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I S S N : 1 5 5 9 - 4 8 6 6 The Newsletter of the American Friends Volume 12 of the Jewish Museum Hohenems, Inc. September 2011 I N T OUCH S EPTEMBER 2 0 1 1 L ETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT F RANCESCA B RUNNER - K ENNEDY Dear Friends, and tell us that the mu- seum saved their life. This newsletter marks two Yet few people have the Stephan Rollin significant milestones in opportunity to do any- Founder the history of the Jewish thing as dramatic as Museum Hohenems. save a life. Still, we Francesca Brunner-Kennedy First, Otto Amann, foun- must do what we can, [email protected] President der of the Jewish Museum where we can. While Hohenems and former anti-Semitism, racism, Claude Rollin, Esq. mayor of Hohenems, died religious persecution, Vice-President on 18 February. It was sexism, and intolerance Uri Taenzer, Esq. his idea to save the dilapi- exist, we must fight them is one of only three Jew- Secretary-Treasurer dated villa in the narrow with what tools we have. ish museums in Austria. old Jewish street that now It carries an enormous T RUSTEES Dr. Robert Amler houses the museum so In Kurt Greussing’s pres- responsibility. Because Nicole M. Angiel beautifully. He will be entation at the jubilee, he we descendants are often Ronald Bernell missed by his family, the talked about five Jewish the only reason it garners museum staff, and de- Doris Billes residents of Hohenems in international attention, scendants alike. On a 1940 making one of we have a responsibility Nadia Follman happier note, a glorious those fateful walks to the as well. To nurture it, to Timothy L. Hanford celebration took place in train station. He pon- praise it, to support it in James Hirschfeld Hohenems to honor the dered what their the face of those who Hon. Susan Shimer 20th anniversary of the neighbors did. Did they question its mission, to Harry Weil, Jr. museum’s opening on rejoice; did they hide in- shine a larger light on it Monica Wollner April 10, 1991. If, like side; did they speak en- than a small museum in me, you wish you could couragements? And then Vorarlberg would nor- have been there for the he asked the question: mally get. We must make In Touch Editors: July jubilee, please enjoy what would we do? If the sure it is there for an- Susan Shimer Uri Taenzer’s trip report. museum makes only a other 20 years to influ- Nicole Angiel handful of people ask ence another generation. This issue left me wonder- that question, who would Please send your In Touch articles to ing whether the world had not have otherwise, I Best wishes to you all for our editors changed in the last 20 think we have made the health and happiness, Susan Shimer years because of the mu- world a better place. 16 Pond Lane seum. Are we all making Francesca Brunner- Armonk, NY 10504 the world a better place Though ―our‖ museum is Kennedy [email protected] by supporting it? I doubt tucked into a small cor- President, American or that anyone will come ner of the world where Friends of the Jewish Nicole Angiel forward years from now few tourists will see it, it Museum Hohenems 1001 Clark Way Palo Alto, CA 94304 [email protected] Page 2 Volume 12 M ORE THAN 25 Y EARS - T HE H ISTORY OF THE M USEUM D R . H ANNO L OEWY This essay appeared in the those who have made it an open- Festschrift, the program for possible for Hohenems to ness that, the celebration of the 20th become a place signifying at the time, Anniversary of the Mu- something we can be was by no seum’s opening. It was proud of. means self translated into English by -evident. To the author. This Museum comes as the what ex- result of an already long- tent should 1991: It did not take long standing passion, an exis- the exam- and Hohenems became a tential concern to tell this ples of fe- frequent subject of conver- story of the Jews of licitous sation. Between Vienna and Hohenems. A wide range of coexis- Frankfurt, people talked people were the driving tence be about the recently opened forces behind it all: citizens empha- Museum in the small town of a community with a rich sized and located in the Austrian independent history, which to what Rhine Valley; and about the had just been granted the extent miracle that had occurred privileges of a town; schol- could every- Hanno Loewy shown here speaking at the there: a Jewish museum ars and enthusiastic lay- day anti- opening of the Museum’s 2010 Mikvah exhibit openly addressing all those persons who wished to Semitism, which, after all, The young Museum did not questions that had been recall a positive image of existed in Hohenems like possess a collection of its rather avoided by the, albeit this Jewish past