Judensau
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A Judensau (German for "Jews' sow")<ref name=concordatwatch/><ref name="Wolffsohn">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Shachar">Template:Cite book</ref> is a folk art<ref name=zionism-israel.com>Template:Cite web</ref> image of Jews in obscene contact with a large sow (female pig), which in Judaism is an unclean animal. These first appeared in the 13th century in Germany<ref name=concordatwatch/> and some other European countries, and remained popular for over 600 years.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Background and images
The Jewish prohibition against eating pork comes from Torah, in the Book of Leviticus Chapter 11, verses 2 through 8.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The arrangement of Jews surrounding, suckling, and having intercourse with the animal (sometimes regarded as the devil<ref name=zionism-israel.com/>), is a mockery of Judaism.
The image appears in the Middle Ages, mostly in carvings on church or cathedral walls,<ref name=concordatwatch>Template:Cite web</ref> often outside where it could be seen from the street (for example at Wittenberg and Regensburg), but also in other forms. The earliest appearance seems to be on the underside of a wooden choir-stall seat in Cologne Cathedral, dating to about 1210. The earliest example in stone dates to ca. 1230 and is located in the cloister of the cathedral at Brandenburg. In about 1470 the image appeared in woodcut form, and thereafter was often copied in popular prints, often with antisemitic commentary. A wall painting on the bridge tower of Frankfurt am Main, constructed between 1475 and 1507 near the gateway to the Jewish ghetto and demolished in 1801, was an especially notorious example and included a scene of the ritual murder of Simon of Trent.<ref>Schreckenburg, Heinz (1996). The Jews in Christian Art. New York: Continuum. pp. 331–337, Cologne illustrated p. 332, Frankfurt pp. 335–7. Template:ISBN.</ref>
Judensau in Wittenberg
The city of Wittenberg contains a Judensau from 1305, on the façade of the Stadtkirche, the church where Martin Luther preached. It portrays a rabbi who looks under the sow's tail, and other Jews drinking from its teats. An inscription reads "Rabini Schem HaMphoras", Latin (in German orthography) for "Shem HaMephorash of the Rabbi", mocking the Tetragram to be a pig. The sculpture is one of the last remaining examples in Germany of medieval "Jew baiting". In 1988, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Kristallnacht, debate sprung up about the monument, which resulted in the addition of a sculpture recognizing that during the Holocaust six million Jews were murdered "under the sign of the cross".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In Vom Schem Hamphoras (1543), Luther comments on the Judensau sculpture at Wittenberg, echoing the antisemitism of the image and locating the Talmud in the sow's bowels:
In July 2016, Dr. Richard Harvey, a Messianic (Christian) theologian from the United Kingdom, initiated a petition on Change.org to have the Wittenberg Judensau removed.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 2018, Michael Düllmann, a member of Berlin's Jewish community, sued to have the sculpture removed as defamatory. In February 2020, the district court of Dessau and the Higher Regional Court in Naumburg had rejected the claim, though petitioner vowed to appeal to higher courts. The Lutheran church and some historians, such as Michael Wolffsohn, have also debated whether the sculpture should be removed for being antisemitic or whether doing so would whitewash the church's historical antisemitism.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The legal debate continued for some time.<ref>Kläger: Wittenberger Schmähplastik ist Rufmord an den Juden</ref>
In June 2022, a German federal court of appeal sided with the lower courts, ruling that while the sculpture itself is disparaging to Jews if viewed in isolation, "the legal system does not demand its removal", suggesting that other means (such as a memorial plaque explaining the history of the sculpture) are better suited to address the issue.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Partial list
Some of these sculptures can be found at some churches today.
- Aarschot in Belgium (Our Lady Church)
- Basel in Switzerland (Cathedral)
- Brandenburg (Cathedral)
- Cadolzburg
- Colmar in France at (Église Saint-Martin – 2 representations)
- Cologne (Judensau at the choir stalls of Cathedral – probably the earliest example, and in Church of St. Severin)
- Eberswalde
- Erfurt (Cathedral)
- Heilsbronn (Cathedral)
- Gniezno (Cathedral)
- Lemgo (St. Marien)
- Magdeburg (Cathedral)
- Metz in France (Cathedral)
- Nuremberg (St. Sebaldus Church)
- Regensburg (Cathedral)
- Remagen (Gate post)
- Strasbourg (Cathedral, on capital)
- Uppsala in Sweden (Cathedral)
- Wiener Neustadt in Austria
- Wimpfen (Church of St. Peter)
- Wittenberg (Town church)
- Xanten (Cathedral)
- Zerbst (St. Nicolas Church)
Gallery
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Judensau at the Cathedral of Brandenburg -
Judensau on the Cathedral of St. Martin in Colmar -
Judensau on the Cathedral in Heilsbronn
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Judensau at the Cathedral of St. Peter in Regensburg
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Judensau at the minster in Wimpfen
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Judensau on the Wittenberg Parish Church, cited by Luther
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Woodcut of the Bridge Tower at Frankfurt, showing martyrdom of Simon of Trent above a Judensau
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Frontispiece of book Die Judenschule by Template:Interlanguage link, Aarau 1822
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Judensau at Uppsala Cathedral in Sweden
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See also
- Judensau at the choir stalls of Cologne Cathedral
- History of antisemitism
- Luther and antisemitism
- Marrano
- Jew with a coin
- Witches' Sabbath, said to involve kissing the hindparts of a demonic goat.