In popular Jewish culture, a dybbuk refers to a wandering soul that takes possession of a living person, according to a belief that developed in Eastern Europe from the 18th century onwards. The dybbuk is one of those supernatural creatures that have gone beyond the realms of superstition to become a theme that inspires artists past and present. The mahJ is the first museum to explore the subject in a rich exhibition combining theatre, film, music, literature and popular culture.
Jérôme Zonder's graphic work is virtuoso and multi-faceted, in tune with his eye for the infinite flow of popular culture. For the mahJ, Jérôme Zonder has devised an installation that unfolds on the floor and walls of the contemporary gallery. The visitor is invited to wander inside the work itself, a vast game board to be explored square by square, before being locked in an endless cycle amidst the images.
As part of the Cultural Olympiad, the mahJ is devoting an exhibition to the Hungarian photographer André Steiner, a pioneer of the "New Vision", who expressed his talent by capturing athletic bodies in motion in Paris in the 1930s.
On January 26, 2023, the sculpture of "L'enfant Didi", Chana Orloff's son, returned to the artist's studio after an absence of almost 80 years. Stolen on March 4, 1943 - along with the entire contents of the studio-dwelling and one hundred and forty other sculptures - the work was then passed from hand to hand until its reappearance in New York in 2008 and its return to the family in 2022.
Raphaël Denis's installation at the mahJ is a memorial reappropriation of the collection of art dealer Paul Rosenberg, a victim of Nazi spoliations. The artist-researcher has been exploring the question of the spoliations of works of art that took place in France during the Second World War for almost a decade, through a series of installations called the Normal Law of Errors.
The musée d'art et d'histoire du Judaïsme presents the first retrospective in France devoted to Joann Sfar. Featuring almost 250 plates and drawings, most of which have never been shown before, as well as notebooks, photographs and films, the exhibition traces the career of an exceptional artist whose creativity has spanned comics, film and literature for over thirty years.
