EXHIBITION THE MISSING IMAGES

EUGEEN VAN MIEGHEM AND THE JEWISH EMIGRANTS TO THE NEW WORLD

The Jewish Museum’s third exhibition on the refugee phenomenon has been prepared in collaboration with the Eugeen van Mieghem Foundation and with support of the the Red Star Line Museum in Antwerp. Its focus is on the emigration of millions of people from Eastern Europe to America at the end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th. One of the main focal points of this emigration was the port of Antwerp and the Belgian shipping company Red Star Line, which transported ca. 2.4 million European emigrants to the New World between 1873 and 1934. Among them were hundreds of thousands of Eastern European Jews who were fleeing poverty, permanent oppression and recurring waves of pogroms. This exodus of emigrants in the port of Antwerp was depicted by the local artist Eugeen van Mieghem (1875–1930). In addition to 50 works by Eugeen van Mieghem, the exhibition also features posters of the Red Star Line and period photographs of the port of Antwerp.