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The "Jew with a Coin" is antisemitic. The coin is used in this case to symbolise greed which antisemites here automatically assign to all Jews. (I know, I am a
by twawaaay 4y ago
The "Jew with a Coin" is antisemitic. The coin is used in this case to symbolise greed which antisemites here automatically assign to all Jews. (I know, I am a Pole)
- catiopatio 4y agoI’m curious of your assessment of the Wikipedia article’s accuracy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jew_with_a_coin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jew_with_a_coin It takes a more measured tone than your own, but the practice still seems rooted in deeply anti-semitic tropes.
- dvt 4y agoHm, yeah, all of a sudden I think I'm more on Grabowski's side. This is extremely weasel-worded: "Opinions about the motif vary; some cultural studies scholars believe it promotes Polish–Jewish dialogue or view it as harmless folklore or nostalgia, while others believe it is an antisemitic and offensive stereotype." Maybe you can argue the trinkets aren't in themselves anti-Semitic, but I completely agree with you that they're 100% undeniably rooted in anti-Semitic tropes. I mean even the word "nostalgia" there is weird. Nostalgia for what?
- twawaaay 4y agoSo the way antisemitism here works is pretty much the same way it always did. The same way Nazis used. People assign certain qualities to Jews. They repeat the same ad nauseam in jokes, in caricature, etc. Rather than treat Jews individually, antisemites tend to treat them in a way that dehumanises them -- which is a move that makes further antisemitism easier. You see, dehumanising is about disconnecting your empathy, about not seeing "them" as individuals but as a class of people that you can assign to qualities you hate. Also there is a reason Nazis hated Jews so much. The whole goal was to find a way to be able to make people do things by finding a common enemy that will be easy to vilify. And Jews were already pretty common (everywhere in Europe), easy (no own government) target and already with pretty poor sentiment. No, Nazis did not invent antisemitism. The funny thing about all this is that historically Jews were prevented here from many trades and, out of necessity, they took up certain professions connected with finances because they just couldn't do much else. Because of this Poles formed this connection between Jews and money and greed while completely forgetting that it was the governments at the time that caused this.
- rajin444 4y ago> Because of this Poles formed this connection between Jews and money and greed while completely forgetting that it was the governments at the time that caused this. I don’t think they’ve forgotten. In much of Europe rulers that issued crippling taxes or engaged in ruinous financial schemes are not remembered fondly.
- dvt 4y agoI'm not sure even Grabowski agrees, here's what he first says about it: > Anthropologist Erica Lehrer wrote about this phenomenon in Kazimierz (a center of Jewish life in Kraków) in her 2013 book Jewish Poland Revisited, uncovering that some Poles collect these odd pieces of art as good luck charms and may not consciously attribute sinister meaning to them. Maybe Wikipedia editors are whitewashing antisemitism, but he should really find more clear cut cases.
- tptacek 4y agoPeople collect Lawn Jockeys for good luck too, but, like the "Jew With A Coin", they're self-evidently bigoted.
- viraptor 4y agoThose ideas don't oppose each other. The figurine may be generally antisemitic and may be collected by some as odd piece of art. Similar to Gollywogs.
- twawaaay 4y agoNo conflict here. You can own a piece of art that is racist or antisemitic without being racist or antisemitic. Also, in certain parts of Poland antisemitism is so pervasive that it is basically part of local folklore. So you try to go read children's book and there will be a Jew in it trying to steal kids money... and nobody thinks twice about it just like nobody questions stories about a fat guy wearing red suit flying around dropping presents.
- epolanski 4y agoMy polish grandmother has it as a painting in her house (a jew counting coins). She bought it few years ago. She says the jew brings good luck. She is absolutely not racist nor antisemitic.
- locopati 4y agoShe might not be, but the notion of "the jew brings good luck" is absolutely anti-semetic and dehumanizing (associating Jews with money and reducing the people to a notion).
- epolanski 4y agoWell it's hard to not associate Jews with money in Europe, especially eastern one, where for cultural and religious reasons the minority was heavily involved in trade and banking since middle age. Even today despite global jews being less than 0.2% of world population are 20% of Forbes 200 richest, e.g. 5 of the 10 richest americans are jews.
- viraptor 4y agoThere's a difference in statistics which don't say anything about causality - like the mentioned involvement in banking due to religious/cultural restrictions, and the association going the other way - this is a Jewish figurine with money, therefore it's lucky. That's the whole issue with antisemitism, racism, etc. It's like the historical connection of black people being banned from public pools -vs- associating being black with not being a good swimmer. It's actually pretty easy to not do associations the other way... just need to be aware and care. It's easier for us now than for previous generations to be aware at least, but being open-minded in general always helped.
- mminer237 4y agoJust because a stereotype has a historical basis doesn't make it not racist. In the Americas black people were slaves for hundreds of years, but if I carry around a little statue of an African slave because that's what I still associate with black people, that's definitely racist and dehumanizing.
- dukeofdoom 4y ago[flagged]