'Jews of the Orient' exhibition traces history of ancient religion across the Arab world

A major new exhibition at the Institut du Monde Arabe, or Arab World Institute (AWI) in Paris is illuminating the “rich and diverse” history of Jews in the Middle East and North Africa in the first of its kind internationally.

From Baghdad to Cordoba, "Jews of the Orient" traces the birth and progress of Judaism all over the Mediterranean rim, on the Arabian Peninsula and on the banks of the Euphrates River.

Part of a trilogy put on by the AWI dedicated to each of the three monotheistic religions, the current exhibition was preceded by “Arab World after Hajj, the Pilgrimage to Mecca”, “Treasures of Islam in Africa” and “Christians of the Orient”.

Curated by prominent historian and specialist in Judeo-Arab relations, Benjamin Stora, the team said they wanted to evoke the cultural interactions that characterised Judaism while emphasising its influence on the nascent religion of Islam.

Co-curator and head of exhibitions at the AWI, Elodie Bouffard, tells The National she discovered many "great surprises" about the history of Jews who lived across the region over the centuries.

“The discovery of this world that unfolds in Hebrew, Aramaic, Berber, Arabic or Spanish, which builds the multiplicity of Jewish identities in the Land of Islam was a great surprise. Also for the visitors, particularly perhaps for the younger generation who discover these places occupied by the Eastern Jewish communities in the construction of the different cultural spaces of the Arab world,” Ms Bouffard says.

From Morocco to Iraq, Tunisia to Syria, the presence of Jewish populations in these countries is revealed through the curators’ creation of spaces that refer to "situations experienced" that "embrace geographical movement".

“Walking from one room to another is like taking several paths to the same destination,” Mr Stora writes in the exhibit’s accompanying guidebook. “Despite the philosophical, literary or geographical detours, the attachment to an ancient faith always prevails.”

Spread over 1,100 square metres, the exhibition of the history of Jewish communities in Arab countries over 15 centuries of cohabitation is seen through the parades of archaeological works, manuscripts, liturgical objects, costumes and fine jewels that bear witness to the savoir-faire of Jewish craftsmen.

About 280 objects were amassed through loans from major international institutions, including the British Museum in London, the Archaeological Museum in Rabat and the Brooklyn Museum in New York. However, the complexities in acquisition brought on by the pandemic forced them also to consider more obscure sources to build their rare collection.

“We had loan cancellations only a few months before the opening of the exhibition because of the health situation … we had to look for complementary works, even though this heritage is rare and very scattered [so] we looked to private collections that were often completely unknown and got some exceptional never-seen-before works,” Ms Bouffard tells The National.

Family photos make up a good portion of these previously concealed archives, thus humanising the exhibition’s historical and anthropological journey. Displaying these personal snaps had an unexpectedly rewarding effect when one visitor saw his grandfather’s house in a picture and asked to be put in touch with the collector to get a reproduction for his father.

The connection was not an isolated case, Ms Bouffard says, noting that several people have approached the institute since the exhibition opened last year, many to share their own personal histories.

In a country that has uncomfortably grappled with the sins of its past and present-day anti-Semitism, Ms Bouffard says the exhibition offers the French public “necessary” insights on a little-known history.

“France is a country where a large part of the Jews from the Arab world live today. It was therefore a question of discovering their history over the long term and also of understanding the historical reasons for this presence, linked to colonisation and European interference. We talk openly about important events such as the Damascus affair, the Dreyfus affair and the consequences of the establishment of the Vichy regime in the Maghreb,” she says.

On the other end of the spectrum, the dispossession of Palestinians to create a Jewish state is also addressed, Ms Bouffard says. Extracts from a documentary called Jews and Muslims, which exposes the forced exodus of Palestinians from their homeland as well as the difficult departures of Jewish communities from the Arab world is part of the exhibition.

Other works similarly deal with the “memorial aspect, the uprooting and the intergenerational transmission of this history” the co-curator says.

At a time when Jewish populations across the region have largely disappeared and the relationship with Arabs marred by the creation of Israel and ongoing Palestinian occupation, the exhibition is an important reminder that a more affable relationship once existed between the two communities.

The intention, Mr Stora writes, is not to “reconcile” the differences between those who view this history as "harmonious and convivial" and those who see it as a history of "terrible conflicts".

“What we wish to say and show is at the intersection of these two concepts,” the curator says.

“To perpetrate the Jewish legacy in the Orient … is to search for historically rich narratives in several emblematic cities [and] to maintain connections between people, to keep the doors of knowledge open between people of different origins.”

Jews of the East (Juifs d'Orient: Une Histoire Plurimillenaire) at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris runs until Sunday, March 13

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