Representing Jewish Heritage with(out) Jews?

Based on Critical Heritage Studies, the interdisciplinary research project consists of two case studies in Cultural Studies/European Ethnology and Music Education. It examines the complexity of representing and communicating Jewish heritage in contexts authorised by cultural and educational policy, with a particular focus on participatory research approaches. The project offers a substantial and empirically grounded contribution to the (re-)discursivisation of Jewish cultural heritage, in line mwith the aims of the second funding phase of the SPP. The starting point is based on the hypothesis that Jewish heritage in Germany is not represented in its complexity because, firstly, current Jewish experiences and perspectives have so far only been included to a limited extent in the forms of representation examined. Secondly, the dominant cultural/political framing of remembrance and the focus on predominantly non-Jewish recipients tends to narrow Jewish heritage thematically to a few sections of Jewish history and Jewish lifeworlds. Using the example of the representation of Jewish heritage in UNESCO World Heritage Sites (Case Study I) and in the context of music education in schools (Case Study II), the project investigates the epistemic orders in which Jewish heritage is produced and communicated. These epistemic orders are firstly characterised by a goy-normative perspective, which ultimately formats the Jewish heritage conveyed here in a specific way. Secondly, they are influenced by the anticipation of a predominantly non-Jewish audience. This anticipation in turn has an impact on what is understood and communicated as Jewish heritage, how this is recognised and what communication goals are associated with it. The objective of the project is to gain a new and empirically substantiated perspective on Jewish heritage in its diversity by involving Jewish actors in the form of participatory research, but without taking an essentialist view of Jewish culture or Jewish heritage itself.