Van den Yoden – Jüdisches Leben im spätmittelalterlichen Osnabrück

The history of the first Jewish community or communities in Osnabrück is a story that oscillates between attraction and hatred. In Christian-Jewish coexistence, the lived closeness contrasted with a deep mistrust between the two religions. Anti-Judaism was part of everyday life.
Officially brought to the city by the Bishop of Osnabrück in 1309 to lend money, the Jewish people were brutally murdered by their Christian neighbors during the plague pogrom of 1350. Only a few years later, a new Jewish community was established in the town. After 1400, the Christian majority considered the Jewish families expendable because the monetary system had changed and the previously valued advantages of Jewish moneylending were no longer in demand.
"Van den Yoden" recalls a phase of coexistence between the Christian majority and Jewish minority in Osnabrück that was characterized by social and religious conflicts. It lasted for almost two centuries (approx. 1260 to 1430). The exhibition, the accompanying programme and the richly illustrated exhibition publication enable a comparative historical review against the background of current German society, which is characterized by its cultural and religious diversity. Moreover, in view of the persistence of anti-Semitism, public spaces are needed for a critical examination of its roots and effects up to the present day.
The exhibition uses selected valuable original historical exhibits from the late Middle Ages, which have never before been shown together in one presentation, to show the history of the Jewish community in medieval Osnabrück in its key phases.