Meron Mendel, head of the Anne Frank educational center in Frankfurt, gives up his consulting position at the Documenta.

Mendel has been advising the Kassel art exhibition, which has become caught up in an anti-Semitism scandal, for barely two weeks.

The Indonesian artist collective Taring Padi exhibited a poster with anti-Semitic stereotypes at the show, and the curators from the Ruangrupa collective, who also come from Indonesia, are accused of being close to the anti-Israeli BDS movement.

In an interview with Der Spiegel, Mendel announced his decision to end his collaboration with the Documenta.

Alexander Juergs

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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Above all, Mendel makes serious accusations against the Documenta general director Sabine Schormann.

The manager is not interested in a serious review of the events, instead they are playing for time, he complains.

No more basis

Mendel saw his advisory task as examining the works of art and entering into a dialogue with the curators of Ruangrupa - neither of which happened for two weeks.

Mendel had also urged the formation of an advisory board of anti-Semitism experts.

But this suggestion was also rejected by the Documenta management.

Mendel therefore no longer saw any basis for constructive cooperation, although he considers it urgently necessary to continue the dialogue.

"We are facing a shambles in the discourse on anti-Semitism and racism," he concludes.