Shalom

Holger Biermann | Rafael Herlich | Benyamin Reich

A Jewish grocery store in Berlin, a rabbi with his wife and new-born child, policemen guarding a synagogue in Frankfurt – scenes from everyday Jewish life in Germany. The Museum in der Kulturbrauerei is displaying 50 images in its new exhibition “Shalom. Three Photographers See Germany. Holger Biermann | Rafael Herlich | Benyamin Reich” that highlight the current lives of Jews in Germany. The photographs by Holger Biermann, Rafael Herlich and Benyamin Reich span the years 2000-2015 and document Jewish life and culture from various perspectives: They show children in a Talmud school and devout Jews during Rosh Hashanah, the New Year’s festivities – and anti-Semitic graffiti on a synagogue wall. The exhibition sets out to encourage debate on how “normal” Jewish life in Germany is 70 years after the Holocaust.

The combination of the works of the three photographers, who differ in age and background, offers an opportunity to approach the issue from different angles: Holger Biermann was born in 1973 in Bremen, and after training at the Axel Springer Academy in Berlin worked for several years in New York. He has been freelancing as a photographer in Berlin since 2003. Rafael Herlich was born in 1954 in Tel Aviv and has lived in Frankfurt since 1975. He came to prominence with exhibitions, among others, at the Jüdisches Museum Frankfurt. He freelances as a photographer. Benyamin Reich, born in 1976, comes from an Orthodox Jewish family outside Tel Aviv. Having studied in Paris and Jerusalem, he now lives in Berlin.