'Jew in a Box': Fostering understanding, or anti-Semitism?

A German museum triggers a debate with an innovative exhibit aimed at demystifying Judaism

A Jewish man sits in a plexiglas box for the exhibit "The Whole Truth."
(Image credit: Facebook.com/jmberlin)

The Jewish Museum in Berlin is stirring up controversy with an exhibit called "The Whole Truth: Everything You Wanted to Know About Jews." The element of the show getting the most attention features a cast of Jewish men and women who take turns sitting in a Plexiglas box, and answering visitors' questions about Jewish life and culture. The museum says the purpose of the piece — which some observers have dubbed "The Jew in a Box" — is to demystify Judaism in a country still grappling with the legacy of the Holocaust.

If the organizers' goal was to cause a fuss: Mission accomplished. "It's a horrible thing to do — completely degrading and not helpful," Eran Levy, an Israeli who lives in Berlin, told Foreign Policy. "The Jewish Museum absolutely missed the point if they wanted to do anything to improve the relations between Germans and Jews."

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.