JEWISH IDENTITY IN HISTORY AND MODERNITY2
1. The Sacrifice of Isaac by Rembrandt..2
2. Jewish Torah scroll..3
3. A Sephardic family celebrates the Passover4
4. Jews in the Middle Age..4
5. The origins of anti-Semitism..5
6. Abraham Geiger tries to change Judaism..5
7. Hirsch and Frankel oppose Judaism reformation..6
8. Jewishness and anti-Semitism7
9. Jews are always guilty7
10. Jews come back to their promised land8
III. DESCRIPTION OF THE EXHIBIT9
Works cited10
I. SECTION LABEL
The exhibit Let my people go: Jewish identity in history and modernity is dedicated to a longsuffering way of Jews who have been struggling for their identity for centuries while living in different countries and assimilating into their cultures. Jewish identity is primarily based on Judaism, so understanding the origins of Jewish culture is not conceivable out of the religious context of this people. The matter is that the only way to identify modern Jewish identity is to shed light on its religion and its past, since Jews have been always very devoted to their historical heritage. Similarly, the exhibit allows for revealing the first signs of anti-Semitism emerged in the period of Enlightenment and caused by the fact of communal and religious values which were always the sole and the strong basis of Jewish Diasporas. Hopefully, it also allows for revealing the main reasons for current conflicts that take place in Gaza nowadays making visitors think of some challenging peculiarities of Jewish identity that always oppose it to the rest of the world.
II. EXHIBIT LET MY PEOPLE GO: JEWISH IDENTITY IN HISTORY AND MODERNITY
1. The Sacrifice of Isaac by Rembrandt (Wikimedia Commons)
Abraham, Isaac’s father, who wanted to kill his son on the altar and got his first revelation, is considered to be the first prophet and messenger of God in Judaism. Abraham concluded the Covenant of Circumcision with God and, since that time, all males should have been circumcised to follow this ancient pact with God.
2. Jewish Torah scroll (Liberty University)
Jews base their cultural tradition and their ideology on their Bible, or the Torah. In this way, Abraham is considered to be the first Jew, and the story of the Bible is actually the starting point of the entire Jewish history, though often nothing but an interpretation of what really happened.
3. A Sephardic family celebrates the Passover (Israel)
Being the people without their own country for many centuries, Jews have created many distinctive cultural Diasporas throughout the world. Despite their differences caused by other cultures’ influences, Jews have been strongly united by their religion – Judaism, whose canons they always respected.
4. Jews in the Middle Age (Wachtel)
In the Middle Age Jews lived in small and isolated communities governed by rabbis and other communal leaders. Rarely, some of them lived out of their community, since it was inacceptable. Communities propagated communal values as primordial ones while individual rights were disregarded.
5. The origins of anti-Semitism (Django)
During the period of Enlightenment, when reason and individualism were proclaimed as the most important principles of the human society’s progress, the primordial status of religion and communal values became very precarious and questionable. Jews were not considered as a nation, their social and cultural values were strongly criticized.
6. Abraham Geiger tries to change Judaism (Singer & Hirsch)
Geiger was one of the multiple reformers of Judaism stating that the ancient values of this religion are not valid, nor binding any more. Later in 1885, in Pittsburg Platform Judaism was also strongly criticized for its incompliance with the imperatives of modern civilization and only its moral values were viewed as valid.
7. Hirsch and Frankel oppose Judaism reformation (Jan 9 – Judaism in the Modern World)
Samson Hirsch rejected any change of Judaism, since in his opinion it was the very basis of Jewish culture and life. Zacharias Frankel allowed for Torah’s alternation so that it could be integrated into the modern context.
8. Jewishness and anti-Semitism (Kirsch)
In the 19th century Jeweshness was interpreted in the context of its oppsition to the rest of humanity. Jew’s adherence to their religious values was considered as disturbing the progress and inacceptable in the modern world. These first anti-semitic ideas became the solid basis for future oppressions of Jews in the 20th century.
