rectangle known as the "Chet", holds the narrow lobby, an education center, and part of an upstairs gallery.
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