(Jewish Group) Jews Have Been Seen as 'All About the Benjamins' for 2K Years, New Exhibition Shows

[Behind the Aegis]

(THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP! RESPECT!!)

Of all the myths about Jews, perhaps the most persistent involves money. It’s a prejudice that remains almost mainstream. In February, Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar tweeted that U.S. support for Israel was “all about the Benjamins” (a reference to the $100 bill, adorned by Benjamin Franklin’s face).

A new exhibition at the Jewish Museum London, “Jews, Money, Myth” (running through July 7), explores this theme head-on, taking it to some unpleasant as well as surprising places.

Tucked away in a side street in the North London neighborhood of Camden Town, the museum is scrupulously inclusive of all streams of Judaism, from liberal to Orthodox — and similarly eclectic in its choices of subject. A 2015 exhibition on Jews and blood trod comparably sensitive territory.

“We see this as a chance to use thought-provoking pieces from the collections and from loans to tackle different questions and bring nuance and subtlety into the debate,” the museum’s chief executive, Abigail Morris, tells Haaretz.

Most visitors to the museum aren’t Jewish — “I think of us as a very important place in challenging anti-Semitism through knowledge and information,” she says.


"The Way of the Red Sea is a Way of Blood," Italy, 1944, from the Jewish Museum London's new exhibition "Jews, Money, Myth." Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial

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