The touring exhibition from the National Holocaust Centre and Museum in Laxton, ‘I say British, you say Jewish’ has gone into its next phase after starting in London

The National Holocaust Centre and Museum in Laxton has announced the next phases of the new touring exhibition which opened in London and then moved on to Manchester for Holocaust Memorial Day 2024.

It was created in partnership with academics from the University of Nottingham, with loans from the collections of the Jewish Museum’s London.

‘I Say British, You Say Jewish’ explores the surprising and sometimes amusing pluralities of being British and Jewish – as well as their distortions in everyday anti-Jewish racism said a spokesman from the centre.

Venue partners include Camden Council, the Jewish Museum of Manchester and the Outwood Grange Academies Trust.

The pop-up touring exhibition-in-a-trailer launched outside the Hampstead Theatre in the London borough of Camden, where it could be seen from 14-20 January.

It will now move to other cities to Nottingham on March 3, and then Birmingham on March 10.

Through images, objects and interactive digital displays, the exhibition explores myths and realities of being Jewish and British.

“It offers opportunities to discover some Jewish elements of popular British culture in food, music and football,” said the spokesman.

“It also exposes anti-Jewish prejudices.

“It invites visitors to explore everyday objects, from curious walking sticks to good luck charms that have normalised anti-Jewish racism.

“In challenging this normalisation, the exhibition makes clear why the attempt to erase Jewish identity is no longer just the province of the extreme Right.

“It is now championed by Leftist activists, Islamists and even on our university campuses said the spokesman from The National Holocaust Centre and Museum.

“Visitors will see images and insights shared by young Jewish Brits today, who tell their stories of what it means to be both British and Jewish – for them, two sides of one identity.

“The past is an exhibition feature too, as it underscores the present.

“Visitors can move around an interactive digital environment that recreates the 1930s living room in which a Holocaust survivor grew up.

“It offers a taste of the lived experience of discrimination and exclusion in those days, and allows them to hear original testimonies.

“The echoes of the present will become clear.

“The exhibition is an invitation to think again about unconscious bias.

“A few objects on display seem harmless enough — until you lift up a flap to discover the particular ingrained anti-Jewish assumption each derives from.

“Even the graphic design of the exhibition aims to make visitors ‘think on’.

“It is vibrant, welcoming, colourful and contemporary — disrupting the shadowy, mysterious, cultish perceptions harboured by anti-Jewish conspiracy theorists.

“Why have we chosen Holocaust Memorial Day as the time for this exhibition?

“The HMD 2024 theme is ‘The Fragility of Freedom.’

“It is of concern that some people are so ready to erase British Jewish freedoms because of the Hamas-Israel war 3000 mile away.

“As social activists, we do not simply wish to highlight the problem.

“We wish to be part of the solution, unpicking and disrupting the ancient prejudices at play.

“Since the Jewish diaspora was created by expulsion from the land of Israel by the Romans 79 generations ago, Jews have successfully put down roots in numerous countries — hence their dual identities.

“None more so than in the early 20th Century Germany that Hitler took control of.

“Whether Jewish & German in the 1930s or Jewish and British in the 2020s, why do difficult times threaten Jewish freedoms ahead of so many others?

“Yesterday it was from the Right and empire-building nationalists.

“Today it is from the global Left and Islamists.

“Our educational team will always be on hand at the exhibition to answer visitors’ questions and help them create their own set of inspirational pictures.

“The display contains an in-built evaluation tool which the Museum will use to hone its learning programmes — in particular using feedback to refine our new Racism Response Unit.

“The Unit offers a training programme for the staff of universities, councils, unions and police, empowering these civic institutions to recognise and act on the anti-Jewish dogmas, highlighted by
‘I Say British, You Say Jewish’, that for too long have been circulating, often in code, under their radar.

Professor Maiken Umbach, the National Holocaust Museum’s Chief Academic Advisor & Innovation Officer, and Professor of Modern History Nottingham University said:

”’I Say British, You Say Jewish’ takes a searching look at who we think we are.

“Popping up in unexpected places on our streets, it is part of the National Holocaust Museum’s programme to reach beyond the confines of a traditional museum.

“The luminous mobile exhibition pavilion invites members of all our communities to engage in conversation & exploration. It will surprise you, amuse you, empower you – and it will make you think again.”

Marc Cave, National Holocaust Museum Director said:

“We are not a history museum but social activists.

“This exhibition asks: why is it so difficult to understand that someone’s identity can happily contain diverse elements?

“Jews have integrated with pride into British society for centuries, whilst preserving Jewish customs and indeed sharing them.

“Yet it’s precisely this duality which unnerves the racist.

“Today’s Leftists and Islamists make the same old accusations as the far right with their paranoid money, blood and loyalty libels against Jews.

“This exhibition gleefully defies them.

“British Jews will define their identity, not them.

“And we are thankful that Britain will uphold this identity, not let the appeasers cancel it.

“We thank the councils of Camden and Manchester and others for supporting this exhibition.

“May the monomaniacs who cannot grasp the idea of duality one day learn to practice it themselves.”