Der Standard, June 26, 2022 (online), Stefan Weiss
German original: https://www.derstandard.at/story/2000136988062/sex-im-judentum-von-der-pflicht-die-frau-zu-begluecken
The heartwarming exhibition “Love Me Kosher” at the Jewish Museum Vienna investigates the issues of sexuality, love, marriage, and divorce in Judaism.
Before Adam and Eve? There was Lilith – at least according to some tales in Judaism. As Adam’s first wife, she is said not to have subordinated herself to him (in contrast to Eve) and insisted on being on top during sex. This much ambivalence in gender relations apparently was not bearable for the early religious patriarchs. Christianity punished Lilith with banishment from its holy scriptures; in Judaism she mutated into a man eater, a demon. Only the feminism of the 1970s rehabilitated Lilith and celebrated her as a heroine of the emancipation movement.
This is just one of the many bits of history that are being served like bedtime sweets in the sensually and theoretically stimulating special exhibition Love me Kosher at Jewish Museum Vienna. The final exhibition curated by outgoing director Danielle Spera in cooperation with Daneila Pscheiden and Julia Windegger once again investigates an essential topic in Judaism: sexuality. In contrast to other religious traditions, it should not only serve procreation, but also pleasure, for both sexes.
The commandment to please the woman
In Judaism there is an explicit commandment that the man has to satisfy the woman sexually - if he does not comply, this is a reason for divorce, and has always been. There are numerous records showing that this was and is indeed being executed. In a specific arbitration procedure called “Get” the Jewish Community attempts to conciliate in such cases, and, if necessary, to force the husband to give in. Consensus is, mind you, a prerequisite for any physical encounter.
Of course not all rules are state of the art: in conservative Judaism, sex may only occur within the confines of marriage. Homosexuality is forbidden and masturbation is prohibited at eats for the man, because his semen must not be wasted. The bottom line is that the impression remains that Judaism could have given its younger siblings Christianity and Islam a few tutoring lessons on sex on an equal footing.
Sexual Metropolis Vienna
This is documented in the Jewish Museum not only theologically. Further focal points of the show are devoted to Vienna around 1900, at that time a metropolis of sex research and sex therapy, driven significantly by Jews: Sigmund Freud, of course, but also Eugen Steinach, with whom Freud had an early vasoligature (clamping of the spermatic ducts), which at that time was still recommended to increase manhood in old age (completely unsuccessfully) and not, as is the case today, for contraception.
The individual psychologist Sofie Lazarsfeld, on the other hand, did something more useful and ran what is, from today's perspective, an enormously progressive practice for marriage, sex and family counseling in Vienna in the 1920s and 1930s.
In literary works and in the cabarets of the interwar period, what will later be called the sexual revolution took place for the first time: away from bigoted inhibitions towards libidinal freedom.
Evil seed of anti-Semitism
By this time, however, the evil seeds of anti-Semitism had long since sprouted, and Jews were denigrated as "pornographers" and "sex offenders." The exhibition manages to present the resulting low points in history – rape, sex and love in the concentration camps – with the required reverence, without taking away the joyful character of the show.
Numerous works of art on loan from the federal museums, such as a Picasso and a Chagall, but also watercolors from André Heller's Moroccan paradise garden, which are being shown for the first time, and erotic works of fantastic realism by Arik Brauer run through the exhibition. Photographs by Benyamin Reich also document queer Judaism - because the fact that the Viennese community has been traditionally conservative does not mean that there are not long recognized religious LGBTQI communities elsewhere, for example in Tel Aviv (Israel).
The curators consequently speak of a "religion of pragmatism" in the case of a bizarre object: a double bed with a printed dividing line. Why? During menstruation, spouses should actually go to separate beds. But the thought alone counts here.