Moses Mendelssohn: ´We Dreamed of Nothing but Enlightenment´

There is a bitter irony that struck me when I visited the very well documented interactive exhibition dedicated to Moses Mendelssohn at the Jewish Museum in Berlin: Although his whole life he pledged the cause of a liberal Judaism for the sake of diminishing persecutions and antisemitism, for the cause of the integration into the mainstream German society, Nazi actually hated and demonized Moses Mendelssohn. His Jewish Enlightment process, that lead that his children even converted to Judaism being eventually burried in a Christian cemetery while bearing very heimishe names, failed from the point of view of the clear aim endeavoured: to take upon Jews the stigma of being targeted for their religion and religiosity.

The exhibition We Dreamed of Nothing but Enlightment/Wir Träumten von Nichts als Aufklärung, hosted by the Jewish Museum in Berlin, until the 11st of September is however an important journey into the intellectual roots of Mendelssohn, his life benchmarks as well as the complex context of his times (including the economic development of Prussia, requiring qualified and skillful workforce which lead to allow more Jews to be part of the larger society). This was my first visit at the museum under the new direction, and although I grasp that there is a relatively similar (liberal) orientation, at least in the case of this exhibition, it pays more attention to the historical facts and less to the ideological background.

Mendelssohn lifestory and intellectual statements can be read in many ways and mine is just one of them. Well integrated Jews are not safer from antisemitism than the visible self-aware Jews. It may offer a temporary invisibility and illusory safety but a full acknowledgment of being the ´part´ of the majority will never happen. The fate of the Jews from the Soviet Union who gave up every bit of their identity to be Soviet, but ended up being marked as Jews in their passports is another example.

But without knowledge it is impossible to make right choices and the exhibition at the Jewish Museum in Berlin offer enough food for thought for a (sad) meditation of the tragical ending of the Haskala Jews.

Disclaimer: I visited the exhibition free as a journalist but the opinions, as usual, are my own.

Exhibition about head - and body covering - at the Jewish Museum Berlin

It starts with shpitzel and ends with burka...

You can approach the issue of women head covering and woman modesty in general in different, more or less controversially. For instance, one can pledge for the way in which women are usually requested to submit to rules mostly elaborated by men or the historical perspective can be chosen, by outlining the religious and traditional reasons that lead to the adoption of a certain custom. 

The newest exhibition at the Jewish Museum Berlin is dedicated to exactly this topic. I had some mixed feelings about going there, particularly after being very disappointed about the simplistic - to say the least - way in which the fascinating topic of Golem was presented last autumn. 

But it seems disappointment can only go further. It a convenient way close to the multi-kulti concept usually associated to the city of Berlin, the Jewish head covering and modesty approaches are presented together with burqa and nun clothes. Indeed, there are approaches to modesty, but I dare to say that there are many different interpretation of the same concept, but the power of the curious mind is to outline and trace the differences, instead of creating simplistic versions.

In fact, I would have been very curious to explore the eventual similarities and synergies in the case of the attitude towards women in Oriental communities. Or a historical evolution about how the rules in the case of Jewish women head covering became stricter and more elaborated in the last decade. Or, I would have even accepted to see a rebelious approach on head covering, including the moment when women can chose not to cover their head, while adherring to the Orthodox religious principles. Or...or...The list is too long, but none of my curious inquieries were answered. Instead, I was offered an undefinite setting aimed at illustrating the topic, but without properly saying anything. More than being confusing, such a stance is disappointing and I have only to regret that (just) another interesting topic was destroyed willingly by a 'fast-food' like approach. Turning any topic into a popular culture (maybe one of the best exhibitions at this museums I enjoyed in the last years was about super heroes and comics so maybe there is an exclusive knowledge potential for such topics) issue doesn't work for any subjects. 

Golem Exhibition at the Jewish Museum Berlin

Until the end of January 2017, the Jewish Museum in Berlin hosts a temporary exhibition dedicated to the frightening, mythical and often misunderstood figure of the Golem. Does this exhibition make justice to it, bringing more clarifications and countering the anti-Semitism associated to it?

To start with the news lead: during the wandering through the various artifacts and explanations, and some movies too, I hardly found anything that haven't been told about the Golem. In a bric-a-brac style I encountered in the case of other exhibitions hosted here, you are introduced to an enormous amount of information and objects. From Made in China plastic warriors to work of art playing with calligraphy and new-Age Kabbalistic visions and manga, the exhibition succeeded to cover almost everything.

But too much information, especially when presented in a quite uncritical and - maybe - shyly to assume some standpoints doesn't help too much, especially when your audience is not an expert and it is possibly expecting to understand more about a specific topic than to encounter various manifestations of the topic.

Obviously, there is never enough time to properly approach such a controversial topic, and eventually one can read more about the Golem before and after the exhibition. The first reference to the creation of such a being is mentioned in the secret Kabbalistic book of Sefer Yetzira - Book of Creation - attributed to Avraham Avinu. It is supposed that Maharal of Prague created the first Golem, in Prague - late 16th, beginning of the 17th century. In the 19th century, the legend was that a Golem may protect Jews from persecutions. The other meaning is that a Golem is a symbol of political crazes going amok, but by extension it can be applied to robotics, Artificial Intelligence or genetic engineering. The artists exploring the mysteries of creativity are supposed to brought to life powers that may be bigger than life and thus, dangerous if misused.

In the German-speaking realms, the predominant representation of the Golem was influenced by the movie with the same name, Paul Wagner, extensively presented at the exhibition. Without grasping the deep understanding of the legend and the meaning, the interpretations slightly entered the well-known register of anti-Semitism. This is, in my opinion, particularly the risk encountered by presenting too much information: everyone can pick up a single sentence and meaning, out of the original context, and play it in the unexpectedly wrong way. Call it the Golem's curse, maybe...

Despite the problematic part, if you plan to attend the exhibition with an open mind and a notebook for some further inspiration and documentation, there are things to learn about, especially when it comes to the works of art and the creative representations of the Golem. Shortly, this is one of the exhibitions it is snobbish to eff it, because everyone else in your group was there, but not necessarily the headline of the season, obviously for a good intellectual reason.