9. Jews are always guilty (Jan 9 – Judaism in the Modern World)
In the late 19th and in the 20th centuries Jews were often caricaturized as greedy and money-focused people. Anti-Semitism was actually based on some genetic and cultural traits of Jews, such as their big noses (that were always hyperbolized in caricatures) or beard. As a matter of fact, during this period Jews were accused in all calamities of the world.
10. Jews come back to their promised land (Goodstein)
Finally, after so many years of wandering and attempts of assimilation into different cultures, Jews have gained their motherland called Palestine which is their historical land and where they may feel as the one people practicing freely their religion.
3. DESCRIPTION OF THE EXHIBIT
This exhibit may be primarily interesting for those who are already familiar with the Jewish history and its close connection to Judaism, since, though showing quite known material, it focuses on a very specific and complex subject related to Jewish identity. The latter is viewed in many contexts: religious in relation to Judaism, socio-cultural in connection with medieval Jewish community and its organization, historical in the origins of anti-Semitism. This exhibit perfectly correlates with the overall theme of Museum’s exhibition on Judaism, since it promotes the idea of an unquestionable importance of religious values for the Jewish society and shows that despite multiple attempts of reforming Judaism and criticizing its principles, Jews managed to maintain their religion and express it fully in their new state of Palestine. The images selected for this exhibit show the crucial points of the Jewish history that may be described as a long journey in search of the Promised Land – Palestine where Jews may fully express their national identity. The exhibit embraces the main peripeteias of this long way trying to shedding light on the most salient traits of Jewish identity such as its adherence to Judaism, isolation from the rest of the world, importance of communal values, etc. The images include paintings of famous artists, drawings, photos, portraits of some important figures of the Jewish history. Such combination is not haphazard as it is aimed at pointing out the Jewish identity in a very broad context related to art, politics, or historical events.
The name of the exhibit, Let my people go, is associated with a well-known song and actually sounds as an appeal addressed to the entire world on behalf of Jews who have been oppressed for so long in their history and unfortunately in modernity as well. It is primarily addressed to the people who always interfered with Jewish culture and Jews’ religious traditions trying to assimilate, change, or oppress them. The exhibit makes an attempt to show what it means to be a Jew in the modern world referring to the long history of intolerance and oppression which Jewish people were always exposed to. In this way, it also implicitly addresses the modern issues related to the conflicts in Palestine.
Works cited
Django, Race and the Enlightenment part I: From anti-semitism to white supremacy, 1492-1676, Jan 11 2010, LIBCOM, https://libcom.org/history/race-enlightenment-part-i-anti-semitism-white-supremacy-1492-1676.
Goodstein, Lauri. American Jews losing the faith, NY Times, Oct. 01, 2013, http://jfjfp.com/?p=49548.
Israel. A Sephardic family celebrates the Jewish festival of Passover by sharing a picnic in West Jerusalem. http://www.everyculture.com/Ge-It/Israel.html.Jan 9 – Judaism in the Modern World. Microsoft Power Point.
Kirsch, Jonathan. ‘Woody on Rye’: Jewishness in the works of Woody Allen, Aug. 20, 2014, Culture, JEWISH JOURNAL, http://www.jewishjournal.com/culture/article/woody_on_rye_jewishness_in_the_works_of_woody_allen.
Liberty University News Service. School of Divinity receives Torah scroll donation, Sept. 28, 2015, http://www.liberty.edu/news/index.cfm?PID=18495&MID=169715.
Rembrandt. Sacrifica of Isaac. 1635, oil on canvas. Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg. Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rembrandt_Abraham_en_Isaac,_1634.jpg.
Singer, Isidore, Hirsch, Emil G. Geiger, Abraham, Jewish Encyclopedia. http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6560-geiger-abraham.
Wachtel, David. The Jews in the Medieval Period, April, 3, 2013, SOTHEBY’S, http://www.sothebys.com/en/news-video/blogs/specials/a-treasured-legacy-history-of-the-jewish-people/2013/04/the_jews_in_the_medi.html.
