Jewish Orientalists: Scholars and Adventurers in Search of the Self in the Other

With this exhibition devoted to the “Morgenländer” the Jewish Museum Hohenems looks at the emergence of Oriental studies in the 19th century and makes a surprising discovery: the development of Islamic studies, Arabic studies and Oriental studies was closely linked to the “Wissenschaft des Judentums”, emancipation and reform.

The new Oriental studies were the scene of a Jewish search for its own origins: Exploring the sources of one’s own culture and history with a self-determined view also served as an attempt to free oneself from the discriminatory grip in a Christian society.

The fact that, from this perspective, Islam and the Arab world by no means appeared as a hostile and exotic “other” of Europe, but rather as a source of European culture, productively challenges many contemporary stereotypes, xenophobic ideas as well as post-colonial black and white thinking.

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