Jew with a coin

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"Jews with coins" on sale in Poland, bearing the name of the spa village of Polańczyk. The middle figurine reads: "Polańczyk $ Jew In the hall, coin in your pocket".

Jew with a coin (Polish: Żyd z pieniążkiem), "Little Jews" (Polish: Żydki), or Lucky Jew (Polish: Żyd na szczęście") are images and figurines of Jews holding coins, usually accompanied by a written proverb. The motif was first described in articles from 2000, and probably date back to the times following the transition of government in 1989. Originally hand-crafted, many are now mass-produced in standardized forms. As of the early 21st century, they are found in a number of Polish souvenir shops and homes. In 2015, one survey found that 19% of Poles possessed such item.

Jewish figurines are not limited to Poland, and small figurines of Jews are also sold in Israel and North America.

Scholars offer differing interpretations on the nature and origin of the motif, through they generally agree that most modern Poles see this motif as a talisman for financial good luck. While the images draw upon traditional antisemitic caricature of Jewish moneylender, opinions vary on the nature of this motif ranging from harmless folklore or nostalgia, promoting Polish-Jewish dialogue, to offensive or even antisemitic.

History

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Paintings of Jews holding a coin

Jews have been a part of Polish culture for many centuries. Like in most Eastern Europe, they played a significant role in trade and finance.

Research by Erica Lehrer, who curated the Souvenir, Talisman, Toy exhibit at the Ethnographic Museum of Kraków, shows that while figurines of Jews existed in the past in Poland the contemporary figurines connecting traditionally dressed Jews with financial motifs like coins is recent. Prior to World War II, Jewish figurines were present in Christmas and Easter rituals and in particular in the Emaus Easter market fair in Krakow. During the communist era in Poland figurines of Jews were available for sale in the Cepelia ethnic art stores.

The figurines were first described in articles from 2000 whose authors state the phenomena is recent, and that the figurines probably date back to the times following the transition of government in 1989. According to Ruth Ellen Gruber, the figurines were generally hand-crafted in the 1990s. However, as of 2011 many of figurines are mass produced in standardized forms.

Ethnographic analysis

Scholars have looked at a number of dimensions of those figurines, paintings and associated products. One of those is the stereotypical connection between Jews and money. According to Polish scholar of Jewish history, Bożena Umińska-Keff, while Jews were associated with money and financial gain in Poland for many centuries, the rise of the coin imagery in post-communist Poland is not coincidental as Jews have become associated with success in the capitalistic West that post-1989 Poland aspires to catch up to. Sociologist Ewa Tartakowsky ties the popularity of the figurines to the even more recent growth of public discourse on the Holocaust in Poland, that began with Jan T. Gross's publication of Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland (2001). Journalist Benny Mer, however, proposed an alternative explanation, suggesting that as murdered Jews were a source of enrichment for some Poles who charged high prices for hiding Jews and plundered Jewish property, that the association of Jews with money may be more recent, having risen from that process, and may be the cause behind the existence of the figurines in modern Poland.

Another issue is the meaning and impact of this motif. According to Erica Lehrer who curated the Souvenir, Talisman, Toy exhibition, some Jews who travel to Poland often see the figurines as "inflammatory and shocking, and mostly it gets read in the context of antisemitism". Lehrer says that while one can not understand the figurines with the coin without referring the history of antisemitic imagery, the figurines are rooted in a long history that is more complex than just antisemitism. According to Lehrer, the folk artists creating the figurines, especially the older ones, treat the figurines with artistic, sensitive treatment. One use of the charms is as tourist keepsakes and tokens of nostalgic or political attempt to connect with Jewish past, whereas a second use is as a good luck charm bringing prosperity. Lehrer states that the figurines are seen in Polish folk society as innocent and even complimentary towards Jewish people, and that most do not realize such items might be controversial.Lehrer notes that these tourist souvernirs evoke ambivalent reaction among Jewish tourists;and buyers reactions range from revulsion to wonder According to historian and sociologist Alina Cała, three points of reference stand out in the figurines. The first is reminiscent of figurines in the traditional Emaus Easter fair, the second is black magic, whereas the third is the traditional antisemitic caricature of Jewish moneylender which was exploited in Nazi and Polish iconography. However, whereas classical moneylender tropes often presented assimilated Jews the current Polish figurines present Jews in traditional Orthodox dress.

Cultural studies scholar Paweł Dobrosielski concurs that the motif associating money with Jews used in such figurines or paintings has antisemitic origins, however according to Dobrosielski this was tamed and redirected to a positive meaning in supporting Poles seeking wealth. Dobrosielski suggests that it may represent a desire to situate Poland in the history of capitalism, stressing the fact that the mercantile Jewish traditions are also Polish traditions. He concludes that this motif has implications for the discussion of "superstitions, capitalism and anti-Semitism" in the Polish society. According to Pawel Dobrosielski the image disturbs mostly researchers and publicists, and for most Poles the Jew with a coin seems harmless, friendly practice connected to positive view of Jews. Dobrosielski writes that the debate among academics is conducted in an isolated circulation, where specialist knowledge invokes context of multilayered history of antisemitic prejudice, which is however absent from real social life.

According to Tartakowsky, even if the figurines are not an expression of antisemitism, they are affected by the dis-inhibition of xenophobic rhetoric and marking of those designated as "enemies of the state". Tartakowsky notes that freedom of expression in post-1989 Poland is reflective of the American model, as opposed to the French one, favoring freedom of expression over the outlawing hate speech. Tartakowsky notes the reappropriation of Jewish figurines is deeply ambiguous, but is troubling due to the modern political context and stereotyping.

