Coming and Going
Why People Change Religions
An exhibition of the Jewish Museums in Hohenems, Frankfurt am Main, and Munich
The right to convert, i.e. to become a member of a different religious community, is—like religious freedom itself – a human right.
For a long time changing religion was associated with coercion, social pressure, and forced assimilation. And that was not only true for those converting from Judaism to Christianity. Nowadays, changing religion is a free decision, although conversions are by no means without conflict even in the present age, sometimes touching on new taboos and unanswered questions.
The exhibition at…
Coming and Going
Why People Change Religions
An exhibition of the Jewish Museums in Hohenems, Frankfurt am Main, and Munich
The right to convert, i.e. to become a member of a different religious community, is—like religious freedom itself – a human right.
For a long time changing religion was associated with coercion, social pressure, and forced assimilation. And that was not only true for those converting from Judaism to Christianity. Nowadays, changing religion is a free decision, although conversions are by no means without conflict even in the present age, sometimes touching on new taboos and unanswered questions.
The exhibition at the Jewish Museum Munich outlines the ways different religions deal with the subject of conversion, the multitude of individual motives, the rituals, converts and their dramatic situations – right throughout the history of Europe and across the continent. We hear of the experience made by well-known personalities such as Heinrich Heine, Edith Stein, and Gustav Mahler, or by Nahida Lazarus and Leopold Weiss/Muhammad Asad, as well as unknown individuals, whose exemplary tales draw attention to the everyday and unspectacular dimension during the long history of conversion.
Duration of exhibition
October 2, 2013 – February 2, 2014
Curator
Hannes Sulzenbacher Regina Laudage-Kleeberg
Architecture
Architekt Martin Kohlbauer, Vienna
PUBLIKATION
Der Katalog zu Ausstellung
Dieser Essayband dokumentiert nicht nur die gleichnamige Ausstellung sondern stellt auch in umfassender Weise Theorien der Konversion, die Geschichte „jüdischer Konversion“ in Europa und aktuelle Konversionsdebatten vor.