The German-Israeli photographer Ruthe Zuntz explores her 500-year family history. The starting point for her search for clues are her father Simon Zuntz's letters and his childhood memories of Frankfurt.
The extraordinary history of the Zuntz family leads from Frankfurt's Judengasse to Great Britain, Israel, the USA and back to Germany. It was written by famous personalities such as Leopold Zunz, co-founder of the science of Judaism, and includes special undertakings such as the founding of the coffee and roasting company A. Zuntz sel. wwe by Rachel Zunz-Hess.
Born and raised in Israel, photographer Ruthe Zuntz now lives with her family in Berlin. She has spent years researching the traces and evidence of her family in Frankfurt and around the world. The starting point for her performative exploration of the history of her ancestors were the letters her father wrote to her after she moved to Germany. Ruthe's father, Simon Zuntz, survived the Shoah because his parents had sent him and his younger brother Leo on a Kindertransport from Frankfurt to the British Mandate of Palestine in 1939. Simon's father Karl Zuntz, his second wife Ella and his siblings Miriam and Harry were murdered in Auschwitz. Simon's older sister Esther was murdered in Sobibor.
In her exhibition developed especially for the Jewish Museum, the artist and photographer explores both family stories and transgenerational traumatization. Ruthe Zuntz thus provides a unique insight into the processing of memory and grief in the second and third generation after the Shoah.
The multimedia exhibition combines the father's childhood memories with the daughter's photographic explorations and family artifacts. This personal exploration by Ruthe Zuntz is supplemented by the results of historical research and documents from 500 years of family history. "What a Family" combines artistic research with personal exploration and historical evidence in an immersive, multidimensional show.
September 18, 2025 to February 15, 2026
