Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Krakow city official says good-luck figurines of Jews are ‘antisemitic’ and should not be sold

(JTA) — A spokesperson for the city of Krakow, Poland, condemned as antisemitic the figurines of Orthodox Jews that are on sale as good luck charms there.

“This figurine is anti-Semitic and it’s time for us to realize it,” Robert Piaskowski, the city’s alderman for cultural affairs, was quoted as saying during a meeting Thursday by the Gazeta Wyborcza daily. “In a city like Krakow, with such a difficult heritage and a painful past, it should not be sold.”

The statement follows a campaign by some Polish Jews to stop the sale of the figurines, which some locals treat as charms for increasing revenues. Many variation of the figurines and paintings of Orthodox Jews that are sold in Polish marketplaces and beyond have elements pertaining to money – typically the Jew depicted is counting money.

One of the Krakow activists leading talks with the municipality on the issue is Michael Rubinfeld, a Canada-born actor who has made several artworks and displays critical of the custom, which he finds offensive. Rubinfeld, a founder of the FestivALT organization and arts festival, also was involved in the talks with Piaskowski.

Advocates of the custom say it reflects nostalgia toward Jewish presence in Poland, where 3.3 million Jews lived before the Holocaust. Poland now has about 4,500 people who identify as Jewish and approximately 7,000 with at least one Jewish parent, according to a 2020 demographic study of European Jewry.

The city may deny market concessions to vendors who sell the Jewish figurines, according to Salon24.

The post Krakow city official says good-luck figurines of Jews are ‘antisemitic’ and should not be sold appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.