All Books are Exhibition Guides as well.
See Photographs in the Photo Gallery.
Books about Exile
The exile of Austrian artists and writers during the nationalsocialist era.
Book and Exhibition, Vienna 1992
Vienna, New York, Washington, Jerusalem, Mexico City, Sydney a.o.
Book and Exhibition, Vienna 1995
Vienna, Latin America, Paris, Washington a.o
Book and Exhibition, Vienna 1997
Vienna, Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv, Los Angeles a.o.
Book and Exhibition, Vienna 1997
Vienna, Canada, Germany, Holland a.o.
Book and Exhibition, Vienna Heldenplatz, Open Air 2000
as a travelling Exhibition in Moscow, Berlin, Polland, USA a.o.
Book and Exhibition, Jewish history of Ingolstadt from 1250 to 2000.
State museum Ingolstadt, Germany 2000
Book and Exhibition, Jewish Museum Vienna 2001,
National Museum Belgrade, Bratislava
Other Topics
Book and Exhibition 2005
Vienna, Leipzig
Book and Exhibition, Vienna 2006
Book and Exhibition, Austria 2002
“Erika Pluhar” Vienna 2004
History of the Middle East
Ägypten – die verlorene Heimat
Der Exodus aus Ägypten, 1947-1967
Erhältlich auf Amazon
Was dem Pharao vor 3500 Jahren nicht gelungen war, gelang dem politischen Zionismus und die ägyptischen Machthaber: das Ende einer prachtvollen jüdischer Gemeinde. Die weltweit älteste jüdische Gemeinde, die großteils von Juden aus der iberischen Halbinsel abstammte – ’Sephardim‘ die im 15. Jahrhundert in Ägypten Zuflucht fanden, umfasste 1948 ca. 85000 Personen; sie wurde zur Gänze ausgelöscht. Heute leben in Ägypten ca. 100-200 Juden. Die Geschichte der Juden in Ägypten seit biblischen Zeiten circa 1550 BC (erster Exodus), bis 1948-1956-1967 AD (zweiter Exodus), der im Zuge der Gründung des Staates Israel begann und mit den drei Kriegen gegen Israel endete, wird erzählt und analysiert mit den Höhen und Tiefen die den Juden in Ägypten zuteil wurden. Sie waren der Willkür der Herrscher ausgeliefert. Ab 1948 wurden sie des Landes verwiesen, mussten ihr Hab und Gut hinter sich lassen und mit einer kurzen Vorwarnung das Land verlassen.
Die ägyptischen Juden, so wie andere aus der arabischen Welt, waren keine Zionisten im Sinne des ’aschkenasischen‘ eurozentristischen Zionismus. Vorurteile und Missachtung, Diskriminierung und Benachteiligung im Bezug auf Wohnorte und Ausbildung war ihr Schicksal in Israel. Dennoch hatten sie die Integration sehr gut bewältigt und gehören heute zur Mittleren und Mittel-Oberschicht des Landes. Das Buch stützt sich auf Interviews mit sechsundneunzig ehemaligen Ägyptern in Israel und den USA.
English version:
Egypt – The Lost Homeland
Exodus from Egypt, 1947-1967
The History of the Jews in Egypt, 1540 BCE to 1967 CE
Available at Amazon
In the twentieth century, the political Zionist movement and Egyptian rulers completely uprooted the country’s thriving Jewish community—a goal the Pharaohs tried to realize as early as 3500 years ago. Mostly comprised of descendants of Sephardim from the Iberian Peninsula, the world’s oldest Jewish community totaled 85,000 members in 1948. No more than 100 to 200 Jews live in Egypt today.
This book tells the story of Egypt’s Jewish history from Biblical times to 1967, the year of one of the last major Jewish emigration waves from Egypt. It highlights the First Exodus in ca. 1500 BCE and the Second Exodus, which was triggered by the foundation of the State of Israel and three successive wars in 1948, 1956, and 1967. Throughout the narrative, it becomes evident that the Jewish community consistently was subject to the arbitrary will of Egyptian rulers. Starting in 1948, members of this community were forced to leave the country without any of their belongings on short notice.
Like other Jews from the Arab world, Egyptian Jews were not Zionists in the Eurocentric, Ashkenazi sense. Their arrival in Israel was met with prejudice and disdain. Even though they were discriminated against in matters of housing and education, they still managed to integrate well into Israeli society and are now members of the country’s upper and middle class. The evidence presented in this book is based on interviews with ninety-six Egyptian Jews in Israel and the United States.
There Is Enough Guilt on Both Sides
Reflections on the Israel-Palestine Conflict
Available at Amazon
We should not argue who is to blame (in the Israel-Palestine conflict) There is enough guilt on both sides. / Uri Avneri The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a never-ending story. Starting in the late 1920s, it reached its climax with the foundation of Israel on May 15, 1948. European saw his plan as the ‘perfect solution’ for displaced Jews who were not welcomed in their countries of origin.
Many questions are left to be asked, we can offer satisfactory answers to only a few of them. Around 750,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from the country after 1948. About 470,000 went into refugee camps in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt. The rest was dispersed all over the world. Their status of refugees, remain in most Arab countries until today; they never got citizenship or human rights there. Why?
More than 150 settlements and cities containing more than half a million Jews had populated the West Bank by 2013; settlements are often built on land confiscated from its Palestinian owners. Even moderate Palestinian leaders feel provoked by that. Israel is becoming more and more a place of apartheid and its political standing is constantly deteriorating. The Israeli elite always raised their voice against the occupation and the settlements; they warned that human rights and equality—which were pillars of Zionism—were being violated, Time has come for the voice of reason, which calls for a “two states” solution.
The Jews of Iraq
Iraq exists under its current name and within its current borders officially only since 1932. The region – which does not necessarily correspond with the current borders – had many names over the past millennia, such as Mesopotamia, Babylon, Assyria and more. Many minorities of race and religion lived there The Jewish exile to Babylon began in 586 BC, following Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of Jerusalem.
In Western historiography the Levant is also called the “Fertile Crescent” and is considered the “birthplace of human civilization”. It was also the birth place of the monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam which were then spread across the world.
In 1948, after the declaration of the independent state of Israel, five nations, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq attacked Israel.
I intent to demonstrate the integrity and long history of the Jews in Iraq, which lasted for more than 2,600 years and included many contributions to the society as a whole. One should also note that they did not leave Iraq, their home country voluntarily, but were forced to leave after the creation of Israel in 1948, as about one million Jews in the rest of the Arab world.
The Jewish community was a part of the Arab world that once was home to many ethnic and religious minorities, living predominantly in peaceful coexistence.
I would like to emphasize that the Jews of Iraq, like all Jews from Arab countries – were mostly Sephardic Jews, and as such, they faced discrimination and were forced to adapt to life in Israel and its majority which were Ashkenazim – east and middle European Jews. They did not match the Ashkenazi schema. In spite of this, the integration of the Jews of Iraq is a success story.