A glimpse into the collections—on the 25th anniversary of the Jewish Museum

For the past 25 years, the Jewish Museum Hohenems has collected testimonies about Jewish history in Vorarlberg, Tyrol, and the greater Lake Constance area—hereby compiling a quintessential history of the diaspora. Thousands of descendants of the Jewish families from Hohenems still feel a sense of connection to this place that is part of their own history while at the same time viewing themselves as citizens of the world. Thus, they provide the museum with a critical boost.
At the same time, the objects that find their way into the museum’s collection signify discontinued history.
Whether family traditions can no longer be passed on or objects have become homeless because of changes in location and language, generational disruptions, and dispersal, or something else, traditions and practices have been violently torn apart or destroyed. Some objects are loaded with contradicting interpretations, appropriations, and denials. They carry the traces of refusal and rejection, such as the 1945 gravestone of a Bregenz Jewish forced laborer that had been stolen twice from a cemetery in Bregenz and disposed of in the Bregenzer Ache before finding, for now, its final resting place in the museum’s collection.
With the exhibition “Odd” the museum provides insight into the wealth of different forms of memory and oblivion whose material traces are preserved in the museum’s collection.

Curator:

Hanno Loewy and Anika Reichwald
Collaboration:

Dinah Ehrenfreund-Michler, Raphael Einetter, Martina Häfele, Lea Oberbichler
Design and architecture:

atelier stecher (Götzis), Roland Stecher and Thomas Matt

Education:

Tanja Fuchs and Judith Niederklopfer-Würtinger
Organisation, public relations:

Birgit Sohler
Administration:

Gerlinde Fritz