In The Labyrinth of the Times
With Mordechai W. Bernstein through 1700 years of German-Jewish history
In The Labyrinth of the Times
With Mordechai W. Bernstein through 1700 years of German-Jewish history
FROM MARCH 17th 2021 – FEBRUARY 13th 2022
An exhibition of the Jewish Museum Munich
The exhibition
Mordechai W. Bernstein (1905–1966) worked for the “Yiddish Scientific Institute” (YIVO) in Wilno which relocated to New York in 1941. He was commissioned to trace documents and material that had been looted during the Nazi era. Between 1948 and 1951 he also visited some 800 places in his search for vestiges of German-Jewish culture. He published the results of his findings in three volumes written in Yiddish and, as such, created a musée…
In The Labyrinth of the Times
With Mordechai W. Bernstein through 1700 years of German-Jewish history
FROM MARCH 17th 2021 – FEBRUARY 13th 2022
An exhibition of the Jewish Museum Munich
The exhibition
Mordechai W. Bernstein (1905–1966) worked for the “Yiddish Scientific Institute” (YIVO) in Wilno which relocated to New York in 1941. He was commissioned to trace documents and material that had been looted during the Nazi era. Between 1948 and 1951 he also visited some 800 places in his search for vestiges of German-Jewish culture. He published the results of his findings in three volumes written in Yiddish and, as such, created a musée imaginaire for a German-Jewish culture which had been destroyed.
The exhibition shows 18 objects which Mordechai W. Bernstein tracked down, and juxtaposes Bernstein’s viewpoint, from the perspective of the immediate post-war period, with that of the present day. The objects range from an oil lamp from Antiquity decorated with a menorah, and a fire-damaged Torah finial from Laupheim near Ulm, to a model of the the main synagogue in Munich which was ordered to be demolished in1938, and highlights in this way the diversity of German-Jewish culture.
A catalog has been published to accompany the exhibition, which in addition to descriptions of the exhibits, includes 18 articles written by Bernstein that can now be read for the first time in German translation.
Curator
Bernhard Purin
In cooperation with
Ayleen Winkler
Exhibition Design
Architect Martin Kohlbauer
Duration of exhibition
March 17th 2021–February 13th 2022
Where
Level 1 and 2
Curator
Bernhard Purin
Assistance
Ayleen Winkler
Architecture
Architect Martin Kohlbauer
PUBLICATION
Exhibition catalogue
Bernhard Purin · Ayleen Winkler (eds)
Im Labyrinth der Zeiten
Mit Mordechai W. Bernstein durch 1700 Jahre d eutsch-jüdische Geschichte.
German Translations from Yiddish by Lilian Harlander and Lara Theobalt
With essays of Monika Berthold-Hilpert | Ernst Böhme | Jutta Fleckenstein | Lilian Harlander | Souzana Hazan | Martin Kohlbauer | Andreas Lehnardt | Armin Panter | Simon Paulus | Bernhard Purin | Christiane Twiehaus | Joanna Weinberg | Ayleen Winkler