‘Whoever builds a house wants to stay’, said Salomon Korn at the festive inauguration of the new building of the Jewish Community Frankfurt in 1986. A year earlier, members of the Jewish community in Frankfurt had occupied the stage of the Kammerspiele theatre to prevent the premiere of an anti-Semitic play. The 1980s are remembered as a time of Jewish emancipation and courage, and are today regarded as a turning point in the self-image of Jews in Frankfurt and the Federal Republic of Germany.
In a joint discussion, Barbara Bišický-Ehrlich, Eugen El, Elischa Kaminer and Leon Joskowitz explored the question of how Jewish artists and the Jewish community in Frankfurt see themselves today. Is the emancipatory spirit of the past still alive or are the signs pointing to a retreat? What is the state of Frankfurt and its Jews today?
