What skin colors do Jews have – and which are ascribed to them? How do they position themselves? The exhibition Black Jews, White Jews? explores these questions and shows historical and contemporary examples of external and self-perception. It examines the topic of Jewish identity in the charged relationship between self-definition, antisemitism, and racism.
For centuries, racist worldviews have judged people primarily by their skin color. “Race theories,” colonialism, antisemitism, and other fantasies of superiority created a hierarchy of people: an order of the world based on the order of skin color. The focus of the exhibition is on the stereotyping and exclusion that Jews of color experience worldwide – particularly in Europe, the USA, and Israel.
Today’s discourses understand skin color as a historical and social construction rather than a biological category. The recent escalation of the Middle East conflict has led to the consolidation of the stereotype of Jews as white colonial rulers who oppress a “non-white,” Indigenous population. This ignores the fact that Jews were and are present on all continents – not least because their history is shaped by migration, expulsion, and especially the Shoah.
But are Jews white, “non-white,” or black? The various answers and their far-reaching consequences reinforce the topicality and urgency of this exhibition.
Curators: Tom Juncker, Daniela Pscheiden, Hannes Sulzenbacher, Vanessa Spanbauer
Design: Robert Rüf, Design, Wien
Graphic design: Bueronardin, Wien
Sujet: Jason Bard Yarmosky, Portrait of a young man, 2018 © Private collection, Europe