According to director Barbara Staudinger, the current exhibition at the Jewish Museum Vienna aims to “dismantle prejudice” – and does so with exhibits that confirm these very prejudices for some and provoke outrage for others.
School classes that are taken to an exhibition and laugh at anti-Semitic clichés: not a scene from Austria’s dark past, but from the here and now – in the Jewish Museum Vienna.
According to director Barbara Staudinger, she wants to clear up “100 misunderstandings about and among Jews” with the show. Instead, ostentatiously provocative exhibits only lead to further misunderstanding – and sheer horror among many Jewish visitors.
‘It’s a shame what’s happening there’
“My wife cried for hours afterwards,” reports a visitor to the “Krone”. Another summed it up: “If this were shown anywhere else, the prosecution would be there for redress. It’s a shame what’s happening there.”
Celebrities such as Paul Lendvai, Ben Segenreich and Sandra Kreisler have already expressed their dismay at the show, and the Austrian branch of the Humanist Association B’nai B’rith has also called for the show to be redesigned so that no more misunderstandings can arise. or hurt feelings – or alternatively their immediate termination.
outrage grows
For Staudinger, the calls are just “some feedback,” as measured by the “very positive” echo. In any case, she wants to keep the exhibition and in case of criticism that the exhibition could be read anti-Semitic, she has threatened to take legal action. However, she promises they are “working” on adding more explanation and context to the exhibit. The exhibition has been running since the end of November and will run until June 4. Meanwhile, the outrage continues to grow.
Most recently, Oskar Deutsch, president of the Vienna Jewish Community, also wrote an unequivocal letter asking Staudinger for “explicitly more sensitivity” and an “urgently needed public statement” due to the “injury suffered by many visitors to the exhibition.” “.
“Consequences” are needed, Deutsch makes clear in the letter – if not from Staudinger, then from the museum’s supervisory board, which decides on the management. It remains to be seen whether Deutsch simply meant a few extra panels in the exhibition by these “consequences”.
Source: Krone
I am Wallace Jones, an experienced journalist. I specialize in writing for the world section of Today Times Live. With over a decade of experience, I have developed an eye for detail when it comes to reporting on local and global stories. My passion lies in uncovering the truth through my investigative skills and creating thought-provoking content that resonates with readers worldwide.