Umińska-Keff asserts that the imagery and superstitions surrounding the figurines contain all the basic elements of antisemitism - a non-personalized soulless man embodied by money, and sees the figurines as part of a wider tradition of antisemitic stereotypes in Poland (Jewish wizards, Jews making blood from children, Judensau, Żydokomuna, etc.).

According to Simon Wiesenthal Center director for international relations Dr. Shimon Samuels, superstition lies behind the figurines. Samuels likens the figurines to a phantom limb, as while only 20,000 Jews reside in modern Poland, the stereotypical Jewish figurines serve as an item that may be "scratched".

Johnny Daniels, activist promoting the dialogue between Jews and Poles, considers such items an "insensitive but ultimately harmless expression of nostalgia", comparable to the cigar store Indian in the United States.

Musicologist and Jewish studies scholar Halina Goldberg notes that while the phenomena may be fascinating from commercial and ethnographic sense, it "is troubling that the most prevelant Polish image of Jewishness, one that is imprinted on the minds of people who know no other Jews, is that of the traditionally attired Orthodox Jew who has the power to control one's financial fortunes.

Usage and customs

According to a 2015 survey in Poland, 65% of respondents identify the figurines and 18% of respondents had such a figurine at home; recognition of the symbol does not vary with respondent age, indicating that the practice started recently. Another survey from that year suggested that about 18% of the surveyed own a related product. About 50% of the surveyed correctly identified the motif with financial success; others pointed more generally to it being a 'lucky symbol', or just to it being a folk decoration. However the practice is very limited in Poland and doesn't have wide popularity with only 19% of Poles surveyed possessing such item and 16% confirming its use.

The figurines are used as a good luck charm to become rich. As well as good luck charms by football fans who then blame the Jew if their team loses. The figurines are often referred to in the pejorative diminutive żydek (singular, żydki plural).

The figurines are often given as gifts. Some owners of the images flip them over on the sabbath (Friday night or Saturdays) some placing a coin (grosz, 1/100 of a złoty) behind the image, so that money and good fortune may fall upon the family living in the house. At homes the images are placed in the hallway to the left of the door. In addition, the figurines are placed in offices and in shops next to cash registers. According to a 2015 survey in Poland, 50% respondents knew of the superstition of good fortune, 24% of the custom to place a grosz behind the frame, and 13% of flipping it over on the sabbath.

According to Joanna Tokarska-Bakir, the motif is usually accompanied with the saying Żyd w sieni, pieniądz w kieszeni ("Jew in the hall, coin in your pocket"), a saying with roots pre-dating the Second World War. Pawel Dobrosielski writes that Tokarska's claims first published in weekend edition of Gazeta Wyborcza were ridiculed and sparked outrage. Tokarska writes that the original meaning of the saying was that at long as the Jew stayed at the entrance of the house the money in the house remained safe, but in contemporary popular usage the meaning has been reversed: the Jew in the hall brings fortune to the house. A recent saying accompanying the motif is Aby kasa w domu była, I się nigdy nie skonczyła, Żyda w domu trzeba mieć  ! We pieniędzy będzie strzec ("So that the money stays at home, and that it does not leave, keep a Jew in your house, he will keep the dough"). The saying Kiedy bida, to do Żyda ("When poverty is there, go to the Jew") is also used, referred originally to Jewish moneylenders. Tokarska has been criticized by Sorbonne University professor Ludwik Stomma, an ethnologist and anthropologist, who described her claims "it is difficult to have something more tangled up" and suggested her views are based on outdated 19th century work. Stomma pointed out that some of the definitions used by Tokarska are difficult to understand, such as "father substitute" or "freed women". According to Stomma, Tokarska should know that there were never "totemic religions". Pawel Dobrosielski notes that Paweł Jędrzejewski from Forum of Polish Jews rejected the claims of antisemitism of the figures and pointed out desire to obtain wealth and positive image of Jews as being professional and high income of Jewish Americans.

Exhibits and performances

The 2013 Souvenir, Talisman, Toy exhibit at the Ethnographic Museum of Kraków, curated by Erica Lehrer, explored the development of Jewish figurines in general and the Jew with a coin in particular. The exhibit was subsequently extended and displayed at the Galicia Jewish Museum.

As part of the 2017 Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków, inaugurating Festivalt site-specific events, a trio of street performers dressed in traditional Orthodox garb sat behind a desk, surronded by a mock picture frame, and laden with old-style inkwell, accounting ledger and quill pen. Bringing the figurines to life, the performers offered "good fortune" to passerby in exchange for a few coins. One of the performers, Michael Rubenfeld, continued performing in 2018.

In 2019, the Jewish Museum London ran an exhibit titled Jews, Money, Myth exploring antisemitic imagery linking Jews with money. Alongside manifestations of antisemitic imagery dating back to Judas and Thirty pieces of silver, the exhibit featured a display case of the popular Polish "Lucky Jew" ceramic figurines.

See also

• Mammy archetype
• Maneki-neko
• Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia

External links

• Lucky Jews online site for 2013 Souvenir, Talisman Toy exhibition at Ethnographic Museum of Kraków, curated by Erica Lehrer
• Lucky Jews Jason Francisco, description of Festivalt performance at annual Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków.