What is Jewish?

Our pop-up instal­la­ti­on «Lite­ral­ly Jewish» can be seen on pos­ters throug­hout Basel. Defi­ni­ti­ons of «Jewish» from ency­clo­paed­i­as over the past 400 years demons­tra­te a shif­ting view on Jews and Judaism.

On the pos­ters, four peo­p­le com­ment on the ency­clo­paed­ia defi­ni­ti­ons. «Lost!» says Mimi, 14, on the asser­ti­on of the Damen Con­ver­sa­ti­ons Lexi­kon from 1836: «The most beau­tiful Jewes­ses can be found in Algiers.». With regards to the Wiki­pe­dia ent­ry of 2020, our gui­de Loui­se, 28, says, «2020 views are old news.» Ales­san­dro, 35, says of the Swiss Idio­ti­kon dic­tion­a­ry ent­ry from 1891: «I’d rather be inver­ted than main­stream!» Our gra­phic desi­gner, Ele­na, 29, won­ders if you can see from loo­king at her what she belie­ves in.

Join us for a dis­cus­sion on one of our gui­ded tours of the exhibition.