Curiosity about Jewish traditions and customs among the general public accounts for the high attendance at an exhibition on the history and culture of Jews in Switzerland, currently on display at Lausanne’s Historical Museum.
The exhibition was first mounted by the Federation of Swiss Jewish Communities in 1982 and has been seen in Zurich, Basel and Geneva.
The current version stresses Jewish life in the canton of Vaud, where Lausanne is located. About 600 Jewish families live in Lausanne and a smaller number in Avenches, some 25 miles northeast, in the canton of Fribourg, where Jews from the French province of Alsace have settled.
There are about 22,000 Jews in all of Switzerland. But the community is more or less self-contained and the non-Jewish population has had little opportunity to learn about Judaism.
In the Middle Ages, Jews were forbidden to own property or to practice manual trades. During the Black Plague, which began in 1348, Jews were accused of poisoning the wells and were mercilessly persecuted.
Only at the end of the 17th century were Jews granted some rights in Switzerland.
Nevertheless, some strictures on Jewish practices remain despite the liberal attitude of the authorities.
The ritual slaughter of livestock is forbidden in Switzerland and Jews who observe the dietary laws have to get their kosher meat and poultry from France.
Moreover, among Swiss Jews today the nagging memory persists of how Jews trying to escape Nazi atrocities during World War II were turned away at the borders of neutral Switzerland, many of them to a certain death.
The Lausanne exhibition focuses on the meaning of Judaism, its holidays, traditions and ritual objects.
The Jewish community has organized around it concerts of Jewish music, a cabaret show featuring Jewish humor and an “open door” at the synagogue. There, Lausanne’s rabbi, Saadia Morali, explains Judaism to non-Jewish visitors, many of whom never before set foot in a Jewish house of worship.
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