Mazel tov to the historian Irene Aue-Ben-David, who will become the new director of the Jewish Museum Hohenems in April 2026.
She will take over from Hanno Loewy, who will retire at the end of March after more than twenty years in the position, the museum said in an announcement.
Aue-Ben-David, who received her doctorate in modern history from the University of Göttingen, has headed the Leo Baeck international research institute for German-Jewish history in Jerusalem since 2015.
Hohenems is a small town in the far west of Austria near the Swiss border. Jews settled there more than 400 years ago and formed a lively community. Today, few Jews live in either Hohenems or the surrounding Austrian region of Voralberg, but the Jewish museum, former synagogue, mikvah, Jewish quarter in general, and Jewish cemetery bear testament to its past.
The Jewish Museum in Hohenems was opened in 1991 in the Heimann-Rosenthal villa in the center of the town’s former Jewish quarter.
Its permanent exhibition centers on the history of the local Jewish community up to (and after) its destruction during the Nazi era, and it programs special temporary exhibitions as well as an extensive program of events. The museum also maintains a close relationship with the descendants of Jewish families from Hohenems around the world.
Hanno Loewy, director since 2004, was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art, He wrote a Have Your Say essay for JHE in 2016. The museum received the Austrian Museum Prize in 2022.