“Crude anti-Semitic conspiracy theories” are also firmly anchored in the “educated classes”.
This is the conclusion drawn by the Anne Frank educational institution after running an information stand at the Documenta in Kassel for a few weeks.
The aim of the offer, which is still available for two days, was to engage in an exchange with the public about anti-Semitism in art, artistic freedom and racism.
It was a reaction to the Taring Padi artist collective's anti-Semitic images at the show.
Theresa White
Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.
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Julia Alfandari, head of the pedagogical offer, considers it important to continue working there after the experience at the documenta, since a lot of basic knowledge is missing.
More alarming, however, is that "anti-Semitism is also firmly anchored in social circles that consider themselves enlightened": At the information stand, many visitors, whom Alfandari counts as part of the educated middle class, expressed comparisons with the Nazis, trivialization of the Holocaust and narratives of conspiracies.
Many also outsourced anti-Semitism, considering it a Muslim problem.
At the same time, the Indonesian artists and curators were defended with an “almost neo-colonial argument”: Given their background, they couldn't know any better.
Offers of political education that take anti-Semitism and racism into account at the same time,