The Polish city of Kraków will seek to prevent the sale of figurines depicting Jews, often holding money, which are seen as good luck charms. The objects have long divided opinion, with some arguing they reinforce harmful stereotypes but others saying they are a harmless tradition.
“These figures are antisemitic and it is time for us to realise that,” Robert Piaskowski, the mayor’s representative for culture, told Gazeta Wyborcza. “In a city like Kraków, with such a difficult heritage and a painful past, they should not be sold.”
Before World War Two, around a quarter of Kraków’s population was Jewish. However, the subsequent German occupation and Holocaust resulted in almost all of the city’s Jews being killed. Some managed to escape, and others also left after the war, amid a wave of anti-Jewish violence in Poland.
Piaskowski said that the city’s official position was formed after speaking with Jewish communities and various institutions, as well as with the businesses that sell the figurines (which first emerged in the 19th century but only in the 1990s often began to show the Jew holding money).
Following those talks, earlier this week a group of almost 50 organisations and individuals representing Jewish groups, cultural and academic institutions, tourist bodies, and municipal offices published a joint letter.
They stated that the figurines – which are sometimes turned upside down by the owner to symbolically take the Jews’ money in the belief it will bring financial good fortune – have an “unequivocally antisemitic dimension”.
“The city has also received extensive correspondence from tourists indignant and upset by the presence of such objects in the city, which so painfully experienced the Holocaust and the loss of much of its population,” note the authors of the letter.
The city does not have the power to prohibit most businesses from selling the figurines. However, contracts with tenants using city property – such as souvenir stalls on the historical market square – will include clauses specifying that they cannot be sold, reports Gazeta Wyborcza.
The organisers of regular fairs in the city – where the figurines are often sold, especially at Easter – have already agreed not to offer them, writes the newspaper.
But Piaskowski says that the main aim is to “start an important conversation about Polish-Jewish relations, about empathy and seeing [things] from another’s perspective”.
“Only cooperation and dialogue will make it possible to change attitudes and withdraw from sale the offensive figurines,” says the joint letter. The signatories add that they want to “promote and support traditional craftsmanship” in other forms.
Many private retailers have already made the decision to stop selling such images. In 2019, OBI, a German home-improvement retailer, removed images of the so-called “Jew with a coin” from its stores in Poland following an online campaign. However, some argue that the tradition shows a kind of nostalgia for Jews.
Is the Lucky Jew an antisemitic symbol 'deeply rooted in negative stereotypes', as Rafał Pankowski of @StowNIGDYWIECEJ argues?
Or an 'ultimately harmless expression of nostalgia, part of a longing for Jews, not hatred of them', as @MrJonnyDaniels claims? https://t.co/Cr8fJM8BeQ
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) August 18, 2018
Main image credit: Jakub Wlodek / Agencja Gazeta
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
