Manchester School of Architecture
March Architecture - Year 5, Dissertation
Exhibiting 'Jewishness': An introspective study of the Jewish Identity and its embodiment within the European Jewish Museum informed by deconstructivist and critical argument
The Jewish people have long settled amongst European society as a diasporic population, yet their existence on the continent today continues to be threatened by Anti-Semitic behaviour in an increasingly xenophobic context. This is partly assigned to a lack of understanding of what it means to be Jewish, with negative perceptions of ‘Jewishness’ (or Jewish qualities) stemming from a wider disconnection from Jewish lives today. Characterising the Jewish identity is further complicated as contemporary interpretations of ‘Jewishness’ vary not only outside of the community but also within. This study benefits from personal and epistemological research into the origins of this fragmentation, looking in particular at the Jewish identity through the lens of two prominent schools of thought, Deconstructivism and Critical theory, each highlighting the fundamental processes of constructing identity in the abstract sense.
In the built environment, the Jewish Museum has been one of the few typologies tasked with addressing this lack of knowledge, rendering it a vital tool in the mission to dismantle Anti-Semitism. Despite this unified objective, the Jewish Museum has inspired numerous conflicting architectural expressions due to the complexity of representing a highly fragmented identity. Through analysing three prominent case studies: the Jewish Museum Berlin, Manchester Jewish Museum and the POLIN Museum, this dissertation investigates how the architects’ and curators’ personal interpretations of ‘Jewishness’ have influenced their approach to the design process and the way in which they believe Anti-Semitism can be tackled utilising an architectural medium.
