Jewish Orientalists. Scholars and Adventurers in Search of the Self in the Other

Wednesday, November 25th - Sunday, May 9th | Museum Dorotheergasse, Dorotheergasse 11, A-1010 Wien

The exhibition traces the emergence of the Oriental studies in the nineteenth century and arrives at a surprising insight: the development of Islamic studies, Arabic studies, and Orientalism was closely intertwined with the Science of Judaism, as well as with movements of emancipation and reform. Many of its key protagonists were Viennese Jews—making “Die Morgenländer” an integral part of Vienna’s Jewish history.

These new Oriental disciplines became the stage for a Jewish search for origins. The effort to identify and study the sources of one’s own culture and history was not driven by scholarly ambitions alone; it was also an attempt to free oneself from the discriminatory constraints of a Christian-dominated society. Seen from this perspective, Islam and the Arab world appeared neither as enemies of Europe nor as exotic “Others,” but rather as sources of European culture itself. This challenges many contemporary stereotypes. In doing so, “Die Morgenländer” undermines both xenophobic assumptions and postcolonial black-and-white thinking.

Originally developed by the Jewish Museum Hohenems, the exhibition has been expanded for the Jewish Museum Vienna and enriched with numerous highlights.