Negotiating Jewish Identity through the Display of Art

Abstract

Research on museums has proved useful in understanding the social dynamics of groups and societies and their use of material culture for the construction and reaffirmation of cultural identities. A comparison between two exhibitions of Jewish art and history taking place in London at the turn of the twentieth century reveals a gradual shift in the museological representation of Jewish identity from a focus on religion towards ethnicity. The inclusion of visitor perceptions and of unintentional and contradictory meanings of the exhibits, however, illustrates that these representations were not necessarily the outcome of a clear strategy and were socially contested.