Objects and spaces as reflections of the religious praxis of jewish communities in southern germany
Since October 2018, the Jewish Museum Augsburg Swabia has participated in the collaborative research project “Objects and Spaces as Reflections of the Religious Praxis of Jewish Communities: Traditions and Transformations of Judaism in Germany after the Shoah.” This comprehensive, interdisciplinary investigation seeks to determine how the new beginning of Jewish life in Germany after the Shoah is reflected in objects, spaces and religious or musical practices.
Particularly in communities founded immediately after the war, many ritual objects were provided by aid organizations. These objects therefore reflected the temporary status of many Jews in Europe. In the 1950s and 1960s, as congregations consolidated and the economic situation improved, Jewish communities acquired ritual objects of high artistic value. One interesting feature of postwar Jewish communities in Germany is the frequent overlapping of the institutions museum and community. This overlapping poses questions about the musealization of ritual objects or, inversely, the restoration of formerly musealized objects to ritual use in prayer services.
