THE TURNING TO HISTORY OF VIENNESE JEWS

Abstract

In the early years of its existence, for around ten years, the Viennese Jewish museum served the purpose of heightening the Jews’ opportunity for integration into the society at large. According to this view, the stated goal of the Jewish museum differed from the nationalist aim of non‐Jewish museums established in the nineteenth century. Although the Jewish museum undeniably enhanced the sense of solidarity among Viennese Jewry, its ultimate goal, rather, was to gain acceptance by the non‐Jewish society. However, this aim was soon to change, giving way to a strengthening of a particularistic Jewish identity. The Viennese Jewish museum also provides a telling example of the fictitiousness of historical narratives. It shows the high degree to which the past was employed in order to accomplish social goals. Against this background, the Jewish museum tells a great deal about the identity of the Jews who were affiliated to or felt sympathetic towards it. The history of the Viennese Jewish museum was thus the history of the social hopes and expectations of the acculturated part of Viennese Jewry.