A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of attending the Vis Moot in Vienna, Austria on behalf of my law school and arbitrating a few sessions. I used some of my “down time” to visit the Jewish Museum in Vienna (mainly to learn more about the history of Jewish life and persecution in the city) and stumbled across a temporary exhibit at the museum called “FRIEDEN/PEACE.” [Frieden is the word for peace in German.] The exhibit was very thought-provoking and moving, as well as very relevant to my teaching of conflict resolution.
The exhibit was put together in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and was finalized just around the time of the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. The exhibit started with the following description:
“Based on the various concepts and definitions of peace, the exhibition looks at the relationship of peace to Judaism, politics, war, feminism, and justice, with a particular focus on Jewish perspectives. The exhibition recalls the idea of peace as an achievement of civilization and may be seen as a contribution to a culture of peace that is still defective.”
As picture below, in the middle of the exhibition room was a round table with eight chairs, and a bunch of origami birds and round paper hanging above the table resembling a childhood-type mobile. In front of each chair was imprinted the word for “peace” in eight different languages: Frieden, shalom, salam, mir, pokòj, ahimsa, he ping, pax, or eirene.” The exhibit explained: “peace has many, often metaphorical, meanings and is understood differently depend-ing on the historical, religious, or cultural context. The ideas and concepts about peace are corre-spondingly diverse. We have collected the main ones here on our ‘negotiating table.’ The various symbols also give an idea of the yearning and universal search for peace.”
The mobile was the results of an activity for kids: it asked them to write out what “peace” meant to them on a round piece of paper which was then hung next to the origami birds.
The exhibit also offered its own definition of peace: “Peace is not just the absence of war. This negative definition is contrasted by peace researchers with positive peace, which also includes the absence of structural violence and is linked with the concepts of justice, democracy, human rights, and international law.”
The exhibit also included a life-size “Glossary of Peace” which examines “the various aspects of peace, how it can be secured or kept, and how complex it is.” The Glossary had one panel for each letter of the alphabet and described a German word (with the English translation) from A to Z as follows:
Disarmament, Liberation, Citizenship education, Democracy, Development, Peace, Nonviolence, Hexagon, Intersectionality, Youth exchange, Conflict transformation, Love and peace, Human rights, Neutrality, Order, Economy, Pacifism, Quantum leap, Law, Security, Trauma work, Environment, Treaty, Truth, Xenophobia, Yin & yang, Living together.
The exhibit has stayed with me in many ways, especially the notion that peace is not just the absence of war. What does peace mean to you?