and of everywhere else, be ad- own. To a large extent, one few, Jewish museums in coexistence in this place; dressed? Should the Mu- had to rely on official re- Europe that existed then; and a new generation of seum, like others, acquaint cords found in the state first and foremost the ques- historians who had begun the audience with Jewish and municipal archives. tion of who was actually to ask critical questions life, even with Jewish relig- Yet, unlike ten years be- speaking here, to whom, regarding the state’s his- ion in general? Or was not fore, when initial attempts and with whom. tory, questions also ad- precisely that a generaliz- to establish a Jewish mu- dressing the abyss beneath ing look at ―the alien,‖ a seum in Hohenems had In 1994, I had been fortu- the seeming Hohenems look that would fail to take remained stuck in political nate enough to open an idyll. Finally, a third, seriously Jewish experience trenches, all those contra- exhibition in Hohenems, a younger generation joined, in its concreteness, also in dictions and quite ada- show that we had sent on young cultural scientists the concreteness of place mantly fought battles over its way from Frankfurt. The who dealt with Jewish his- and people here in interpretation could not visit to Hohenems turned tory, with the Hebrew lan- Hohenems, but would diminish one fact: a shared out to be significant. At the guage, and the contradic- rather reproduce stereo- interest by all, by almost all time, of course, I had no tions of Jewish culture— types? sides anyway, that this idea how much so. But the and who translated the story must be told—in a atmosphere in the Villa evident polarization into Should the community’s public space. Heimann-Rosenthal and the new concrete inquiries into end during National Social- energy, sincerity, and hu- the Jewish history of ism be emphasized or Despite all differences, the mor that could be sensed Hohenems. rather its long history be- museum association was there, the intense communi- fore that? And finally: how able to combine the most cation between the people Thus, an intense, openly- should the fact be dealt different forces, to unite who carried and still carry held dispute preceded the with that the material wit- the most different individu- this Museum, all left behind resounding opening of the nesses of Jewish life, the als. The Museum was al- a deep impression. Museum and its first per- traces of religious tradi- ready before its opening manent exhibition in April tions in any case, had not much more than a Mu- Today we celebrate the his- 1991. On the highest level survived National Socialism seum; it was a focus of tory of a Museum whose of discussion, fundamental any more than had the few political culture for the en- success has come thanks questions concerning the Hohenems Jews who had tire state, the stage for to the contributions of a representation of Jewish remained in Hohenems debates that were about great many individuals. To- history in a museum set- after 1938? fundamental issues, about day we pay tribute to all ting were deliberated with (Continued on page 3) In Touch Page 3 THE HISTORY OF THE M USEUM (Continued from page 2) just waited for that mo- ety’s guest room. Instead, crete individuals in this the relationship between ment. the Jewish Museum place, on the relationship the ―native‖ and the Hohenems perceived them between majority and mi- ―alien.‖ Here, time and Without Mayor Otto Amann, as people who see their nority, on the contradictions again, it was emphasized who in the mid-80s brought future in Austria and who of coexistence. Of course, that this was a Jewish Mu- to bear all his personal bring along their religious compromises had been seum that had been estab- weight, his authority, but and cultural traditions and made in the Museum. After lished by non-Jews for non- also his innermost convic- rightly claim acceptance of all, the subject of religion Jews. Well, that had not tions and feelings, this them. With the publication had landed in a space been entirely true from the place, this Museum would Emser Halbmond (Ems where in a rather uncon- start, and today it certainly not have received the crescent), the Museum nected manner a concrete is no longer true. Among space it was finally able to performed pioneering work discussion of the various the first activists were also occupy in 1991. A profes- toward ―integration‖ with functions of the Hohenems people whose own family sionally established, acceptance and participa- rabbis was facing a rather history included Jewish equipped, and operated tion—thereby taking up a traditional staging of a To- experience.

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