Are Jews white?

Anti-Semitism is back: in the Netherlands the number of anti-Semitic incidents rose by 126 percent from 2017 to 2019. In a large-scale survey conducted in twelve European Member States, 90 percent of the Jews surveyed indicate that anti-Semitism is on the rise and nearly half of European Jewish youth have experienced anti-Semitism in the past five years. Yet Jews and hatred of Jews are rarely mentioned in this time, when anti-racism and other emancipation movements are becoming more and more in solidarity with each other. What is going on here?

In Are Jews white? the Jewish Cultural Quarter, together with guest curators Gideon Querido van Frank, Lievnath Faber and Anousha Nzume, will explore where Jews are (placed) on the spectrum of current identity and representation politics. Are they seen as perpetrators or victims? Privileged or disadvantaged? How do they see this? And how do others perceive them?

Are Jews white? includes a video installation with interviews in the Kunstkabinet of the Jewish Historical Museum. In collaboration with various locations in Amsterdam, an extensive program of events is organised with debates, performances and interviews.

Are Jews white? is on view now, in the Kunstkabinet in the Jewish Historical Museum.

Article
The exhibition Are Jews white? is made on the initiative of general director Emile Schrijver, in response to an article that curator Gideon Querido van Frank wrote for Vrij Nederland in 2019 (original title: How the left also affects the Jews in the fight against white privilege, Vrij Nederland 2019). The article can be read below.

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