The Last Europeans. Jewish Perspectives on the Crises of an Idea

What was “Project Europe” and what has become of it? And what will become of it? Has the European Union drifted apart even further in times of alarming global challenges instead of moving closer together? Are national interests increasingly pitted against European solutions?

Against the background of these questions we look at Jewish individuals who in the face of Europe’s devastation in the 20th century transcended national and cultural borders, demanded anew the universal application of human rights, and vigorously pursued a European dream. Based on their commitment to a united and peaceful Europe, the exhibition examines at the same time the renewed threats.

The museum shall become the site of an open debate about the future of Europe, the actual and ideational substance of the European Union, about threats and opportunities, about future-oriented and outdated concepts. Here, it will be possible to argue about European Enlightenment as well as about its offspring: secularization and modernity, emancipation and participation, nationalism and chauvinism, colonialism, and capitalism.

With an art installation by Arnold Dreyblatt consisting of three lenticular prints that he has chosen as an interactive means of representation. Each work contains up to six text layers, which can be seen as text fragments from different viewing positions and which seem to “overwrite” each other as in a deconstructed “palimpsest”.

An exhibition of the Jewish Museum Hohenems in cooperation with the Jewish Museum Munich.

Project Management: Hanno Loewy
Curators: Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek, Michaela Feurstein-Prasser
Project Coordination: Lilian Harlander in collaboration with Sarah Steinborn
Exhibition Architecture: Martin Kohlbauer

A catalogue will accompany the exhibition:
Die letzten Europäer. Jüdische Perspektiven auf die Krisen einer Idee (in German only)
Ed. by Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek, Michaela Feurstein-Prasser and Hanno Loewy Europäische Verlagsanstalt, Hamburg 2022, 220 pages (16,80 Euros)
ISBN: 978-3-86393-149-0