Jews, Money, Myth

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Jews, Money, Myth is an exhibition held at the Jewish Museum London in 2019. It was made in collaboration with the Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism at Birkbeck, University of London with the academic collaboration from David Feldman, Anthony Bale, and Marc Volovici.

The exhibition traces the ideas that Jewish people are unusually greedy and money-oriented to "the earliest days of Christianity." [1] Curator Joanne Rosenthal explained that the goal was to "debunk a lot of the myths that still circulate today,... such as Jews exerting a kind of sinister influence on world events, Jews financing disastrous wars around the world for profit, Jews being naturally drawn to money making." [2] The idea to create the exhibit came from the museum's director, Abigail Morris. [2] [3]

The exhibition opened at a time when antisemitism was resurgent. [2] According to director Abigail Morris, "Not drawing attention to (antisemitism) won’t make it go away." [2] [4] [5] Reviewing the exhibition in The Spectator , Douglas Murray noted that, "hatred of Jews can come from everything. From their wealth and poverty, for integrating and not integrating," and called this a fact that is, "well demonstrated" by this exhibit. [5]

The most notable painting in the exhibition, Rembrandt's 1629 painting, Judas Returning the Thirty Pieces of Silver , is on loan from a private collector. [2] An image of medieval financier Isaac of Norwich at the top of a 1233 English tax document is said to be the world's oldest antisemitic caricature. [2]

According to Sara Lipton, one of the historians who consulted on the exhibition, the medieval artistic convention of depicting Jews with hooked noses, dark skin, and scraggly or pointy beards originated in the 13th century as commissioned works of art depicting the sinfulness of greed. [1] Howard Jacobson notes that even if the Church's motivation was to discourage sin rather than to promote Jew-hatred, it is "a hard distinction to maintain". [1] The exhibit includes a few examples of Jew with a coin figurines, a modern custom of placing a picture or figurine showing a Jew holding a moneybag or coin at the entrance to a home or business as a magical charm to attract wealth that developed in Poland in the 1990s. [4] [6]

A film by Jeremy Deller was commissioned for the exhibition. [2] Geller compiled recent footage of contemporary media personalities, politicians, and propagandists making antisemitic statements. [2] Diana Muir Appelbaum describes the film as "an endless loop of clips of contemporary expressions of anti-Semitism emanating from various points on the political and religious spectrum across Europe and the United States." [7]

Related Research Articles

Antisemitism is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is a form of racism.

Antisemitism in Christianity, a form of religious antisemitism, is the feeling of hostility which some Christian Churches, Christian groups, and ordinary Christians have toward the Jewish religion and the Jewish people.

New antisemitism is the idea that a new form of antisemitism has developed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, tending to manifest itself as anti-Zionism and criticism of the Israeli government. The concept is included in some definitions of antisemitism, such as the Working Definition of Antisemitism and the 3D test of antisemitism. The concept dates to the early 1970s, although the identification of anti-Zionism with antisemitism has "long been de rigueur in Jewish communal and broader pro-Israel circles".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewish Museum London</span> Museum of British Jewish life

The Jewish Museum London was a museum of British Jewish life, history and identity. The museum was situated in Camden Town in the London Borough of Camden, north London. It was a place for people of all faiths to explore Jewish history, culture, and heritage. The museum had a dedicated education team, with a programme for schools, community groups and families. King Charles III was a patron of the museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Self-hating Jew</span> Pejorative label implying antisemitism

Self-hating Jew or self-loathing Jew, transliterated in Hebrew as auto-antisemitism, is a term which is used to describe Jews whose views are perceived as antisemitic. The concept gained widespread currency after Theodor Lessing's 1930 book Der jüdische Selbsthaß, which sought to explain a perceived inclination among Jewish intellectuals, toward inciting antisemitism, by stating their views about Judaism. The term is said to have become "something of a key term of opprobrium in and beyond Cold War-era debates about Zionism".

Isaac of Norwich or Isaac ben Eliav was a Jewish-English financier of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. He was among the Jews imprisoned by King John of England in 1210. It is possible that at this time a house of his in London fell into the hands of the king and was afterward (1214) transferred to the Earl of Derby. He was by far the most important Jewish moneylender at Norwich in the early years of Henry II; the majority of the items in a daybook of that place now preserved at Westminster Abbey refer to his transactions. In the "Shetarot" Isaac is referred to as "Nadib" or "Mæcenas". He appears to have died before 1247. A caricature of him appears in an issue of the Exchequer, 17, Hen. III. (1233), which represents him as being tortured by a demon and expresses the contemporary Christian view of his rapaciousness. The accompanying caricature represents Isaac as three-faced, probably in allusion to the wide extent of his dealings. He is depicted wearing a crown and observing a scene where two other Jews, Mosse Mok and a woman named Abigail, are being tortured by demons, apparently under his supervision. The scene has been suggested to be similar to a miracle play, with the drapery representing the stage and the architectural adornment the cloister of a church; such plays are generally performed in churches; however, it is likely that the scene is the Tower of London, where Jews were imprisoned and tried. The document, which was on display in the 2019 museum exhibition Jews, Money, and Myth, is said to be the world's oldest antisemitic caricature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Racial antisemitism</span> Prejudice and discrimination against Jews based on race or ethnicity

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Antisemitism —prejudice, hatred of, or discrimination against Jews— has experienced a long history of expression since the days of ancient civilizations, with most of it having originated in the Christian and pre-Christian civilizations of Europe.

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Antisemitism in France has become heightened since the late 20th century and into the 21st century. In the early 21st century, most Jews in France, like most Muslims in France, are of North African origin. France has the largest population of Jews in the diaspora after the United States—an estimated 500,000–600,000 persons. Paris has the highest population, followed by Marseilles, which has 70,000 Jews. Expressions of antisemitism were seen to rise during the Six-Day War of 1967 and the French anti-Zionist campaign of the 1970s and 1980s. Following the electoral successes achieved by the extreme right-wing National Front and an increasing denial of the Holocaust among some persons in the 1990s, surveys showed an increase in stereotypical antisemitic beliefs among the general French population.

Antisemitism in the United Kingdom signifies hatred of and discrimination against Jews in the United Kingdom. Discrimination and hostility against the community since its establishment in 1070 resulted in a series of massacres on several occasions and their expulsion from the country in 1290. They were readmitted by Oliver Cromwell in 1655.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jew with a coin</span> Polish good luck charm

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Jacobson, Howard (17 April 2019). "Jews and the money myth From Judas to the Brick Lane mural, how the malicious libel about Jewish greed gripped the global imagination". New Statesman . Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Neyeri, Farah (20 March 2019). "A Museum Tackles Myths About Jews and Money". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  3. ↑ Sherwood, Harriet (31 January 2019). "London Jewish Museum to explore tropes about money". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  4. 1 2 Finkelstein, Daniel (20 March 2019). "Daniel Finkelstein: Next time I'm asked how antisemitism started, I'll say 'go to this exhibition'". The Times. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  5. 1 2 Murray, Douglas (6 April 2019). "Is now a good time to talk about Jews and money?". The Spectator. Retrieved 22 May 2019.
  6. ↑ Jews Have Been Seen as ‘All About the Benjamins’ for 2,000 Years, New Exhibition Shows, Daniella Peled, Haaretz , 20 March 2019
  7. ↑ Appelbaum, Diana (12 June 2019). "Filthy Lucre: A Look at the History of Jews and Money". pp. Mosaic (magazine). Retrieved 21 June 2019.
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